Your charity’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) is the year's most important meeting.
It will provide your members, the general public, and the committee an overview of the organisation’s current position, including its finances, and confirms its general purpose.
What are the rules for running a charity AGM?
Your charity’s governing document should indicate how your AGM and all other meetings will be run.
The governing document will also determine voting procedures. If you do not follow the process in your charity’s governing document, any decisions made at the AGM could be invalid.
Your governing document should provide the following information regarding meetings:
- Who are the people attending the meetings
- How often and when meetings must be held
- The minimum number of committee members, trustees or members of the general public that must participate in a meeting so that decisions can be made properly (called the quorum)
- How to manage trustees who have a conflict of interest
- Whether meetings can be conducted remotely (virtual or hybrid).
What happens at a charity AGM?
An AGM allows charity members to approve accounts and elect trustees. Three or four weeks' advance notice that an AGM is to be held is the norm.
How do I run a charity AGM?
To effectively run an AGM, ensure you:
- Have a suitable venue for the meeting and organise refreshments
- Put together an agenda and send it out to all members in advance, including the date and time of the meeting
- Identify and deal with any conflicts of interest before the meeting
- Make sure you have a ‘quorum’
- Follow the voting rules set out in the governing document
- Keep accurate minutes of the meeting and members' resolutions
- Make the minutes available to all members as soon as possible after the meeting
Get legal assistance from LawBite
Running a successful AGM simply comes down to organisation and following the processes and procedures in your charity’s governing document. If you require any help drafting a governing document our friendly charity lawyers would be happy to advise you.
LawBite has experience helping startups, charities, and small businesses achieve their commercial ambitions and regulatory compliance. To speak to one of our expert charity lawyers, book a free 15 minute consultation - or find out more about our affordable charity legal packages.
Affordable legal advice for charities
Additional resources
- How to set up a charity
- The role of charity trustees
- Modern law for forming and running a charity
- The role of charity trustees
- How to change the Article of association of a charity
- How to set up a trading subsidiary of a charity
- What are the charity committee roles and responsibilities of the secretary?
