Back to the future at AGM

To say Monday night’s Atlantis Leisure annual general meeting (AGM) was bizarre would be a bit of an understatement.

Due to Covid, the annual gathering has been much delayed resulting in this week’s meeting taking in the 2020 period, with the 2021 AGM scheduled to take place in six months.

This being the case, the forward planning item on the agenda had already been completed, leading chairman Neil Matheson to declare ‘the future has happened’.

Despite the lengthy closure and disruption caused by the pandemic, the general feeling at the online meeting was one of positivity. The community-owned centre met the challenges brought by Covid head-on and is winning the battle so far.

This was not an outcome either the board or management team would have predicted at the start.

Mr Matheson said: ‘It has all been a bit crazy and a bit of a rollercoaster for obvious reasons.

‘2020 started on a high. In the February we had our best month on record which, looking back, was ironic.

‘To protect our users and staff, we took the difficult decision to close the centre a few days before the government announced the blanket lockdown on March 23. We thought then we would be shut for a month, so we committed ourselves to staff salaries for that period and hoped for the best.

‘We weren’t writing the script, however, and no-one could have predicted what was to follow.’

As it happened, the centre remained closed in April, May, June and July of that year which meant going from making an average of around £52,000 per month to absolutely nothing.

‘It was devastating and incredibly complicated,’ added Mr Matheson.

‘The furlough scheme was an absolute saviour for everyone. We kept on key staff to maintain the centre, which we had to finance ourselves, and partially re-opened in the August amid a desperately difficult financial situation.’

It wasn’t just the financial situation that caused concern for the Atlantis team. ‘Atlantis equals community,’ said the chairman. ‘Covid is a community buster.’

That community, along with the Atlantis staff and board, rose to the challenges however and worked within the restrictions to deliver a reduced service. The opportunity to carry out maintenance and work on new projects, such as reconfiguring the reception area, refurbing the cafe and changing rooms and installing a second dance studio, was taken.

Treasurer Andrew Mead reported that although the centre had been closed, or running limited services throughout the year, as far as finances went Atlantis Leisure was in a reasonably good position thanks to a substantial amount of funding from the third sector and the government.

In his summary, Mr Matheson thanked the community, Argyll and Bute Council, funders, management, staff, volunteers and fellow directors for their support.

‘Tenacity and determination has got us through this. Thanks for sticking with it,’ he said.