Annual Get-together of Members (AGM) report
Many thanks to the members who participated in our AGM on Wednesday 10th February.
We started the meeting by welcoming Johnny Moreland, the newest member of the Worker Team, and Andy Cawdell and Mark Wakeling as Committee Members ‘in waiting’. We then spent some time reflecting on what we loved about October Books in 2020, some great feedback (see above picture), thank you
Jamie took us on a run through of all the achievements ‘behind the scenes’, providing some great insights into the hard work and flexible approach which has resulted in a successful year despite the pandemic. See the slides attached here
We then went through the DRAFT End of Year Financial report for July 2019 - June 2020. See the slides attached here. Despite over three months in lockdown, turnover for the 2019/20 period was £174,580 matching that of the previous year, which is great news. We do need to do some work in reconciling our assets and liabilities before filing the final End of Year Financial Report. This final report will be sent to all members via our newsletter, along with full minutes of the meeting.
We then talked about conversion to a Community Benefit Society (CBS), something we plan to do over the next year or so. A key advantage of the move to a CBS structure is the way it will enable us to broaden membership to people who do not live in Southampton but want to support the work of October Books. We spent the last twenty minutes of the meeting considering how we could use events to support this, as well as growing a more diverse support base in the city.
If you’d like to be involved in the CBS Working Group please email info@octoberbooks.org
Order today directly through October Books or buy online through our bookshop.org store and we’ll get commission on your purchase.
February opening hours are:
Mon / Wed / Fri / Sat
From 10am - 4pm
Please note. The shop floor will be open for the sale of essential food and household items. We will not be open for you to browse our bookshelves, but if you have ordered books or household items online or via the phone you will be able to collect them during these opening hours! Shop online today!
You will see we have a QR code at the door, if you have the NHS COVID-19 app downloaded to your smart phone please scan this as you enter the shop as you enter the shop.
