AGMs
Every club and society is required to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) every year. It is important to hold your AGM before the end of the academic year (December) to ensure sufficient time. We recommend scheduling it before the exam period to avoid additional stress and workload.
The purpose of the AGM is to:
- elect an executive committee** to run the club/society – a President, Treasurer and Secretary must be elected, additional positions are optional (refer to the Committee Roles page for more information)
- present the last 12 months financial records to your members for transparency and accountability
- to accept any changes made to your constitution
- receive the President’s report for the year and any other necessary officer reports
- and nominate your new bank signatories
It is important to refer to your constitution to ensure you follow the rules around meeting notices and quorum. At this meeting Roberts Rules *Standing Orders must be observed and minutes taken. You should ideally aim to hold your AGM by 31st December and if that’s just not possible, no later than 31st March of the following year.
If you have made any changes to you constitution you are required to send an updated copy to the Clubs and Societies Officer for our records.
We recommend you use our AGM Agenda and AGM Minutes templates to make it simple.
*Standing orders is the usual sequence that the business is brought up in at the meeting. The Meeting Cycle is a simple flowchart that explains this. We suggest you follow our meeting template to make it simple. All templates can be downloaded here.
**Remember that no more than half of your Executive Committee may be Associate (not current UTAS students) members, at least half must be current UTAS students.
How to Run an Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Prepare
- The Executive Committee decide on an appropriate date, time, and venue for the AGM. When choosing a venue consider where most of your members are based.
- The President should remind the Committee that they are required to write reports and send them to the Committee Secretary preferably 7 days before the AGM, so they can be included on the agenda. At a minimum the President should write a report summarising the year and the Treasurer must write a financial report with incoming and outgoing expenditure as well as complete the Finance Template Income Expenditure Reconciliation.
- The Executive Committee should also decide on any changes to the constitution so this can be added to the agenda for approval.
Invite
- Invite all your members from the year the AGM is concluding. For example, if your AGM is to reaffiliate your club/society in 2024, then invite your members from 2023 as well as any new members.
- In the invitation you should state at a minimum:
- The date, time, and location of the AGM
- Positions that are up for nomination
Your meeting notice should go out to members at a minimum of 7 days before the AGM or as stated in your constitution. You must attempt to contact all members. It is recommended that you send notice of the AGM via email, but you may also choose to use social media, texting, etc. The more methods you use, the better.
Agenda
Attach any written reports, constitutional changes or motions that will be voted on at the AGM so members can read them beforehand. We recommend you use our AGM Agenda template to make it simple.
On the Day
The President is usually the Chairperson for the meeting (if the president is absent, it should be the Vice-President or Treasurer)
- They should outline how the meeting will progress, e.g., how voting will be done, when and who is allowed to speak/vote, etc.
- They need to make sure quorum is met (minimum number of members required to attend to make sure your AGM is valid) so check your constitution beforehand.
- The Chairperson needs to make sure that all reports are moved, seconded, and voted upon to be accepted. For example, you might ask “Can I please have someone to move and second that the 2023 financial report be accepted? Thank you, Joe Blogs, for moving and Jane Doe for seconding. All those in favour, (show of hands) all those against, all those abstaining and then the outcome – “Motion is CARRIED”. If anyone specifically states they are against the motion or wish to abstain from the decision then this should also be noted.
Assign someone to take minutes (this is usually the secretary’s role). We recommend you use our AGM Minutes template to make it simple.
Your AGM minutes should include:
- Full Club/Society name, date, time (both start and end) of meeting and venue.
- Who was there? Who sent an apology? Remember to include first names and surnames.
- Jobs/ tasks/actions that were allocated to people.
- Anything that was voted on. The exact words of the motion, who moved and seconded the motion, and whether it is carried or not.
After the Annual General Meeting (AGM)
- Do a handover between the old and new committees.
Why? Because outgoing Clubs and Societies’ Committee members should ensure that the incoming Committee members know where to find information relating to affiliation procedures and general club/society information, passwords (Rubric (QPay) Booqable, etc.).
- Go to Rubric (QPay) and fill in the Request to Change Bank Signatories
- Fill in the paperwork for re-affiliation as mentioned above.
- Hold events (remember to get risk assessments approved first) & have fun!
Every year in November, the TUSA hosts a Student Leader’s Conference where all this information will be explained.