Feature

Turnout at building society AGMs climbs

Contact: Andrew Gall Date: 24 Sep 2008

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The proportion of building society members casting their vote at AGMs held in 2008 increased to 19.4%, up from an average of 16.3% at the same societies a year earlier. This increase of 3.1 percentage points is a considerable rise, and is a result of a concerted effort by building societies to get their members involved in the society that they own.

Societies have used a variety of tactics to entice members to vote, including promoting the importance of voting in correspondence with members, a cash draw for those who voted, and making a charitable donation for each vote received. As a result of the latter initiative, societies have donated almost half a million pounds to good causes this year.

A greater proportion of societies have also made it easier for their members to vote, with almost half of all societies now offering the option to members to vote online.

The results of the votes cast were the same or better than last year in all categories, but most notably there was an increase in the average proportion voting in favour of building society directors’ remuneration, up to 95.0% in favour (excluding abstentions) from 93.8% in 2007.