The AGM: five decisions that matter

Twelve people in the clubhouse on a weeknight. The chair reads out last year's minutes. There is a long conversation about the state of the toilets, another about whether the under-12s need new goals, and a vote on the colour of the training tops. At twenty past ten someone notices nobody has been elected treasurer.

Most club AGMs go like this. Everybody means well, the meeting runs long, and the few things that actually needed deciding get squeezed into the last ten minutes, or put off to "a committee meeting in the new year" that never quite happens.

Why the meeting drifts

An AGM is the one night a year when members turn up, so everything gets brought to it. That is understandable. The trouble is that it treats a pitch booking and the club's accounts as the same size of question, and they aren't.

Most of what comes up can be handled by the committee during the year. Only a handful of things really need the members in a room. If those aren't on the agenda first, they are the ones that get rushed.

The five decisions that belong at the AGM

Check your own constitution, because it has the final say, but for most clubs it comes down to these.

• The accounts. What came in, what went out, and what the club has in the bank. Members should see them before the night, not for the first time on a projector.
• The officers. Chair, secretary, treasurer and welfare officer, as a minimum. Each one named, and each one with a deputy if you can find one.
• Subs and fees for next season. Agreed once, in the open, so nobody can say later that they weren't told.
• Any change to the constitution. Usually there isn't one. When there is, it needs the members.
• Who can see and sign what. Bank signatories, access to members' records, and the club's logins. Tie them to the roles you have just elected.

Everything else, the toilets included, can go to the committee with a clear owner and a date.

Three things to do before this year's AGM

• Put the five decisions at the top of the agenda, in that order. Other business goes after them, and it is fine if some of it runs over to the next committee meeting.
• Send the accounts and the list of officers standing to members a week before. People ask better questions when they have had time to read.
• Ask every officer who is staying on to name a deputy on the night. It is the cheapest insurance a volunteer club can buy.