Now could be time to bring back face-to-face AGMS
It’s the time of year when many allotment site associations should be holding their Annual General Meeting. AGMS don’t generally inspire a great deal of enthusiasm and many of those who could attend choose to bypass them but it can be different.
Several decades ago I attended my first site annual general meeting.
Office bearers were dressed in jackets, shirts and ties, and were almost unrecognisable from their attire on the plot.
The office bearers sat at a top table with the plotholders in rows facing them.
They were sombre occasions where minutes were read and approved, accounts presented, office bearers elected and rent for the coming year agreed.
After the meeting we queued up to pay our dues in cash to the Treasurer with plots under the trees paying 50p a year less than the sunny side of the site.
The whole proceedings were over in half an hour.
As time passed our AGMS became something to look forward to.
The formal business still took place but there was a social side too. Some of the transformation is due to Jane, who has had a plot for nearly as long as I have.
She began to bring along boxes of tempting home baking. Others made tea and coffee.
More by accident than design, the delivery of our communal seed order coincided with the annual general meeting and plotholders keen to get theirs invariably turned up. Gradually the AGMS became unmissable events.
Held in the winter when days were short, they created an opportunity to say hello to plotholders one didn’t see so often, keeping alive the community spirit for which allotments are famous.
Every site will have a handful of people who contribute a great deal to its smooth running over many years and the AGM is an opportunity to celebrate them.
I remember presenting a bottle of malt to George Aithie, our site auditor, when he stood down after more than 50 years of overseeing the finances.
Over the past eighteen months, most meetings have been held virtually or, in some cases, not at all.
Governance needs to be fair, transparent, and democratic as well as offering encouragement to plotholders to cultivate their plot as best they can.
Every plotholder should be able to take part in the decisions and management of their site.
A virtual AGM is certainly better than no meeting at all but the time has come to explore some venues where plotholders can safely meet in person.
Governance needs to be fair, transparent, and democratic