AGM Feb 2021

Minutes of 2021 AGM

Dear members,

We attach the draft minutes of the 2021 Annual General Meeting. We are grateful to you all for tolerating the avalanche of words and for contributing in such numbers. For everyone's sake, we hope that next year's AGM will be a real-world meeting.

Best wishes for a successful growing year.

TAL Committee

28/02/21

AGM - Voting Results

Dear members,

We are grateful to you for contributing in such numbers to voting on motions and Committee nominations. We attach a detailed breakdown of votes, but the decisions are: 
 
Motions: 
Motion 1 is not approved
Motion 2 is not approved
Motion 3a is approved
Motion 3b is approved 
 
Committee nominations: 
All nine Committee nominations are approved. New Committee members will shortly be indoctrinated into the mysteries of Committee life, and the new Committee’s first Zoom meeting will be organised as soon as is practicable. We thank them for stepping forward. 
 
The proposal for Viv Holmes to continue as accounts checker is approved. We thank her, too.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

28/02/21

PLEASE READ - AGM MOTIONS

Dear Members, 

Since the commencement of voting this morning some members, having re-read and fully understood the Motions, have changed their votes. Consequently, the Committee feels it prudent to ask members to carefully read both of the documents attached to this morning's email before voting. The Committee reminds members that it does not support Motions 1 and 2 but does support Motions 3a and 3b.

Kind Regards,

TAL Committee

22/02/21

AGM Committee nominations: time to vote

Dear members,

We attach a list of those who have been nominated to serve on the Committee this year. (It is the same list we shared on 15 February.) There are enough places on the Committee for all the nominees. 
In addition, Viv Holmes has agreed to serve again as accounts checker, if you are content. 
If you are content for all the Committee nominees to be appointed and for Viv to serve again as accounts checker, please reply to this effect. A one word email (“Yes”) would suffice. In the event that you objected to all the nominations, a simple “No” would suffice. If you support some, but not all, of the nominations, please specify your views as clearly as possible. 
Please let us have your responses by Friday 26 February. Votes cast after this date will not be counted.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

22/02/21

AGM motions: time to vote

Dear members,

We now ask members to vote on the three motions previously shared on 15 February.

The full text is attached again for ease of reference, but they are:  
 
1. That a vote be taken to formally agree that the Constitution accepted by the membership in 2015 (and which can be viewed by anyone on the tugmuttonallotments.co.uk website) will be THE Constitution for Tugmutton Allotments Ltd. Obviously certain logical changes require to be made, i.e. changing “Tugmutton Allotments Association” to “Tugmutton Allotments Ltd”, the “Association” to the “Limited Company”, “Association Committee” to the “Limited Company’s Directors”, “Committee Member” to “Director” etc., and that this updated Constitution overrides the Articles of Incorporation in the day to day running of the Limited Company and the membership rules, effective from 1 February 2021. 
 
2. That an additional clause be entered under section 9 (Financial Provisions) of Company Rules: “Any item of expenditure in excess of £750 to be presented to the membership at the AGM / EGM for their approval prior to actioning. 
 
3a. That raised bed plots should be reserved principally for members who feel unable to manage “regular’ plots. 
 
3b. That, from 2022, the rent for each raised bed should be increased to £10, including water but not including membership. 
 
Before you vote, please read the Summary of Comments below received from members. 
 
We would prefer you to vote in a simple Yes/No format (i.e. without comment), as follows: 
 
1. Yes/No
2. Yes/No
3a. Yes/No
3b. Yes/No 
 
Please submit your votes by Friday 26 February. Votes submitted after this date will not be counted.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

22/02/21

AGM next steps

Dear members,

We have a late amendment to the Chairman's report (agenda item 2). The Chairman's thanks were to Derek Clacey, not Derek Clancy. The error was not the Chairman's, and the miscreant apologises to both him and Derek. 
We now reach the key part of the AGM: the voting. The simple process is explained in the two following emails, but our main plea is that you do vote, whether for or against the motions and nominations. 
In the correspondence we have received in the past days, a few members have voted in advance, or have appeared to do so. We ask that those members please vote again in response to the following two emails: our Committee Secretary is a simple soul, and he finds his simple processes comforting. We would like to humour him for a few more days. 
The deadline for your votes is Friday 26 February. Please do not vote after this date, as your vote will not count.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

22/02/21

AGM update

Dear members,

The AGM of Tugmutton Allotments Limited is going swimmingly well.

Agenda item 1. There were no suggested amendments to last year's minutes, so they are taken to be agreed.

There were no comments on agenda items 2, 3 and 4 (reports from Chair, Membership Secretary and Treasurer), and so these items are now complete.

Don't forget, you have until Friday 19 February to comment on any or all of the AGM motions (agenda item 5).

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

17/02/21

AGM motions

Dear members,

There are three motions to consider at the AGM: 
 
Motion 1, on Constitution/Company Rules 
Motion 2, on financial provisions 
Motion 3, on raised beds 
 
Our email 4 of 1 February contains the full text of the motions and the supporting arguments. 
We now invite you to provide any comments you may have on any of these motions. The deadline for these comments is Friday 19 February. You can provide your comments by replying to this email. Please specify the motion(s) to which your comments relate. 
Our email 1 of 1 February explains how we will handle comments and questions.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

15/02/21

Start of Annual General Meeting

Dear members,

As previously advised, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Tugmutton Allotments Limited starts today, and will be conducted via email. All supporting papers were issued in our series of emails on 1 February. 
This email addresses agenda items 1 to 4, and a following email will deal with agenda item 5.

We will write again next week to initiate voting on agenda items 5 to 7. 
Agenda item 1: minutes of last year’s meeting.

If you have any amendments for these minutes, please submit these by close of play tomorrow, Tuesday 16 February. 
Agenda items 2, 3 and 4: reports from Chair, Treasurer and Membership Secretary.

If you have any questions or comments on these reports, please submit them by close of play tomorrow, Tuesday 16 February. 
You can provide all your comments on the above simply by replying to this email. Please specify the items to which your comments relate. 
Our email 1 of 1 February explains how we will handle comments and questions.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

15/02/21

AGM: nominations for Committee (email 5 of 5)

Dear members,

We attach a list of those who have been nominated to serve on the Committee this year.

here are enough places on the Committee for all the nominees. 

In addition, Viv Holmes has agreed to serve again as accounts checker, if you are content.

Company Rules state that the Committee should comprise four officers (Chair, Treasurer, Membership Secretary and Committee Secretary) and up to five additional members. We have nominations for three Officer positions and six additional members. We expect that the new Committee will seek to appoint a Committee Secretary from its number.

We will ask for your votes once the AGM starts. Please do not vote before then.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

01/02/21

AGM: Motions (email 4 of 5)

Dear members,

We attach a document containing three motions. Please give some thought to the motions.

We will formally ask for comments on the motions once the AGM starts, but you can respond before then if you wish.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

01/02/21

AGM: Officers' reports (email 3 of 5)

Dear members,

We attach reports from our Chairman, Treasurer and Membership Secretary. The Treasurer’s report is accompanied by the approved financial accounts for 2020.

We will formally ask for comments and questions on the reports once the AGM starts, but you can respond before then if you wish.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

01/02/21

AGM: minutes of last year's meeting (email 2 of 5)

Dear members,

We attach the draft minutes of last year’s AGM. We presume that there will be no suggested corrections, since the minutes are essentially a copy of everything the Committee issued during the AGM, but you are welcome to try to prove us wrong. We will formally ask for suggested corrections once the AGM starts, but you can respond before then if you wish.

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

01/02/21

AGM agenda (email 1 of 5)

Dear members,

1. As previously advised, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Tugmutton Allotments Limited will be held via email during the period 15 to 28 February 2021. Most of the information relevant to the AGM is provided in this email and four following emails.

There are a lot of words, and we apologise for that, but you have a couple of weeks to absorb them before any action is required.

2. The agenda for the meeting:

TUGMUTTON ALLOTMENTS LIMITED

 Annual General Meeting 2021

 To be held via email during the period 15-28 February

 AGENDA 

 1.     Minutes of 2020 AGM

 2.     Chairman’s Report

 3.     Treasurer’s Report

 4.     Membership Secretary’s Report

 5.     AGM Motions

 6.     Election of Officers and Committee

 7.     Election of Auditor

3. We will try to keep as close as possible to the following timetable:

15 February: Formal start of the AGM. At this point we will invite members to provide any comments or questions they may have on the various agenda items, giving deadlines for these. (See below.)

16 February: Deadline for comments and questions on reports from Chair, Treasurer and Membership Secretary. This will also be the deadline for suggested corrections to last year’s minutes.

19 February: Deadline for comments on Motions.

22 February: Committee shares comments on reports from Chair, Treasurer and Membership Secretary, and on Motions; voting starts on Motions and Committee nominations.

26 February: Deadline for votes on Motions and Committee nominations.

27 February: Results of voting issued.

28 February: Minutes issued.

4. We will handle comments and questions raised in the following way:

- The Committee Secretary will summarise the views expressed for circulation to all allotment members.
- All Committee members will be tasked to review the summaries before circulation, to ensure that they fully and fairly reflect the range of views expressed.

- If any questions are raised, the answers will be shared with the full membership unless circumstances dictate otherwise. These answers will not be issued immediately, but at the end of the consultation period.

- The summaries will be shared with the membership without attribution to individual members

- If any member wishes to be quoted in full, they should request this at the time they submit the comments. In such circumstances, the Committee will publish the member’s name underneath their comments. Please keep such comments as clear and brief as possible.

- The Committee reserves the right to vary the practice above if it feels that circumstances so demand, but it will consult the members concerned before so doing. 

Kind regards,

TAL Committee

01/02/21

Final reminder/appeal: Committee members and AGM Motions

Members are reminded that the deadline for nominations for Committee membership and for the submission of Motions to the AGM is Thursday 28 January.

We have had some response to our plea for new Committee members, including a most welcome nomination for Membership Secretary, but we are currently on track for a Committee of, at most, six members. Six is the minimum membership, but we could really do with a couple more to lighten the load: we can accommodate a total of nine members. Please think again about putting yourself forward: we want “normal” members and a Committee Secretary (who doesn’t have to be normal). Current Committee members would be happy to deal with any questions you may have.

Remember, the only way for you to raise business at the AGM is by submitting a Motion. The Committee would be happy to advise on wording if that would help.

Kind regards,

 TAA/TAL Committee

24/01/2021

Notice of Annual General Meeting

All,

The Committee gives formal notice that the 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Tugmutton Allotments Limited will be held via email during the period 15 to 28 February.

Further information will be provided before then, however.

If you have any business to raise at the AGM, you should do so by submitting a Motion. The deadline for this is 28 January, and no business will be discussed that has not been raised by this date. If you have issues to raise, but are not confident in how to do it, the Committee would be very happy to advise.

The AGM will include the election of officers and members of the Committee. Please submit any nominations for the Committee to committeetaa@tugmuttonallotments.co.uk by 28 January, specifying whether the nomination is for regular Committee member or one of the officer positions (Chair, Secretary, Membership Secretary, and Treasurer). We also seek nominations for Auditor. Each nomination requires a proposer and a seconder.

Our previous attempt to prompt interest from prospective new Committee members produced no response. We will certainly have vacancies, including the posts of Membership Secretary and Committee Secretary, and it is essential that we get some volunteers if we are going to continue to operate. We would welcome interest from either site, but particularly from Willow Walk which, although the larger site, has long been under-represented. You do not need to have held your allotment for years and years to join the Committee, nor do you need any specific previous experience. If you are interested but have doubts, we can arrange for a Committee member to discuss the joys of joining us.

Kind regards,

TAA/TAL Committee

11/01/2021