Chair’s AGM Report 2023

Good evening and welcome to this year’s Annual General Meeting. I’m Steven Cartwright, and as Tameka mentioned, we had hoped we would be meeting face to face for this AGM but as we finally saw the pandemic restrictions ending and life returning to some form of new normal, we were again met with another challenge in the cost of living crisis, which we know has hit members hard. We are hearing from members all the time who are struggling with rising costs particularly with their energy bills. Like many businesses, large and small, we are not immune to these rising costs either. We have seen our energy bills rise significantly in recent months and have therefore taken the decision, like many other Credit Unions to keep control of costs by holding our AGM online again this year.

As you have just heard, Tameka is now in the process of taking over the reins from Rob Shearing as Chief Executive Officer. As a Board we are in full support of the succession plan that is in place, and we have confidence in the direction of travel. The last five years has seen major transformation in the way we operate, and we are grateful to Rob for his part in leading that transformation and for the continued support of members, directors and colleagues.

This is my first AGM as Chair and I want to pay a special thank you to Kevin Fearon who stood down as Chair in September. Kevin had been involved with the Credit Union for many years, most recently as Chair. He was instrumental in recruiting me to the Board when I applied to join. I know that I have huge shoes to fill but I am encouraged by the ongoing commitment and support of my Board Colleagues, the leadership team and all our front-line colleagues who go above and beyond every day to support and help members.

I hope you will all join me in saying thank you to each and every one of them.

As highlighted at last year’s AGM, we continue to make progress despite the huge economic challenges, and I’m pleased to report another small surplus this year. At a time when many Credit Unions have failed, we have seen our lending and membership grow and although we still have ongoing challenges, with historic delinquency, our new lending is much more resilient.

You will hear more about this from our External Auditor David Adams of Lindley Adams shortly.

I am pleased to say that we have continued to develop our hub network. We know that these are valued by our members, and this is a key part of our Credit Union growth strategy. It enables members, both old and new, to meet with a Credit Union officer face to face, within their own communities without the added expense of coming into the City.

We also recognise that our Worcester Street office is not always a great experience for members and colleagues and we are currently exploring other locations in the City so that we can create a more suitable environment for the office of the Credit Union.

We continue to develop our online presence, and I say thank you to all the members that recently took part in our member survey - we will certainly be listening to your comments and feedback and will be sharing with you some of the updates in the forthcoming months.

You rightly expect to hold us to the highest standards, and we continue to follow best practice with regard to governance holding ourselves to the highest standards and having this independently examined through the work that we have done with RSM UK.

As you know the Directors provide oversight and strategic direction to ensure that the Credit Union operates in an efficient and effective manner and in full compliance with the PRA and FCA and also with Company Law.

You will be aware of the recruitment campaign that we ran last year, and we successfully appointed one new Board Member, Nicola Mumford. Nicola’s profile is on the website along with all of our Board Members.

Although our Board is strengthened by this new appointment there is more that we want to do to be more inclusive and diverse. So we will be undertaking a further recruitment campaign in the coming months and members will again be invited to apply.

We were successful at this year’s Black Country Chamber Business in the Community Awards, winning the Award for Excellence in Diversity & Equality, predominantly due to the progress that we have made in becoming the first Credit Union in the country to be awarded the RACE Equality Code Mark. We know that there is still more to do and we will be working hard during this year to build on this success.

To conclude, I once again want to offer my thanks to all our members old and new and to once again thank all my colleagues after what has been another good year for our Credit Union despite the ongoing challenges we are all facing.

Thank you.