Annual General Meeting of Befriending Networks

The Board of Directors have been undertaking a review of our policy, procedures, and organisational governance. The current articles of association were written in 2011 and need multiple areas of revision. The Board of Directors have taken great care to ensure that the proposed articles of association will serve the organisation well for the future. Some of the changes will provide greater procedural clarity to Directors and Members, other changes modernise how we can operate using digital and online means, the changes also include a revision to our meeting quorums and duration of service as a director. A notable change is the update to our charitable objects and purposes.

In undertaking this review and with the clarity of our strategic work and direction, it was important to the Board of Directors that our charitable objects and purposes reflect our activities.

For this reason, we requested consent of OSCR to change our charitable purposes, this has been approved and our purposes, in accordance with the 2005 Act will be:
(f) the advancement of citizenship or community development.
(n) the relief of those in need by reason of age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage.

Our new object will be “to advance community development through the promotion of befriending, and the provision of support to befriending organisations and their befrienders.”

Our current object is “to relieve the suffering and distress. Promote the welfare of and advance the education of people by the provision of an organisation to develop befriending services.” Whilst our purpose in accordance with the 2005 Act states: “any other purpose that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to any of the preceding purposes”.

We believe that these changes give improved clarity as to who we are and who we serve.

A proxy vote is an instruction to another person to cast your vote on your behalf. In this instance we are using an online process which lets you express your voting preferences, which will then be lodged by our Chairperson during the AGM. If you leave your voting preferences blank, the Chairperson of Befriending Networks will vote in the best interests of the charity.

Providing your vote in advance will help Befriending Networks to ensure that we have the level of engagement and support of our members for this Special Resolution. It will make our AGM a smoother experience and provides all members with the option to vote, even if they cannot attend the AGM. If you are attending our AGM we encourage you to use this proxy vote option – as we know that plans can change last minute.

Your proxy vote must be received 48 hours before the AGM. You can vote anytime between 1 September 2025 and 12:30 on Monday 3 November 2025.

No. But you can attend the AGM and vote during the meeting.

You will be asked to provide:

• your organisation’s name.
• your organisation’s charity or company number (if applicable).
• your name.
• contact email address
• your voting preferences.

Each member organisation has one vote on the Special Resolution. Your organisation must determine who will vote on behalf of the organisation. If two or more votes are lodged by your organisation, we will contact you to discuss.