 Nos bryd wedi gwirioneddure cynllじriol yn niノ sydd yn rhoi ar одu ffordd. Prydoedd â'r afgws echolynol y Gweithniad ap prisoners iawn dda iawn. Mae gwrthwein hefyd i gyllid y Dferty��Singingol ymlaen ingredients o Montéezuk doncri." Tot y penderfyniad rhiglwch, bydd gennym ni'n amgueddfa f notebookuedd wrth momentwr. a'r cyfnodd, Rose Marley, a Clare Dalton, y Llwstdagolwyr. Roedd yma'n gyfnodd Roes, Roedden Rhaidog, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru, a'r ysgolwyr, Eddie Thorne, Cheryl Barat, i'r prifosio'r ysgolwyr o'r bach o'r bobl. Roedd y meddwl yn cael ei gwirio ar hyn ar gyfer am y dyfodol. Roedd yma yw'r corwydd, a'r cyfnodd y ffordd i'n ei wneud o'i mynd i'n rhoi. Roedd yma yw Lleaor yn ymgrifion ei hyn o'r hyn, a gyda nhw yma o'r bobl i'n hyn hwn i ni, a'r rhai, yw ymgywydd yn y tieddiol. Roedd i'n fyddiad, ond fel y gallwn bod os yw ei cwestiynau gweld eich meddwl y sy'n cyfnodd y plwyd adeithasol a'r cyffin a'r gilydd. neu bod yn bwysig yn ddod i'w ddim o'r ddweud o ddysgu'r ddweud. Mae'r ddysgu'r ddweud yn diolch yn rhywbeth yw'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud ar gyfer y Cymru, maen nhw'n ddweud o'r ddweud, ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud a chyfran cael ei fod yn gweithio. Rydw i'n cael ei ddweud o'r gweithi nhw'n cael ei ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud, gweithio'r panellysau a cyfnodd yn ei wneud, ond dwy'n rôl ydych chi'n chac ddwyno'n gweith o'r gweithgaf chi'n chi gweithio'r gweithgaf iawn o'r gweithgaf chi'n gweithio. Dyfyddi'r bydd ychydig o gwz roughedd y cwrddoliddio, ac ydych chi'n gweithio'r gweithgaf y cwrddolydd, «Ryn i'ch dewch yn ei Gwymianol i gydigion i chi yw. Yn ymgyrch yn anodd, rydych chi'n gweithgaf ei gweithgaf dyna ychydigol y dyfodol, ond mae'n bwysig o'n ymgyrch o'r rhan o'r cyffredinol, a ydw i ddweud y dyfodol yma'n bwysig o'r rhan o'r cyffredinol, byddai'n gwybod yn y ddodol. Felly, mae'r rhan o'r cyffredinol, maen nhw'n gweithio'r llaw o'r ysgol yn ddodol, a yna ymddychau i'r gyffredinol yng Nghymddiaeth Cymru. Yn ymgyrch o'r cyffredinol, mae'n gweithio'r cyffredinol yn y pethau'r cyffredinol, We're not anticipating any ballot votes for this meeting, however, if a resolution divides opinion or a member requests it, we can move to a weighted ballot. So we'll ask people in the room to hold up the voting cards, not their hands, to indicate whether they agree with the resolution. If you're online, a poll will appear on the screen and you'll need to click on for against or abstain and then submit. And you have 45 seconds to cast your vote. If you don't vote in that time, it will be classed as an abstention. Once the 45 seconds is over, the online poll will close and I will confirm whether or not the resolution was carried. Thanks, John. Okay, so thanks Claire. I will be taking the notice of the meeting as read. Everyone should have access to the AGM notice and the pack of papers for the meeting from the links that were emailed to your chosen email address. If you need to access them, now they're on COPS, UK.coop.com forward slash AGM. As Claire has said, we'll be using a simple majority on a show of cards for the resolution unless otherwise requested. The first item of business is the approval of the minutes of the AGM held on 17 June 2022. I will be proposing this. Can I ask for a seconder? Thank you. What card are you from? Thank you. Great, thank you. For those of you online, the poll will appear on your screen now. You have 45 seconds to cast your vote. For those in the room, we'll begin with a show of cards. All those in favour of the motion? Show your cards, thank you. Thank you. Any members against? Okay, thank you. Any abstentions? We'll be waiting a couple of minutes, but we'll just ask and do the online results reflect those in the room. A few seconds. It's amazing how long 45 seconds is in a meeting. That's passed, thank you. Thank you very much. Now we're going to hear from our CEO, Rose Marley. Rose, we were talking about COPS, UK's achievement during 2022, and what's ahead for us. Thank you, Rose. Thank you very much, Chair. So in 2022, at this age, I presented a bold new strategy to you all. Bold, because we need to be bold, because at best this movement is stagnating in numbers as well. We see the rise of other forms of social businesses growing. So we had a very clear strategy came to build a strong, sustainable and diverse UK co-operative movement that positions co-operatives as a better way to do business and transform people's lives. The second objective was to promote and embed the values and principles of co-operation across UK, enterprise and communities. Simply because this altogether different way of doing business produces wealth and a fair society for us all. We've set really challenging KPIs, we've worked hard with the board to really be able to understand what the impact this organisation is making. We've also, this year, we've been able to get a thousand engaged, we're looking to get a thousand engaged members. So that's not just, of course, being here at the age here in which we're very thankful for, but engagement can come in all forms in a co-op, and that's something that we're working really hard on, particularly with our younger members. We're looking to increase 20% generally across membership. Last year we've had record use of our advice services with 378 co-operatives receiving our advice and things like HR. Sadly, the cost of living challenges are also reflecting the amount of cuts that do need to get our advice at this stage. And we've got a 45% stretch target against our advice services. We registered new co-ops last year, that was up by 10%, and we were able to produce 1.2 million worth of funding into the co-operative economy, which goes into, for example, the ownership hub, the business support programme supported by the co-operative bank, and the community shares access fund. We ourselves, co-operatives UK, therefore have invested 0.5 million in community organisations as well. Now, last year at Congress, we did have, last year at Congress we had Lord Victor Adebowale made a real challenge to the movement. He said that we were all too white and too old, and he upset us so much that we invited him back here this year for those of you that have been at Congress today. And Congress is about challenging that status quo, and so our co-operatives, we do need to disrupt like the original Rockstar pioneers, and that's a certain irony in that our values and principles resonate with a diverse audience, but for some reason those messages are not cutting through. So we acted. In July 22, we held our inaugural National Youth Summit. We brought together leaders, changemakers and creators to empower younger generations through the principles of co-operation and radical solutions. The Youth Summit followed our report offering hopes for future generations, which focused on young people whose lives have been transformed by co-operatives and co-operation. From mental health to good jobs to social and environmental concerns, our members like Cocoon, Chapel Street Studios, Village Greens and Projects Manchester, offered hope and solutions, and we amplified those stories through the media like BBC Five Live. We do need to tell these stories more often and shout about it louder, and this is just the start of the journey as we engage the next journey of co-operators and build a more diverse movement. At Co-operatives UK we have to change. We didn't have a single colleague under the age of 25 at this point last year. Now we've got to, and with our own people plan focused on colleagues being aligned to and engaged in delivery of our strategy for our members. We are taking steps to ensure that we are more diverse in all meanings of the word diversity because it sparks innovation, it enhances creativity, it leads to better decision making and problem solving and improves performance. So in 2022 we also signed up to the Diversity Forum Manifesto for Investment. Because if we don't walk the walk, how can we expect our members to start their journey? So here at Co-operatives UK, as outlined in our strategy, we aim to be that beacon for our members when it comes to everything from our values and principles to diversity to member engagement. And we're really keen, all those KPIs are in our annual report and our board do hold us strongly to account, and rightly so. We've also built in their successes. At the end of 2022 millions of pounds of new public funds have been allocated to local co-operative development. Deepening partnerships at local government level include in city regions such as the Greater London Authority and combined authorities like West Yorkshire have proved absolutely invaluable. We also celebrated landmark reform to give co-operative societies the option of legally guaranteeing that some or all of their assets are held in common. Consumer co-ops, working co-ops and housing co-ops will all benefit. In Scotland, the devolved government committed to a review of how to grow the co-operative sector in its national strategy for economic transformation, and that's a big deal. We must continue to expand our influence in 2023 and beyond, and it's why we engage with our political parties as you've seen today here at Co-op Congress. So we have had success in areas, but I started the presentation by talking about a stagnating co-op economy and a co-operative movement that isn't moving. So therefore we cannot keep doing everything in the same way, and we're looking at all together different ways of creating momentum around co-operatives and co-operation. So I'll end this presentation with a challenge to you all. Our members Co-op Fortnite begins on Monday, and we've another altogether different campaign to celebrate co-operatives and increased awareness. We've launched a crowdfunded advertising campaign in collaboration with each PLC that will run through the Fortnite, and it's a different campaign, but we're determined to be bold and try new things and break out of the cycle of just talking to ourselves. So I'd like to challenge you to get involved as well, whether that's through the crowdfund or by accessing our social media resources, or by telling your inspiring stories of how co-operatives are making a difference to people's lives, to communities, and the wider economy by offering an altogether different way of doing business. So have a look at Co-op Fortnite and please get involved. And we know new initiatives might not always work, but we're determined to try things and to find approaches that work. And that means we're prepared to fail as well. To be bold, you must be prepared to make those mistakes and learn from them. So we do need altogether different ways of doing things if we're to maximise our co-operative potential. There was much talk around during the pandemic about things changing, about there being no better time for co-operatives, but things won't change by themselves. We need to constantly challenge ourselves, which I hope through our annual report you can see that we are doing. We need to challenge our members. We need to challenge the government and public bodies. It's not a simple journey, but I hope you can see that we are on our way. Thank you. So thank you, Rose. Any questions for Rose? We'll be checking online as well. So any questions in the room? A fear people might be fed up of hearing my voice today, Don. Never Rose, never. No? OK. Well, I'm going to take that. And now, OK, thank you. And now we've got Vika Rogers, Head of Co-operative Development, who will be telling us about this work and our partnership with the Co-operative Bank. So, over to you, Vika. Thank you. Hi everyone. So yes, I'll be telling you more about the programme that I lead on, which is funded by the Co-operative Bank. Some of you might remember the Hive, and what we did in the last year was do an evaluation, a thorough evaluation of the Hive programme, and this is the result of that evaluation. So I'll start with this slide, because as you can see there's been a rebranding. So we did some work with the bank to really understand better what this partnership was about. And it can be really summarised in three main points. The first is that we both want to make a big impact in supporting the co-operative movement. We want it to be sustainable in the long term and our organisations within it. And we also want to be sure that we're providing the appropriate services for the co-operative movement. And so the first thing we did was to really try to understand what are the needs of the co-ops and what are the needs and how can we communicate better what this programme is about. And so, as you can see, we're talking about, rather than a programme, we're talking about how the Co-operative Bank and Co-operatives UK can provide a service for people wanting to set up a co-op or needing support for their existing co-op. The rebranding actually just says exactly what it's about, business support for co-ops. The other thing we looked at is really trying to communicate co-operative values to a broader audience than just the co-operative movement. And so the choices of the words have been thought out very carefully, so it's supporting fair and ethical businesses together. How do we translate the concept of co-ops without just talking about principles and values? At the same time, using words like fair to reflect what we mean by the principles and ethical that people can identify within the co-operative movement as our values. So I hope this clarifies sort of the new branding. I'll now talk a bit more about what the programme actually delivers. So the four strands of work, one is campaigns which help increase awareness and understanding of the co-operative model. A large part of the programme delivers direct support to existing co-ops or people wanting to start co-ops. Part of the funding also helps co-operatives UK in developing its digital first approach to the products and services that we provide, but also how that can be better integrated with what the co-operative bank provides as well. And then we also look at innovation and what are the key areas and markets that we want to support their growth and that are emerging. So I'll talk briefly about each of these. So from the point of view of campaigns, we run free webinars and events, we develop engaging social media campaigns, advertising and PR and compelling case studies that you can find on our website, which are very useful either for policy or for funding, et cetera, to just show the stories of the groups that we're actually supporting. We, as I was saying, we provide business support to the majority of start-ups or co-operatives or organisations that want to convert to a co-op, but also for existing co-ops that might be going through a difficult moment or want to grow. And so many of the co-ops, if you've heard speaking today, have gone through this programme and received this support. A crucial element of the business support is also half a day of peer support with other co-ops. And this is really embedding in the business support principle six. So it's co-ops supporting each other and we've just recently received an evaluation survey for someone, a co-op that's provided peer support and even the co-ops that are providing it really feel the value of this type of support. Through the evaluation, we identified really the strengths of this programme. It is not based on sectors, we can support any type of sector, we support people across the country. We were talking about difficulties with funding having co-ops, having to sit within funders' demands. This is really, really powerful programme because it allows us to support also those that fall between the cracks of that. We've got an experienced staff for co-optives UK but also a very experienced network of providers across the country that support, deliver the business support and, as we mentioned, the case studies. Obviously we need to improve and the work we did in the past year was mainly looking at how we can make the application process more user-friendly but also how we can support the co-ops that are not the people that are looking into setting up a co-op but might not be yet sure about what co-op is and what it entails to become a co-op. The areas where we want to work more in the coming year are how we can integrate better the business support programme with the digital offer, how we can improve the practitioner network so we can include more specialisms and make sure we cover the whole country and how we can improve monitoring the impact over time. I was mentioning that we identified that there was a lack of support in this area that goes between, oh wow, a co-op, that's great, I want to set up a co-op. We'll be introducing a half day of direct support for people really just exploring the idea of a co-op. This is to mention the digital approach that we have also so that some of you will be aware on our website we have a step-by-step tool again subsidised by the bank that helps people set up their co-op and incorporate and we'll be looking at how to improve this in the coming years as well. Then the emerging areas. One of the emerging markets that we definitely have focused on is tech and digital. It's part of our strategy. The three strands of work that we're looking into are how is tech radically transforming business models. Some of you may be aware that we've been looking at platform co-ops and understanding how we can support better the platform co-op sector. Another strand is how can we actually use digital and tech to strengthen the co-op movement and build infrastructure for the co-op movement and then what is the role of the co-op movement in ethical tech and defining the values that need to be embedded in ethical tech. This is a broad overview of all the things that we're doing thanks to the support of the co-op bank. This is just the team that's behind this. Obviously we've got a very solid team and it's also thanks to a lot of other staff for Corruptives UK, Digital Team, Cons Team. At that table we've got Petra and Terry who are part of the team so if you have any questions do you go and ask them as well. Okay, thank you very much Vika. So do we have any questions? I think we do at the back of the room. I think the microphone's on its way. Hi, thank you Vika. Yeah, that missing bit. That missing bit was the difference between equal care being a thing and not being a thing because Mark Simmons had been funded to do some mentoring and it was basically just, I mean I wasn't a co-op and I was too scared to ask anyone to join the co-op that wasn't a co-op and so having him at exactly that point where there's that grey area in the diagram to be like so who are you going to ask was on a regular basis and not loads and loads of sessions but it was completely pivotal for what then emerged so that bit is so fragile and so beautiful and so difficult and yeah focus on that and then I mean I know you are and then having bootstrap as well as an event was completely like wow that was the moment where I felt like I could say it out loud, not be laughed at but also in an environment where people were really kind of thinking about the idea and could respond to it so having something like bootstrap around that time for really early stage co-ops even if it's just one human in the room going hey I've got an idea would be yeah that's why I'm still here. Thanks Emma for bringing your experience. So do we have any further questions? By the way Mark Simmons is in just to my right here I think you should just let everyone know that here you are so there we go. Thank you Mark. Do we have any questions online? I'm not in online chat. Okay lovely. Well thanks, thank you very much. Okay so we'll move on to the next item of business which relates to our annual report on financial statements. We're going to hear from Ruth Buchanan our head of finance and then our audit partner at Crow UK LLP which is Vicki Sulis. We'll hear from them both and then we'll take questions. So over to you Ruth who's going to talk us through the 2022 financial results. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for your time today. This is my first AGM as head of finance for cooperative UK and I'm pleased to present the 2022 financial statements. I'll call out a handful of highlights in the accounts in the time that I have today. As you know from our annual report and presentations today, 2022 was the first year of co-op UK operating under its three year strategy and as such was a year where we set the foundations for building a modern day organisation. This has meant that we have operated at a deficit during the year in relation to our core activities which you can see on the summarised income statement slide. As Rose mentioned in her CEO statement in the annual report, this was in line with our planned budget and had the support and was agreed by both the board and senior leadership. You can see that the deficit has been driven by increased costs during the year where income has decreased slightly. This reflects the investment we've made in the organisational structure and capabilities during the year. Taking into account the booster investments that we have made during the year, our statutory result after tax was a surplus of £129,850 down from about £886,000 in 2021. As well as the deficit from core activities, the booster investments that we made during the year did decrease as some of the old programmes came to an end in the cycle to be replaced with new programmes in 2022 and into 2023. Looking at the balance sheet on the next slide, the balance sheet position remains strong excluding the booster investments we have net assets of £1.2 million down slightly compared to 2021 as a result of the deficit on core activities. The cash and cash equivalence position of £1.97 million at 31 December was considered as part of the going concern assessment that we carried out as part of the financial statements process. We consider that we have sufficient cash available to pay liabilities as they fall due over the period to the end of 2024, which is what we considered. The other item that I'd like to call out on the balance sheet is the booster investments themselves that I previously mentioned. We have reviewed the investments for indicators of impairment, as usual, and I'm pleased to say that the impairment charge this year did reduce to £93,000 from £174,000 last year, reflecting a positive position for the majority of our booster investees. This concludes the items that I'll call out on the financial statements, and I'll hand over to Vicky. Thank you. My name's Vicky Zulist. I'm the audit partner at Crow UK LLP that signed the audited accounts that you've had presentations on today. We did issue a qualified audit opinion on those accounts dating back to December 2020 when there were issues around calculating an impairment figure effectively on those investments. So, although the balance sheet at 2022 and 2021 were happy with, it is still possible that that year impacts your comparative profit and lost account numbers. Hopefully, for next year, I will stand up and say we've got an unqualified audit opinion, which is the norm at NADM. But that's, I think, probably as much as I wanted to say about our audit report, and I'm happy to take any questions. OK, so thank you very much. Thank you to Ruth and Vicky. We can take questions on the N report on financial statements. We also have members from the Audit and Risk Committee here. So, if anyone's got any questions about their scrutiny of financial statements, please do so. So, have we any questions? Yes, please. If you could just let us know your organisation, thank you. Thank you. George Conkey, Mid-County Society. I'll just ask a little bit about the boost investments, what they comprise of, and general outcomes, please, and how long they have been booster investments. OK, so I think we'll just wait for a microphone. Thank you. Thank you. So, we have quite a number of booster investments, and forgive me, I can't remember the note number in the accounts, but there is detail in the annual reporting accounts of all of the societies that we invest in. There's a number of a wide range of different societies that we do invest with. The investments themselves are matching shares for community share investments. So, when we have community share issues, groups can apply to have match equity investment. So, those sit on our balance sheet as part of Copt of UK who issues those investments, and then we have to keep those on the balance sheet and review them for performance every year, including whether we should impair them or not. I'm not sure I know the answer to that one. Anyone on the stage? About six years. Is it five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? Yeah, about... Back to 2017, we've had them on the balance sheet, and we continue to make more investments as we go along. Thank you for that question, obviously. I've only just been 43 months ago, so obviously you're starting to understand the history of this as well. But I think thank you very much. I think it's very comprehensive taking that into account. We've got a question at the back of the room, please. Hi, I'm Kath Muller from Radical Roots. I just wanted to say, as an outgoing board member, I've been watching the sort of weird saga of the impairment thing over the booster programme, and I have continuously felt that we're not making a huge fuss about how proud we are to have taken this risk, which isn't even really a risk, because it's not our money, that this impairment is just a weird accounting thing that's showing that we're putting a load of faith and encouragement and resource into what are inherently risky businesses. And if we don't, then what's even the point? We're not taking any risks on changing anything, so I think we should be really proud to have this impairment. Okay, thank you very much for that. Yeah, thank you for that clarity as well. I don't know if there's any more questions, any online? None online, so thank you so much for the presenters of that. Okay, so we're... Okay, so I'll move on to the members receive the... I've lost my place there, so I apologize. I was getting carried away with the answers then. So I'll move on to the members receive the annual report of financial statements together with the report of auditors for the year ended 31st of December 2022. Can I get a seconder, please? Thank you very much. Okay, so now we move to the vote. So for those online, the poll will appear on your screens now. Again, you have 45 seconds to cast your votes. For those in the room, we'll take out a vote of cards. So those in favour of four, show your cards. Thank you very much. Any members against? And any abstentions? Thank you. So we'll just wait now for the results to come in online. If I could sing, I would sing to you. But you probably don't want to hear me sing. We'll just wait for a few seconds. You can dance though. Yes. We're dancing these legendary in my own mind. There we go. And that resolution is covered. Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. Okay, so we're going to move on now to the next resolution relating to the reappointment for audit firm. So I'm going to ask Eddie Thorne, chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, to come to the stage. Thank you, Eddie. Good afternoon. As chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, I am pleased to present the resolution proposed by the Board today in relation to the reappointment of CRO UK LLP as Auditors of Cooperative UK. Members will recall that during 2021 we undertook a competitive tender exercise to appoint a new firm of auditors, and following a robust process, CRO UK LLP were identified as the successful firm. We have now been working with CRO UK LLP since early 2022, and during this time we have found the team to bring an appropriate level of scrutiny and rigor to the audit while remaining approachable and pragmatic. Following on from the 2021 audit, which is expected involved additional effort from both the co-ops UK and CRO teams, as expected in the first year of any audit relationship, the 2022 audit was efficient and run smoothly for both parties. CRO have reported back to the Board with their audit findings, which demonstrated an appropriate degree of challenge to our financial results, including management decisions. Additionally, we have built a good professional relationship with the experts in CRO's non-audit teams, ensuring that we leverage on their expertise in order to implement best practice and add value. For example, our head of finance has been working with CRO's VAT team to review the VAT treatment of certain transactions. I am happy to take any questions. Okay, so I'm just looking around. Are there any questions for Eddie? Okay, nobody. Members are asked to reappoint CRO UK LLP as auditors to hold office from the conclusion of the meeting until the conclusion of the next annual general meeting. Okay, thank you, Eddie. So we'll be asking you to vote on the resolution to reappoint CRO LLP as auditors, which is on the screen. Can I get a seconder for this resolution? I can see a hand at the back. Thank you. Can you confirm what co-op you're from? Thank you. So, again, we'll begin voting. The poll will be on your screens now for 45 seconds. And in the room, can we have a show of cards, please, in favour? Thank you. Any against? And any abstentions? Nope, thank you very much. So, again, we'll just wait for 45 seconds. And you might not be able to see this online, but in the room there's some wonderful lighting in the room. Some big chandeliers. What do you think of those chandeliers? I like the mirror balm. It's very nice. It might come into use later on. So we're just waiting for that vote to come through. And that resolution is passed. Okay, that's wonderful. Thank you very much. So we have two more agenda items. One relating to board member fees. And the other is our remuneration report. The remuneration report is for an advisory vote of members. This is explained in the notice for the meeting. And I'll hand over to Cheryl Barrett, who is our vice-chair of the board, and a member of the remuneration appointments and succession committee to make the proposals. So, over to you, Cheryl. Good afternoon. I'm a member of the Remuneration Committee. I'm a member of the Remuneration Committee. Good afternoon. I'm speaking on behalf of our renumeration and appointments and succession committee, known as Remco. Our Remco chair, Tanya Noon, couldn't be here with us, but censored apologies and have very best wishes. I'm here to present two resolutions on the topic of remuneration. The first is the director fees increase, in line with our policy that members should approve. Any proposed increase to director fees. I'm proposing a 2% increase for the next governance year. I'll speak more on this shortly. We also present the remuneration report, which is set out in the annual report for an advisory vote for members. An advisory vote means that if members don't approve the remuneration report today, a detailed account of relevant policies and processes will be brought for approval at the next AGM. A full report of the work and activities of Remco can be found in the annual report, along with our other boards of committee reports. The report sets out to demonstrate that cooperative UK's approach to the remuneration and other contractual terms for colleagues and directors is equitable, transparent, and aligns with the cooperative values and principles. We continue to disclose the total remuneration of all senior colleagues in the annual report. All colleagues are paid in line with our pay and reward policy which is regularly reviewed by Remco. We operate a pay and grading structure that is in line with market practice and standards. Benchmark our pay and rewards against other employers and conduct annual pay reviews for colleagues through dialogue with our recognised trade union, SATA. Our director, remuneration policy, is to pay a flat rate and annual fee to directors which is agreed by members. The chair receives an additional flat fee, also approved by members. Members will recall that for the prior two years the decision was taken not to increase director fees to reflect the investment needed for the delivery of our co-operatives UK strategy. And in recognition of the challenging trade in environment of our members, we're continuing to face the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. When considering whether to propose an increase in director fees for the coming governance year, Remco had to consider and balance a number of factors. The cost of living crisis had hit, as well as the impact of COVID-19 still being felt by many whilst also bearing in mind the responsibilities and time commitment of our directors which we felt also needed to be acknowledged. Remco took the decision to consider various percentage increases rather than an increase in line with RPI due to the volatility around this figure at the time of consideration. A recommendation of 2% was given by Remco and subsequently agreed by the board and is now brought to our members for approval at this meeting. Remco continues to review how we pay our directors to reflect their responsibilities and time commitment and we'll report back to members at next year's AGM our work around this. Other key aspects of Remco's work during 2022 included recruitment of our new society secretary, considering ways to support QWU colleagues during the cost of living crisis. Remco also considered the outcomes of the 2021 board evaluation as well as continuing to keep the time commitment required of directors under review. And the director's skills register. Remco also fulfilled its remate under its terms of reference for recommending appointments to subcommittees and external organisations and approved the approach to annual salary increases. In line with the summary I've provided today I'd like to formally propose resolution 3 on the agenda which is in line with our policy for members to approve increases in board fees that the board fee being increased by 2% from 1,712 to 1,746 pounds and the chair of the board's fee to be increased by 2% from 5,217 to 5,321 pounds per annum with a effect from the 1st of July 2023 and I'm happy to take any questions. OK, so thanks Cheryl, thank you very much. So any questions in the room? OK, oh there's one at the back there. Good evening, good afternoon everybody. Nick Matthews, Art of England Corp of Society. 2%, have you seen inflation? How are you going to manage with that extra 32 pounds a year? It's going to be a real struggle. I think that's ridiculous. They're being rude, I think that's not enough. Thank you for that. But as I've explained, we feel it's what we can afford and where we'd like to invest the money that we have. Thanks Cheryl. We are aware of this as a percentage but partly because of the volatility of the RPI and inflation at the time when the fees were under review we opted to go with a percentage increase instead of other considerations. We looked at two, three, five and asked for the reasons that we outlined what Cheryl's outlined. It was proposed 2% by Remco and that was agreed by the Board. But as I said, it's under review. We'll remain under review as Cheryl's mentioned. So hopefully that satisfies that question. So do we have any further questions in the room? Yes we do. So we'll just get a microphone to you. Hi, Alex said we're a student housing cooperative. I wanted to ask if this increase wasn't approved because of its limited nature. What are the next steps from here? Will it just be no increase or would it then be immediately reviewed again? Yes, so I think I'm going to turn to Claire but my understanding would be there would be no increase. I'll defer to you. Yes, our policy is that the members will approve the pay so if it's not approved then there would be no increase. Okay. So there would be no increase. I'd really like you to approve this if this is okay. But as I said, for the reasons we've outlined and Cheryl's outlined quite comprehensively it's 2% and we feel that's right and we're looking for you to support that. Otherwise, as we've just found out, it will be a new increase. So again, I'm going to ask for any further questions and online. Okay, we've got one more question at the back. Thank you. I also think that 2% following two years of no increase in a row is a little bit, you know, you're doing a good job guys. So next year when this is proposed again will members be given a range of options of percentages that we can then vote for in order for you to then see what the members feel in terms of the director's commitments and contributions. That sounds like an excellent idea. I'm going to recommend that Cops UK look at that for next year. Okay, so thank you for that. Thank you for that. And it's nice to be valued not just in pounds, shillings and pens, but valued for the work that we do from our members. So thank you very much. Okay, thank you Cheryl. Thank you for that. We're going to move to the vote now. So thank you. So we're asking you to vote on the resolution relating... So I think... Oh sorry, do we have any... Thank you. So we're asking you to vote on the resolution relating to the board member fees. Can I get a seconder for this resolution please? So I just need a hand please. Thanks for your radical roots. Thank you. Great. So thank you. The resolution is on the screen so we'll begin voting now in the same format online. You'll have 45 seconds to place your vote. For those in the room, we're going to start voting now. So those in favour, please show your cards. Thank you very much. Anyone against the resolution please show? Thank you. Thank you. So we've got one against. Thank you. And any abstentions? Okay, thank you. So again, we'll just wait for the result to come in. And that resolution is passed. Brilliant. Thank you very much. And thank you. And I'm sure we're going to work out how we're going to spend all that extra money. But thank you. So I'm going to go back to Cheryl again now and this is our fourth and final resolution of the day. So thanks Cheryl. Thanks Dan. Moving on to resolution four on today's agenda, I'd like to formally propose the resolution. Members are asked to approve the remuneration committee report for the year end 31 December 2022. Thank you. So Cheryl has proposed the advisory vote on the remuneration report. Does anyone have any questions? No, I don't believe we have. So, okay, can I have a second of them please? We've got Nick Matthews. Thanks Nick, out of England. Okay, so again, we're going to move to the voting. Thank you. The resolution is on the screen. We'll begin voting. The poll is open for 45 seconds. For those of us in the room, can I have a show of cards? Those in favour please? Thank you. Any against? And any abstentions? Thank you. So again, we'll just wait. The glitter ball is quite something. Is it tempting you, Don? I think it's a bit of music. Never know. And that resolution is passed. Brilliant. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks Cheryl. Thank you. So thank you Claire. We've had some elections this year and you're going to be given an update for us Claire on the results. Yes, thank you Don. So we had four seats up for election this year. For the seat allocated to the mixed-owned category, one nomination was received for Cheryl Barrett from the co-op party. This seat was uncontested and so Cheryl is elected. For the seat allocated to the national retail consumer co-ops, one nomination was received for Nick Matthews from Heart of England. This seat was uncontested and so Nick is elected. Welcome back Nick. Too late now. For the two seats allocated to the worker-owned co-ops category, two nominations were received from Stephen Gill and Alice Hemming. So Stephen and Alice are elected. And we had a contested election for the seat allocated to enterprise-owned co-ops with two nominations for one seat. I can confirm that Brendan Moore, nominated by East Anglian Brewers co-operative, has been elected to the board. And Dominic Kendall Ward will take the seat appointed by the co-op group. Further to Danny Creek leaving our board and Tanya Noon will take the seat appointed by Central Co-op for a further year. And we also have some directors leaving us this year. So Don, I know you'd like to say a few words. Yeah, thanks Claire. So we have directors leaving the board this year. Ross Hodgson and Kath Muller are stepping down from the board this year. Ross has been on the board for six years, while Kath has served for four years. And we really are going to miss Ross and Kath. So thank you for everything you've done and your time on the board. Eileen Driver has also served on the board for some years. He's also leaves us this time and we are very sorry to lose you, Eileen as well. We're also going to say goodbye to Jeevan Jones, who's only served on the board for a year. We're sorry to lose Jeevan so soon. And we hope to see him again in the future and I'm sure we will. So thank you. And I'd also like to thank directors who left during the year and that was Martin Johnston and Danny Creek. So thank you for their input as well. So thank you very much. Over to you, Claire. Thanks, Don. Because we also have another board member leaving us this time. And that's yourself, Don. So I think we have Cheryl who would like to say a few words if we can get a mic to Cheryl. Don's been with us for nine years and I'm sure he thinks it's nine very long years with very long emails, very long discussions and he's been fantastic. And he was really key in the changes that you've hopefully noticed in the way that Co-op to UK as a board operate, how the members going forward. Don was our chair when we got the wonderful roles. Claire, Ruth, et al. It's been great to work with Don and I'm sure everybody on the board is really going to miss him. And we'd all like to say a really big thank you and see you soon. Ramazael. Thank you very much. That's very kind. There's a bit of a fee if you can open it. Are you sure? Thank you for watching. This one. This goes with the mirror ball. We expect you to be wearing this later because for those of you who don't know, Don actually can dance. Any particular style is? Oh, I think. Nothing soul. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I've got a lot of work to do before I'm going to be wearing that with any sort of justice to the wonderful Northern Soul music. Thank you very much. It's been an absolute blast and I do hope everyone well in terms of the society. The staff are amazing and the board of directors are amazing. Thank you to all the members for all your support every time. Thank you. That's it from us. Thank you for all the members for attending this year and for those of us in the room. We're back to begin the evening congress celebrations starting with the international dinner. I hope you'll see you all again very soon. Thank you.