14. AGMs

Hi, I am Greg and I want to grumble about AGMs. Yes, it is that time of year when community organisations, sports clubs and local groups have their Annual General Meetings – the highpoint of grass-roots democracy where volunteers and members have a say in community organisations big and small. A time where organisation leaders can reach out, talk to and inspire their members, and where members can ask questions, stand for election and elect a management committee of their choice. Yeah, as if.

What often happens is that the AGM is almost a non-event, where formal business is rushed-through before getting on with the “more important” business of organising the next fundraiser, working bee or event. Alternatively, the AGM is a grand ceremony where self-important office holders present long, selective and uncritical propaganda reports on the year’s activities and finances. Unless members have other sources of information, there is no chance for real discussion and all sorts of problems are hidden.

Often when you get to an AGM, there are not enough volunteers to go on to the Management Committee or Board, so there is no election. Current committee members or their friends are dragooned into putting up their hand, and the same faces continue – sometimes with inspiration and passion, sometimes just keeping a seat warm. But in that dynamic there is no accountability, and with that comes a culture of power and entitlement and no culture of democracy and participation.

The peak body Volunteering SA&NT can help with skills for volunteers and volunteer engagement to enable better member participation, and there are a host of possibilities to make AGMs more interesting, but can I dare hold out a vision of governance beyond the AGM? Of participatory rather than representative structures? Do we really need hierarchic and largely self-appointed committees claiming to represent the organisation or community? Can we even dream of genuinely open structures without “office-holders”, one where decisions are made by those with knowledge, experience and interest rather than those who happened to be elected by a largely non-representative group of members at some antiquated ceremony? It would take some work, some radical changes to the way we do things, but it might also better mobilise and truly “represent” the community.

But in the meantime, we have the AGM. All those in favour?

I am Greg, and I am grumbling.

This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-14/

First Broadcast: 5 November 2013