Covid has been a game changer in how we work. There is a greater preference for remote work and a reluctance to travel far. Now with the traffic light system, there are new challenges for the Association sector. With no crystal ball to see what the settings will be when it comes time for your AGM, how do you plan?
We all know a lot of time and effort goes into preparing for an AGM. Where will it be held? When will it be held? What are the constitutional requirements? When and how do you call for remits? Who are the members standing for office? How will the voting be carried out? This planning could now be more difficult with limits on numbers gathering and managing of vaccine passes, as well as changing mindsets.
It makes sense that annual meetings should be moved to an online environment. Somewhere that your members can go without leaving their home or office, and not having to worry about their vaccine status. Imagine how much greater participation you could have by doing this?
Video conferencing platforms like Zoom have become a normalised and an essential tool for business. You can run a live meeting with potentially even greater participation from your members than if they had to travel to a physical location. But what can you do about voting on remits and election of officers? How do you manage the debate if you have large numbers attending?
Imagine this: an online virtual AGM, with high attendance, all important governance issues taken care of, seamless online voting, confidentiality and security assured, and a quick turnaround on results.
Within Gecco’s online membership platform there are member only access areas.. You can set up an AGM area and call for remits, open chat discussions, as well as upload resources including documents and videos.
Once all remits and candidates are in you can set up the voting area. You can set the membership types that are allowed to vote (often associates can attend but not vote) along with information on each vote. Set a time for voting to open and a time for voting to close and invite your members in. Once voting has closed you will be presented with an anonymised audit document that can remain stored with the election or downloaded for scrutiny. Happy that the results are valid? Click a button and publish the results for all your members to see. Imagine how much more participation in this important process you will gain? This is what Gecco can do for you.
By running your elections through the Gecco platform you can mitigate many of the risks involved.
Because the voting is tied to your membership database, recognising voting rights by subscription or other group settings, and because members need to log in as proof they are who they say they are, you can be assured that those who are permitted to vote are the only ones who do.
With Gecco, the voting is auditable and the publishing of results is controlled by the election officer. This officer has access to the interim results and the audit document but cannot edit or change the result. In addition to the security and confidentiality of this system, you save time and costs by holding your voting online. And the greatest benefit of all is the opportunity to engage ALL of your membership and encourage them to participate in the governance of their organisation.
If you’d like to run a professional and secure online AGM with the support of Gecco, contact us for a chat. We’d love to help.