Announcing a change to our 2020 AGM

Firstly, we hope you, and those you care about, are keeping safe and well during these challenging and uncertain times.

Our Chairman, Stuart Purdy, has today written to all our eligible voting members, letting them know about an important change we are making to the format of this year’s Beverley Building Society Annual General Meeting (AGM) as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

This year’s event – a key aspect of our calendar year as a mutual building society – was scheduled to take place in just under two weeks’ time. However, given the current circumstances, we’ve thought carefully about how we can balance our obligations to our members with acting responsibly and safeguarding the wellbeing of them and our wider community. Following Public Health England’s guidance about public gatherings, essential travel and social distancing, we have decided to hold this year’s meeting behind closed doors.

This means that, in accordance with our Society Rules, the original meeting will be opened as planned, but in private, outside

the Brown’s department store in Beverley at 5.30pm on Monday, 27 April. After 30 minutes, it will be adjourned to 9am the following morning at our Head Office, 57 Market Place, Beverley. At that time, a minimal number of qualifying members of the Society’s team who are working that day will participate in a brief AGM meeting chaired by our Chief Executive Karl Elliott and overseen, via video link, by Stuart and fellow Board members. The meeting will only cover essential AGM business, including receiving the outcome of this year’s resolutions.

Members can still have their say

We remain keen to provide all our members with an opportunity to ask our Board any questions, or raise any issues. If there is anything members would like to ask, they can either:

· Call (01482) 881510 and speak to a member of our team

· Email info@beverleybs.co.uk, or

· Write to us at 57 Market Place, Beverley, HU17 8AA

The most effective way to get in touch is by email, if possible.

Sharing in what takes place

To ensure full transparency, we will place a transcript of the AGM proceedings, including questions and answers, on our website after the event, so that members can still access the content of the meeting, albeit not quite the same as being there in person.

So that our members and community partners can still meet with the Board of Directors and our team, we will do our best to organise an alternative event later in the year, subject to watching how the current situation develops and ongoing guidelines about what is appropriate.

Please still cast your vote

Members can still vote by completing the voting form they received recently with their Member Review booklet, and posting it back using the prepaid envelope provided in the original pack.

They also have the option of voting online and details of how to do this are also outlined on their voting form.

There will not be an opportunity to vote at the meeting this year and therefore we are asking that members don’t attend as anyone who does will, regretfully, be turned away.

Giving something back

As we won’t be providing food and refreshments for members at this year’s event, we have decided to donate the £500 we would normally spend on our AGM buffet, to the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) charity. RVS is helping to ensure the 1.5 million vulnerable people across the UK who have been advised to isolate to protect themselves from COVID-19, including many within our own community, are cared for and have the basic supplies they need. We have also agreed to make RVS our Charity of the Month for April and May, which means that, altogether, we are giving £1,000 to this excellent cause.

Please rest assured that in what I am sure, for many, are unsettling and difficult times, we are here to help look after you and your finances in any way we can. Our team are showing great commitment and dedication at this time.