Annual General Meeting (AGM) & extraordinary General Meeting (EGM)
Every year socities must have an AGM to decide who the committee members will be for next year and discuss anything you want to vote on. Usually these AGMs occur towards the middle-to-end of semester two, but don't leave it too late as not having an AGM can cause some problems for you next year!
Committees must be elected, not appointed, so that everyone has a fair chance to run and help shape the society. You must have a Treasurer and a President, plus at least one other committee member (such as a vice-president or Social Secretary, for example).
Following your meeting, a member of either the outgoing or incoming committee needs to submit a Reaffiliation Form to confirm with us that the Society will be continuing into the next academic year.
Here's our guide on how to run the best meeting you can.
Malaysian Society demonstrating what will happen if you don't follow the AGM rules... (Just kidding!)
Prior to any AGM or EGM, you'll need to give your members at least 10 days notice in writing, letting them know the date of the meeting, which positions are up for election (in an AGM, this will be all existing committee positions, for an EGM either new or vacated postions), and that any society member who is an erolled HW student may run for any position. An AGM should consist of at least ten members or 1/10th of the total society membership, whichever is higher.
At the AGM itself, every candidate has an equal amount of time (1 minute) to talk about why they’d be a good choice, after which your members can vote for who they want to run the society. Voting can be set up using an online poll, emailing you with their preference, or sending a DM to a nominated person, and whoever receives the highest number of votes wins (this is called a simple majority election).
Check out the template agenda and the attendance record that we've made for you to use!
Once you've held your AGM, use our handover guide to give the next committee the best start.
If you are not sure about anything or would like some further guidance please get in touch with Christy.
When to hold an EGM.
You should hold an EGM when you are changing officers, or if you wish to vote on something major like disbanding the society, merging with another or changing the purpose of the society. In any case you should let the Christy know the outcome.
EGMs are conducted in the exact same way as AGMs (see above) but only the vacant positions or new decisions are voted on.
Holding an online event.
Here's our tips on how to have an online AGM or EGM:
- Pick an online platform to host your meeting e.g. Messenger, Teams, Discord, zoom, etc.
- Any candidate wanting to stand for a position should upload a 1 min video/have 1 min to tell you why they’d be good in the role.
- Other members should then have the opportunity to ask the candidates a few questions online.
- You should then ask members to place their vote via email/dm/poll to a nominated person and have a time/date deadline.
- You should also make clear that members can vote by proxy (where you let someone vote on your behalf).
How to do Proxy voting:
- You will need to declare anyone that’s standing in the AGM elections in advance.
- Someone is nominated the proxy holder and anyone who wishes to vote by proxy needs to message/email the nominated person by a certain time/date to confirm their vote.
- The nominated person’s proxies are then added to the vote totals.
BACK TO THE TOOLKIT HOMEPAGE.