Annual General Meetings

Our 2021 AGM took place Saturday 25^th September.

The AGM programme began with a presentation from BWCE’s Managing Director, Pete Capener, who summarised BWCE’s recent performance, discussing the operating environment and the impact of rising RPI and wholesale electricity prices. Members were updated on BWCE’s innovation projects including Flex Community, Solar Streets and EV Chargepoint pilots. An update on the BWCE Supporters network was included, with Members encouraged to register here. A presentation on the Community Fund, was delivered by Chair Sophie Hooper Lea, and which discussed income received and distributed during the last year and highlighted some of the local projects that it had supported.

The second half of the AGM focused on the resolutions, which covered board proposals on interest rates, community fund payments, the approval of our accounts and the re-appointment of our auditors, all of which were supported by our members via an online vote.

New Non-Executive Director Elections

The election of three new Non-Executive Directors to the Bath and West Community Energy Board was also announced at the AGM, and we are very pleased to welcome three new Board members:

• Ms Louise Daniels
• Mr Matthew Harnack
• Ms Felicity Jones

We would like to thank all candidates for putting their names forward and we’re sorry we couldn’t select you all!

Jane Stevenson, Pete Harvey and Pam Penkman will all be stepping down from the BWCE Board following the AGM, and the huge contribution that all three have made to BWCE over the years, was noted during the meeting. We thank them for their significant input and influence in getting BWCE to where it is today.

You can download copies of the presentation slides using the links below.

• BWCE Performance Overview 20/21
• BWCE Business Plan to 2025
• BWCE Finances including issues raised during online voting
• Community Fund Update

Our annual report and audited accounts can be found here

AGM Resolutions

The AGM supported the following motions:

• Adopt the Annual Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2019 (98% approval);
• Approve 4.7% interest on shares issued before February 2019. (96% approval);
• Approve 4% interest on shares issued after February 2019 (93% approval);
• Approve £40,000 allocated to the Community Fund (89% approval);
• Reappoint Alanbrookes Ltd as BWCE’s auditors (95% approval)

BWCE’s 2020 AGM was held on 12th September via Zoom (due to the Covid-19 pandemic) with over 50 members, bondholders and interested observers.  With 2020 marking the 10-year anniversary of the launch of BWCE, we enter our second decade (a crucial one for humanity) with many new renewable energy projects and new approaches to expanding our community energy model under development.

Many thanks as always to everyone who has taken part in BWCE activities over the year, from those volunteering as part of our supporters network, those attending BWCE meetings and events or getting involved in BWCE projects, our volunteer board members and those who have invested in BWCE during the year. We look forward to doing it all again but bigger and better next year!

We would like to particularly thank board members who are standing down this year, Jon Bateman (board member for 6 years) and Jeff Kenna (co-founder). Both have put a lot into BWCE over the years, but Jeff as a co-founder of BWCE and our first MD deserves special mention. We would not be the organisation we are now without his expertise and knowledge. Thanks Jeff. We would also like to welcome Chris Crookall-Fallon back to the board after a time away doing great things and also congratulate Jolyon Orchard on his re-election to the board. Jane Stephenson announced she would be standing down as chair at the next AGM, so we have a year to fill her not inconsiderable boots.

The AGM saw presentations from Pete Capener (BWCE MD) on the highlights from the year, Sophie Hooper-Lea (Chair of the Community Fund) on the activities of the fund and welcoming new trustees to the fund board and Jane Laurie (chair of the Communications and Community Outreach (COCO) group of the supporters network) on how the supporters network has been actively engaged with BWCE’s work over the year.

AGM presentations can be found here

Our annual report and audited accounts can be found here

Briefing paper and FAQs on our change in interest rate policy can be found here & here

AGM Resolutions

The AGM supported the following motions, based on both votes cast at the AGM and via online polls before the meeting:

• Adopt the Annual Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2019 (97% approval);
• Approve policy to change target interest rate on shares issued before 2019 to 3.5% above the Retail Price Index (84% approval)
• Approve 5.7% interest on shares issued before February 2019. (94% approval);
• Approve 4% interest on shares issued after February 2019 (89% approval);
• Approve £40,000 allocated to the Community Fund (95% approval);
• Reappoint Alanbrookes Ltd as BWCE’s auditors (97% approval); and
• Change our rules to allow the Board to increase the number of elected directors from 5 to 6 (95% approval)

The board would like to acknowledge the level of engagement that members have offered during the year around the proposals to change our interest rate policy, with 2 online member meetings and many 1 to 1 conversations. We valued the debate and the challenge and we respect the views of those members that in the end did not feel able to support our proposals.

BWCE’s 2019 AGM was held on Saturday 14th September at Komedia, another community owned business in central Bath. We were delighted to welcome over 50 members, bondholders and interested observers. The formal AGM notice can be seen here.

We would like to thank not just those who attended, who voted on-line or who stood for election, but also all our members, supporters, friends and partners for their active involvement in what we have been doing over the year. We need your help and that of many more if we are to make the rapid reduction in carbon emissions required to address the climate emergency we now face.

In particular we wanted to acknowledge:

• Sophie Hooper Lea for her great work as chair of the BWCE community fund, alongside all the other fund trustees and the Quartet Foundation, who make the fund such an effective mechanism for supporting local community action. The fund is now open for grant applications. See here for more information.
• Jane Laurie as chair of the Communications and Community Outreach group and the other active members of the supporters network that have done such great work over the last year.
• BWCE’s board, Jon Bateman, Sonya Bedford, Mike Bess, Peter Harvey, Jeff Kenna, Jolyon Orchard, Pam Penkman for their commitment, support, insight and challenge over the year. Especially Mike Bess who is moving to Ireland and has not sought re-election for the board this year after many years of excellent contribution and support. He will be missed.
• Our members and investors, without whose confidence in what we are trying to achieve we would not be here.
• Our partners, Bright Renewables, Stemy Energy, Moixa, Triodos and many others, but in particular Jane Wildblood and her team at B&NES Council who have done such valuable work over many years and are now even more important with the Council’s own declaration of a climate emergency.

We are looking forward to working with you all and many others over the coming year as we seek new ways to address the challenge of the looming climate crisis, already having such devastating impacts around the world.

Presentations from the AGM can be downloaded here this includes highlights from for the year 2018/19 an update on future strategy, including proposals for the next 18 months and investment in new development..

Our audited accounts for the year can be seen here.

A report on the highlights from 2018/19, our finances and our proposals for member and community fund payments for the year can be seen here.

 AGM Motions

The AGM supported the following motions:

• Adopt the Annual Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2019;
• Approve 6.25% interest on shares held by members;
• Approve £35,000 allocated to the Community Fund;
• Reappoint of Alanbrookes Ltd as BWCE’s auditors; and
• Change in our rules to allow the Board to co-opt up to 3 Directors (the rules had previously limited this to 2).

BWCE Board elections

We would like to thank all those who stood for election to BWCE’s Board this year: Barney Rhys Jones, David Daniels and David Martin. Our elected Directors contribute a significant amount of time and expertise in overseeing BWCE’s work and strategy, and anyone who puts themselves forward for election has already made a commitment to do that.

Barney Rhys Jones was elected and we look forward to welcoming him to our next Board meeting in November.

Community Fund & the Supporters network

Sophie Hooper Lea, chair of the BWCE Community Fund, and Jane Laurie, chair of the communication and community outreach group of the Supporters Network provided an update on their work during the year.

It was great to hear from active members of the supporters network, Steve Cross, David Symington and Nicolette Boater about what they had been working on, and two grant recipients, Alice Boden from Monksdale Allotments and Peter Hayward from the Weston Hub, about what their grants had enabled them to do (planting a community orchard & energy efficient lighting and heating system controls).

BWCE’s 2018 AGM was held on Saturday 8^thSeptember at All Saints Centre in Weston, Bath. We were delighted to welcome nearly 50 members, bondholders and interested observers.

We would like to thank everyone who attended, those who voted on line who couldn’t attend and all those who stood for election. Your active participation in BWCE’s work and development of new projects is vital if we are to meet our vision of being an area able to supply decreasing local energy demand with increasing generation from renewable energy, driven by collective action and community ownership.

Presentations from the AGM can be downloaded here

Our audited accounts for the year can be seen here.

A report on our finances and our proposals for member and community fund payments for the year can be seen here.

A report on project performance and the impact of lower than average levels of sunshine can be seen here.

AGM Motions

The AGM supported the following motions:

• Adopt the Annual Accounts for the year ended 31^stMarch 2018;
• Approve 6% interest on shares held by members;
• Approve £30,000 allocated to the Community Fund; and
• Reappoint of Alanbrookes Ltd as BWCE’s auditors.

BWCE Board elections

We would like to thank all those who stood for election to BWCE’s Board this year: Nicolette Boater, Peter Harvey, Pam Penkman and Ash Sharma.

Pam Penkman was re-elected together with Peter Harvey.

Community Funds

We heard inspiring stories from 3 recipients of the community funds during the last year:

• Friends of Roundhill School, a group of parents and teacher who used their grant to provide training for the site manager on efficient use of the school boiler and the formation of the school’s environment team. The grant has inspired the group to do further environmental work in the school. They have saved an estimated £4,000 with their grant of £650.
• Centre for Sustainable Energy, have provided advice to BANES residents to alleviate fuel poverty.
• Bath Repair Café: have continued to develop a network of repair cafés in Bath. They also plan to work more closely with schools.

Looking ahead to 2018/19

Attendees also heard more about our plans for the next year and everyone enthusiastically participated in contributing ideas for how we can use existing networks and community contacts to build our community outreach work, specifically the take up of the local energy supply offer. Nick Bird, who joined BWCE’s staff team in August, will be leading this work.  Expect to hear more from him in the coming months about how you can get involved.

Jane Stephenson
Chair, BWCE