Annual general meeting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An annual general meeting (commonly abbreviated as AGM, also known as the annual meeting) is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public (including companies with shareholders), are often required by law (or the constitution, charter etc. governing the body) to hold.

An AGM is generally held every year to inform their members of previous and future activities. In organizations run by volunteers or a paid committee, the AGM is generally the forum for the election of officers or directors for the organization.

It is an opportunity for the shareholders and partners to receive copies of the company's accounts as well as reviewing fiscal information for the past year and asking any questions regarding the decisions the business will take in the future.

In Great Britain it became optional with effect from 1 October 2007 for any private company to hold an AGM, unless its articles of association specifically require it to do so.^[1]

[edit] Usage of AGM

AGM is commonly used on the TV broadcasting networks in Australia and NZ. ABC Lateline Business podcast is one source where one can find it in common use. In NZ, the finsec programs on radio and TV use the term also.

In Canada it is used much less commonly, but may have been in simi-de facto use since the 1930s. Due to Canada's bilingual policies in place since the 1970s one may see the Quebec French abbreviation coupled with the English abbreviation.

PG Wodehouse -- in his Jeeves and Wooster stories written during the 1930s and dramatized in the 1990s by Hugh Laurie used AGM (it is understood that Hugh Laurie left Wodehouse's spoken text alone). The PG Wodehouse text example implies that AGM has been defacto since the 1920s.nnnn

[edit] See also

• Extraordinary General Meeting
• Company law

[edit] References