If you couldn’t make it along to the BID AGM, here’s what you missed:
After two years of very low attendance there were a substantial number of people attending the meeting. This is great to see and to be encouraged. The more that BID Directors can hear from the membership the more we can listen and act on their views.
The BID is governed by its articles and memorandum of association. These define who is a member and who can attend. As part of my role as chairperson of the BID I have to make a decision as to whether a person can or not. A discussion took place with one individual about whether they were a member of a business and therefore a member of the BID. Looking at the rules since 2021 the Member of the BID is the Designated Voter. This person was not the Designated Voter. Therefore they were declined entry. My thanks go to our Street Wardens who were able to calm the situation so that I could commence the meeting.
We also had to ask a couple of other people to leave as it became apparent that they were not BID Members either, but it was great to see them show an interest in the BID and we will be following up on that.
I opened the meeting and welcomed the 20+ who had attended and in my view we had an excellent meeting.
The 10 current Directors stood down and offered themselves for re-election. The BID can have a maximum of 15 Directors and so attendees were invited to put themselves forward. There was a discussion about this and in particular the issue of intimidation was discussed. It was made plain by me that there will be no intimidation of anybody. Anybody who attempted to do that would be asked to resign and if they declined, subject to a vote of the Directors, they could be ousted.
It’s to be remembered that the Board of Directors acts in unison. We can have a debate and we do. However, once an agreement is reached the Board has to stand together. Sorry if this all sounds a little heavy, but it’s best to air these things. Certainly, whilst I’ve been a Director and now Chair of the BID there has been no intimidation at all. We’ve had passionate disagreements, but come together behind the decision.
The upshot of all this was that Mina from Moroccan Givings and Mary from the Karma Centre are joining the Board. Another Member is going to attend and decide whether she can commit the time. There are still spaces for new Directors and anyone interested should approach myself or Matt Powell to discuss and see what the role entails.
In addition to Board roles there are committees which are less time intensive and don’t involve a commitment to number of attendances. We will be profiling these during the coming months and people can join as they wish.
Turning to the better and more interesting parts of the meeting.
I gave a Chair’s Report summarising the period the AGM covered and this was followed by a report from the BID’s Finance Committee which included the presentation of the BID’s accounts for the period These are summarised in our Annual Report which should be dropping through your letterbox very soon.
Lastly, we had any other business and a wide ranging discussion took place. Members outlined issues they were interested in or had a view on what the BID should do. This was constructive and the Board were able to confirm that some of them were underway.
I am looking forward to an exciting 4 years as Chair of the BID and my sincere hope is that we can help to bring Kings Heath together, firstly, for the businesses and of course for the community as a whole.
Please note that you can also find documents prepared for this AGM in the Document Area for the current term, 2023-2028.
