Ecology Building Society Annual General Meeting 2014
Our 2014 AGM and Members’ Meet Up was held in London at the Abbey Community Centre, a lively community centre in a former public baths. Our theme for the day was Communities for Change, enabling us to explore the role of the financial and built communities in creating a more sustainable future.
The formal business of the morning was as lively as ever, with one member commenting: “The atmosphere of the whole event is inclusive – the sense that all members are equally important and the eagerness to share knowledge and information are so obviously fundamental to Ecology.”
Questions posed for our Directors covered a wide range of topics including current accounts, building society mergers and the reputation of ethical finance.
| For | Against | Abstain | Spoilt | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To receive the Auditors' Report | 1136 | 18 | 22 | 0 |
| 2 | To receive the Directors’ Reports and the Annual Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2013 | 1136 | 21 | 19 | 0 |
| 3 | To pass an Ordinary Resolution to appoint KPMG LLP as auditors until the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting | 981 | 116 | 79 | 0 |
| 4 | To pass an Ordinary Resolution to approve the Directors' Remuneration Report for the year ended 31 December 2013 | 1080 | 51 | 45 | 0 |
| 5 | To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as a Special Resolution: That the Rules of the Society be amended in the manner specified in the document produced to the meeting and initialled by the Chair for the purposes of identification | 1022 | 38 | 116 | 0 |
| 6(i) | To re-elect MALCOLM JOHN LYNCH | 1117 | 37 | 22 | 0 |
| 6(ii) | To re-elect TIMOTHY DAVID MORGAN | 1106 | 40 | 30 | 0 |
| 6(iii) | To re-elect CHRISTOPHER JON NEWMAN | 1110 | 33 | 33 | 0 |
| 6(iv) | To re-elect ALISON VIPOND | 1123 | 33 | 20 | 0 |
Overall turnout was 15.9%, with 38% of voters using our online voting service. We were disappointed to see voting levels drop after last year’s increase and we’ll be reviewing how we can encourage higher turnout in future years. If you’re a voting member, please use your democratic power in 2015!
Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on the AGM. We read every form and your suggestions will be used to help us make next year’s event even better.
Communities for change: building a sustainable future
Our afternoon of workshops and debates focussed on the concept of sustainable communities, in both the financial and built environment.
We began with a fast-paced keynote debate featuring Beth Stratford, financial campaigner and doctoral researcher, Alastair Harper, political lead at Green Alliance, and Anna Dart, anti-fracking campaigner.
After a lively question and answer session with the audience, the agenda progressed onto our workshop sessions, featuring a range of expert speakers including Ed Mayo (Co-operatives UK), Hilary McVitty (Building Sochttps://www.coopliving.net/ieties Association), Catherine Harrington (National CLT Network), Daniel Brewer (Resonance), Rob Morris (Co-operative Living Freehold Society) and Philip Newbold, Passivhaus self-builder. A highlight of the day was our experiential tour of Westminster with financial activist Brett Scott – the tour was so popular that we plan to make it a regular feature of AGMs!
5 June 2016 
