AGM suggestions and checklist...

It’s not as hard as you might think to hold an effective AGM. Like many things in scouting, you just need to be prepared. Here are a few tips that help you:

• Keep to time
  Start and finish on time. To help it can be a good idea to allocate timings for different parts of the agenda. And it's also good to provide some refreshments.
   
• Get everyone involved
  Make sure that everyone contributes to the meeting by encouraging them to express their opinion. Assign action points to people to ensure plans move forward.

  lf everyone takes away one action then everyone feels involved. Make sure you circulate action points within one week of the meeting showing who is responsible for carrying them out. include an agreed completion date.
   

• Stick to your decisions
  Once discussion has been made take time to make sure that everyone understands that the decisions made are to be stuck too. Keep your minutes concise and record the decisions made and action to be taken.
   
• Don’t waste time
  Avoid excessive time being spent on 'any other business'. If you are planning to have ' any other business' on your agenda, ask everyone to submit items for inclusion at least 7 days before the meeting. This will enable you to be well prepared. Often decisions made on the spur of the moment without thought have to be revisited.

  And don't just have a meeting because the date has been set if there is not sufficient items that need to be discussed. There is nothing worse than going to a meeting and just going over old ground. 

To be sure that the event is a success, we need a well planned programme which deals with the formal requirements of the annual general meeting and is attractive enough to encourage people to attend. Try to make it the group occasion of the year by covering four areas needed for success...

Reception

From at least 15 minutes before the advertised time of starting, the Group Scout Leader and the Group Chairman need to be in position to welcome people.

Have some static displays of activities during the year to bring the annual report to life. Make doubly sure that you are ready before your guests start arriving. There is nothing worse than the members' parents and your guests arriving to find you setting up the chairs.

The business meeting

The annual report, having been sent out in advance, will reduce the need for lengthy speeches. your group chair will be in charge of this part of our programme with support coming from your secretary and treasurer.

The Group Scout Leader need not make a speech and should remain silent except to nominate the Chairman and some of the members of the Committee and in a few well chosen words thank the Group Administrators and the Committee for their support. In my plan the Group Scout Leader can have a moment of glory later in the programme.

The formal but friendly meeting should take about 30 minutes without any suggestion of undue haste.

Refreshments

Tea, coffee and biscuits is often sufficient, but other options are also popular (buffet, barbecue, canapes, sausage sizzle, jacket potatoes, picnic, strawberries and cream) and the break will allow people to mix and look at the displays. The leaders can ensure that everything is ready for the last, and probably the most enjoyable, part of the programme.

Some groups prefer to leave the refreshments until the very end to deter guests from taking advantage of the break to slip off home early. Do bear in mind, especially if you have a guest speaker, that this can leave your guests having to remain seated for some time.

Scouting activities

Your members can easily be involved in the programme by providing entertainment or displaying the events of the past year.

Some ideas for a guest speaker...

• Scouts who have represented your group or district at a Jamboree
• Local historian
• Pet shop owner (with animal guests)
• Sports personality
• Children's entertainer
• Camp fire leader
• Explorer Scouts
• Local charity workers
• Gardening expert
• District team members
• County team members

Consider inviting a guest speaker who will appeal to your members, who will then badger their parents to allow them to attend.

Far better than a lengthy oration by the group scout leader and additional over long contributions from leaders... why not show the guests what we do in scouting?

A PowerPoint presentation is not new but it can be made up exactly as required. Just one or two slides of any activity will be enough. Cover all sections of your group and include any district and/or county events you have taken part in. After an introduction by the group scout leader let the scouts provide the commentary - perhaps the patrol leaders.

A video sounds attractive but it will need to be well made and shown on a large screen! If this is not possible it will be far better to have any videos as part of the displays at reception and during refreshments.

Scouting's success depends on activity so to demonstrate is better than talk. A tent pitching race is possible indoors. The final of a pack inter-six competition would be fun. Once you accept this approach, ideas will flow at your group leaders meetings and from the scouts themselves. Avoid pointless 'spectator' games.

We all know that parents are much more likely to turn-up if their children are involved. If you insist on an evening event then think in terms of a Friday in June or July when the evening is light, with sunset after 9pm. Why not break with tradition and have this annual event on a Saturday? Start at 5.30pm and finish by 7.30pm. So there is still something of an evening left for mum and dad! Given that for formula the world is your oyster!

You will need a venue with an indoor hall and some spare ground outside.

By 5.30pm on the day:

• the Beavers are ready to demonstrate handcrafts,.
• the Cubs will be poised to show the visitors a whole host of activities within their training programme.
• the Scouts can be cooking over open fires and stoves and offering the edibles to your guests. Those not required to cook could be pioneering, demonstrating map and compass skills, using local maps and other activities in which parents could participate.
• Your local Explorer Scout Unit could use the event as a good link exercise displaying the wonders of the last camp or expedition and act of service to the community.

All this activity would go on until 6.45pm when the group scout leader calls everyone indoors for the annual general meeting - and that invitation will include the patrol leaders and local explorer scouts.

This second part of our programme begins with a summing up of the activities by the group scout leader who then hands over to the group chair for the annual general meeting. The youngsters outside can continue to enjoy the activities and, supervised by some leaders, clear up ready for the finish at 7.30pm.

This programme would be much more attractive. You could call it the group family event with the annual general meeting playing it's part in the overall programme. Before dismissing the idea, why not have a go on a Saturday or summer evening? Guests such as your local ward councillors, neighbours, representatives of other community organisations and friends would certainly find it more interesting and enjoyable.