SAVE THE DATE: WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY, 9:30AM – 12:30PM
With the new academic year just around the corner, we’re looking ahead to what’s next for HELOA, including the 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM). But before we look forward, this is a good opportunity to look back at this year’s AGM on 29 January 2025 and reflect on its impact for our members.
What is an AGM?
For a charity like HELOA, the Annual General Meeting is a formal yearly gathering of members and trustees to review the Association’s performance, finances, and future direction. Each area of the charity presents a report summarising their work over the past year, giving members the opportunity to ask questions before voting to confirm the report’s accuracy. The meeting also covers the charity’s financial accounts and may include additional votes on proposals that require member input, helping to shape HELOA’s direction in the year ahead.
Who should attend the AGM, and what format does it take?
All full HELOA members are welcome to attend the AGM, though Primary Contacts or their nominated proxies hold the responsibility to vote on proposals that shape the charity’s direction. Whether you’re new to HELOA or have been involved for a long time, the AGM is a key opportunity to get involved, ask questions, and gain a deeper understanding of the charity’s work.
Long-standing members of HELOA will know that the AGM has evolved over the years. Traditionally, it was held in person on the first day of our National Conference each January. In 2023, members voted to trial an online format instead. The 2024 virtual AGM was well-received, with positive feedback and strong engagement from members, and so we continued with the same approach for 2025.
Reflecting on the success of AGM 2025
When our AGM first moved online, we set out a series of success criteria to help us measure the impact of the change. These were designed to ensure the meeting continued to be a space where a wide range of our members could take part, ask questions, and shape HELOA’s direction.
To judge how well the AGM worked online, we set clear goals:
- Making sure enough Primary Contacts or their proxies were present so the meeting could officially go ahead (known as quoracy). This is set at 1/3 of the number of Primary Contacts/proxies (48).
- Aiming for at least 65% attendance from these key members
- Encouraging broad representation from different roles and backgrounds across the full membership
- Fostering active engagement, with plenty of questions, comments, and people involved in discussions.
The 2025 AGM was largely successful. We achieved quorum with 92 primary and proxies in attendance and only narrowly missing our 65% attendance target at 64%. There was strong engagement throughout, with a wide range of questions and contributions that helped ensure the meeting was interactive and inclusive. That said, the proportion of the full membership attending was lower than we aimed for with our 10-15% target, at around 9%. We see this as a key focus for improvement moving forward.
Feedback from members who did attend the HELOA AGM highlighted the following themes:
What worked well
- Accessibility and engagement: The online format was widely praised for making the AGM more accessible, allowing more members to attend and participate without travel constraints.
- Timing and organisation: Members appreciated the meeting starting and finishing on time, with a clear agenda and well-structured presentations keeping things concise and focused.
- Informative content: Attendees found the meeting informative and relevant, with useful takeaways to bring back to their teams.
Areas for improvement
- Clarity and reminders: Suggestions include simplifying language used within AGM and providing papers earlier with reminders to ensure better preparation from members.
- Group involvement: Several comments highlighted the desire for more input and highlights from our groups to recognise their work and increase wider engagement.
- Technical: Minor tweaks like clearer instructions for online participation (e.g., name display, managing chat vs. Q&A) could improve the virtual experience in future.
Looking forward to AGM 2026
Although we narrowly missed some of our historical success targets for an online AGM, considering the current pressures in the sector and the costs associated with attending large, in-person events, we believe that keeping the AGM online is still the most accessible and inclusive way for our members to take part. The feedback from AGM 2025 strongly supports this, with an overwhelming majority of members (90%) highlighting a preference to meet online for AGM 2026, compared to just 5% for in-person and 5% unsure.
As a result, we feel continuing online offers the best balance between broad engagement and practical realities, ensuring all members can have their voice heard and play a part in shaping HELOA’s future.
Member feedback is important to us, and we are committed to making the AGM even more accessible and engaging. For 2026, we’ll be looking to increase group involvement in the AGM by highlighting the important work happening across our groups. We’ll also consider how we can improve technical guidance ahead of the meeting, to enhance the virtual experience and make participation easier for all.
Our 2026 AGM will be taking place online, Wednesday 28th January 2026, 9:30 – 12:30. We hope to see you there!