So, our AGM and Quiz took place on Tuesday this week at Merton Arts Space, and I am pleased to report that as far as we are all concerned it was a tremendous success. We had the best turnout yet (though the event at the Polka in 2022 came close) and we’ll be posting the minutes up on the Wimblecomm site in the near future for those who attended or were unable to attend. I managed to get through the formal business in about half an hour – pretty much as planned and we then got onto the fun part which was the quiz. We tagged that on as we felt it was necessary to have something else to draw people in. More on the quiz itself towards the end. But in conversation during the short break, a couple of people remarked that the brevity of the formal part just reflected really that people are happy with what we’re doing. Matters only get prolonged – and sometimes heated – when things are not going well within the organisation.
So, it got me thinking how much do AGMs and good governance really matter? I qualified as an accountant many moons ago and as anyone who has studied it will tell you the nature of it is very backward looking. Money is important: our whole economy is based on believing in a trusted form of financial exchange. Accountants spend lots of (expensive) time reviewing the past year’s finances to report them (normally within 9 months) to stakeholders, members, creditors, staff, the government etc. It’s a snapshot of a place in time and things then move on.
We’ve seen in the past what happens when things get misreported (the Enron / Andersens scandal, Lehmans and the subprime crisis to name but two) and confidence is hit when they get it wrong. I was fortunate in that I spent much of my career producing business plan forecasting models so didn’t have to spend too many tortuous hours looking backwards – but in my view – and despite the cost, if it’s done properly yet efficiently, accounts are still very important.
When Jackie and I first got involved in the WCA in 2012, the charity hadn’t had an AGM for three years and it was under threat of being struck off. An AGM would have uncovered those issues -and maybe we’d still have a community centre now – but they weren’t called, and we are where we are. The annual WCA accounts go beyond what we’re required to report (a wider concern of mine) but I believe in transparency and making sure they’re reported to stakeholders on time. Our accounts were approved ‘on the nod’, they are pretty straight forward actually, but they’re there for anyone to see on our site and I’m always happy to answer questions. Maybe that is a reflection of confidence in the trustees. Yet as I pointed out at the meeting, our governance model is a membership one, and whilst some of our members may not be as engaged as others and our constitution is in need of a review, we do have a duty to be responsible to them.
But back to the fun side of the evening, we were delighted to have Mick Dore, landlord of the neighbouring Alexandra pub, as our quizmaster for the night which he provided free of charge. His Monday night quizzes at the pub include a devastating wipeout round and he repeated that for us -our team got clobbered! The eventual winners on Tuesday were The DLAG Destroyers. Congratulations to them and our thanks to everyone who attended and particularly to Mick for the quiz and for providing the catering which he did at cost and was very bountiful. Maybe next time we need to be a bit more discerning on our specifications! Overall, we were very pleased with the event. Coincidentally, Carlton Theatre Group had their AGM two days later (pizzas were their food of choice!) and as longstanding WCA members, will be celebrating their 100th in 3 years, a matter of conversation and planning at their event. If ever there was a testament that having fun and good governance are not incompatible, their longevity is a lesson for us all!