Anyone an expert on AGM (voluntary org not business)

[ihearthuckabees]

Hope this is in the right place. Does anyone know whether the agenda for an AGM must be fully proposed before the AGM. The part I'm particualarly interested in is whether or not, when we get to aob (any other business) people are allowed to pipe up at the meeting about anything they want to, or would they have to have proposed the topic in advance as something they want to discuss under aob?

Hope that makes sense. (I am anticipating a bit of a storm at a forthcoming meeting, and want to know whether or not the committee can say 'NO, we are not discussing this as you didn't propose it in advance' or whether they have a right to have their say regardless.

Thanks in advance.

I am a trustee of a charity, though doubt I'm an expert.

I think it depends on what the consitution or governing document of the organisation says. Have a look at yours. Ours says proposed agenda items should be received by honorary secretary 15 days before date of AGM, or some such.

IME it is sometimes better not to have 'aob' on the agenda at all. It's not compulsory.

It depends on the governing documents- articles and memorandum.

Can you clarify for me if you are a registered charity and if so, whether also a company as there can be implications from the Charities Commission and the Companies Act.

We dont have an AOB but we do have an open mic which is always chaotic. However, I'd be concerned about closing people down just because you dont like what they're going to say. That's what AGM's are for to an extent.

I'm not sure there are any hard and fast rules - as Sparks says, look in your constitution or Mem & Arts. Can you tell your membership in advance that due to time constraints there won't be AOB, and all agenda items need to be submitted in advance, or have all your papers gone out already?

Thanks for your replies. We're not a charity, but a sports club. I will check in the constitution, but I understand what you say Arctic. In fact, you get to the nub of the problem because the current aggro is due to restrictions that have been placed on the club's web forum (due to so many people being rude, aggressive, undermining of the club's ethos and so on).
Some forum users feel they haven't had enough say in how things are run, and may want to 'discuss' this at the AGM and given that their idea of a discussion could allow for something very heated I wanted the option of being able to close them down if necessary. Put it this way, an open mike would probably be suicide. But it's all a bit tricky.
Another factor is that the forum and website are not an official part of the club, but simply designed, managed and administered by someone on a voluntary basis (who also happens to be a member of the committee). But the members don't appreciate this distinction.
Anyway, I will look into it further.
Thanks again.