AGM 2022 – physical or virtual event or both?

Plans are in hand to hold an in-person AGM at the Marriott Tudor Park Hotel in Maidstone over the weekend of February 25th to 27th 2022. You’ll understand that we are very keen to have an opportunity for members to meet in reality rather than virtually as was necessary at the AGM 2021. Equally it is vital that we ensure that the event is Covid compliant, that our members are content to attend and that we don’t take any risks with our finances.

Covid compliance will be fundamental to all of our planning. The government may well impose restrictions for the winter that are as yet unknown so we must also retain flexibility in our planning. For this reason we will not be organising any excursions on the Saturday afternoon as to do so would require members to board a coach for transport to the Historic Dockyard at Chatham. Instead we will provide information on the Historic Dockyard and on Leeds Castle, which is about one mile from the hotel, and then leave it to members to decide if they want to visit using their own transport. The hotel has an 18 hole golf course which is available to guests, subject to booking in advance. If golf is not your choice of exercise then all guests have free use of the hotel’s pool, sauna, steam room and gym for the duration of their stay. By chance there’s also a couple of Six Nations rugby matches on the TV on the Saturday afternoon.

The conference suite at the hotel can accommodate 60 delegates with one metre social distancing so we will need to consider this in our planning for attendance at the AGM. I have agreed with the hotel that we can cancel the whole event with 7 days notice and not incur any cancellation fee.