At the council meeting last weekend your council agreed to postpone the AGM. We feel it is important we share that decision quickly with our membership, including the reasons it was made. The AGM was moved to January some years ago to allow presentations of the previous (calendar) year trophies. With the rise in electronic attendance at meetings we have decided to move away from perpetual trophies, rather than perpetual trophies we will start a roll of honour on the website to provide a permanent record of achievement and present Certificates instead. I know some of you love a Trophy, but this move will save thousands of pounds a year of your money which we feel is better spent on improving shooting facilities for everyone.
With this move, we felt it was more important to be able to formally present you with financial information which is timely and relevant at an AGM. Our financial year runs to the end of March, so with an AGM in January, you could only review finances to the end of March 2024. This means you would be unable to hold your current Council to account for their financial decisions this year. Don’t worry we will still share the 2023/24 financial year accounts as soon as they have been agreed by council, which with any luck will be in January.
In advance of our next Council meeting on 15th January we will be discussing timelines with our accountants to find out how quickly a financial statement of the 2024/25 financial year can be presented so we can set an AGM date in that meeting. We would also like to hold the AGM alongside a major match to be closer to our constitution which says, ‘The Annual Meeting of Members shall be held at the National Meeting or at such time and place as may be fixed by Council’. We hope this will allow more people to attend in person but don’t worry we will still be broadcasting it online with online voting.
A third reason to delay is a change of Secretary. Wendy Thomas has had to step down for personal reasons. I would like to personally, and on behalf of council, thank Wendy for her work in the role this year. Council has the authority to fill mid-term empty roles, and we have unanimously voted that Jason Clarke will take over as Interim Secretary. The secretary role is integral to the running of the AGM, and we want to give Jason a chance to get familiar with things before the meeting.
As a bonus, we expect the work that is being done to bring the UKPSA constitution in line with Charity Commission and Sports Councils guidance will be completed before the AGM thus allowing our membership time to review and comment before voting on the changes which require a 2/3rds majority.
Finally, the delay to the AGM is an excellent opportunity to ‘have a go’ at being part of the UKPSA administration for a couple of months. We currently have a few gaps on council, in roles covering communications, IT, media and areas ambassadors. Why not give it a try?
Council will be providing you with updates on all the great things your Council have achieved this year over the next few weeks, but if you have any particular concerns or comments please do not hesitate to contact me at Chair@ukpsa.org or clive.gamlin@ukpsa.org
With best wishes for the Christmas Season
Clive Gamlin
