The most reliable way to increase AGM turnout is to let members vote before the meeting, online, and to remind them until they do. Clear papers, a short meeting, a way to join remotely and a small incentive, such as a charity donation per vote, all help on top of that.

Most members will never attend in person. Turnout is mostly about how many vote, so make voting easy and make the meeting worth joining.

What turnout looks like

Large mutuals publish their figures, which gives a realistic benchmark. At their 2026 AGMs:

Organisation Members who voted Source
Coventry Building Society 61,122, which it says is 4.93% of its eligible membership AGM results
Yorkshire Building Society 6.54% of eligible members 2026 AGM
Nottingham Building Society 7,888, based on its £1 donation for every member who voted, which totalled £7,888 Annual General Meeting

Change over time can matter more than the headline rate. The Co-op Group reported that “52% more members voted at the 2026 AGM than in 2025, with 12 local events and a 65% rise in attendees” (Co-op interim results 2026).

Let members vote before the meeting

Advance voting lets members take part without attending. Leeds Building Society’s 2026 AGM let members vote “online, in branch, by post or at the event” (Leeds AGM 2026 results). Online voting closed two days before the meeting (How to vote).

Check what your rules allow. For a co-op, the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, section 14 leaves “the method of holding meetings, the scale and right of voting” to the society’s rules. If your rules only allow voting in the room, you may need a proxy option or a rule change. See our guide to proxy voting.

Make the online vote quick:

  • send each member a direct link, not a login page they have to find;
  • let them sign in with a code sent by email or text, rather than a password they will have forgotten;
  • keep it to one screen per resolution, with a short summary and a link to the full paper;
  • confirm their vote has been recorded.

Send reminders, and stop when they’ve voted

One notice is rarely enough. Plan a short sequence: an opening email, a reminder about halfway through, and a final reminder a day or two before voting closes. Send reminders only to members who have not yet voted, so people who have voted are not nagged.

Use the channels members already read. That might be text messages, your app, your newsletter, posters in branches or stores, and staff mentioning it face to face.

Write papers members will read

Most members will decide from the notice and the first page of each paper. Put a plain-English summary at the top of each resolution: what it does, why the board recommends it, and what happens if it fails. Keep the full legal wording, but further down.

For elections, give every candidate the same short statement format. If you run multi-seat elections, our guide to online STV elections covers candidate statements and ballots.

Keep the meeting short and useful

Members who join want to hear what has happened and ask questions. Keep formal business brief, put the chief executive and chair updates early, and leave real time for questions.

Collect questions in advance, so members who cannot join live can still take part. Answer the common ones in the meeting and publish the rest afterwards.

Offer hybrid or online attendance

A live stream lets members watch from home and from other parts of the country. Nottingham Building Society held its 2026 AGM “at our Head Office in Nottingham and online” (Nottingham). Yorkshire Building Society published its full AGM on YouTube (YBS).

Whether remote attendees count towards quorum or can vote live depends on your rules. Our guide to hybrid AGMs for co-operatives covers this in more detail.

Make it accessible

Small barriers stop people voting. Check that:

  • papers are available as accessible web pages as well as PDFs;
  • the voting page works on a phone and with a screen reader;
  • the live stream has captions;
  • members without internet access can still vote by post, phone or in person, if your rules allow;
  • the venue, if you have one, is step-free and has a hearing loop.

Charity-per-vote schemes

Many building societies donate to charity for each vote cast. Some pay more for online votes, which also reduces print and postage. Published examples:

Society Scheme Result Source
Yorkshire Building Society, 2025 35p per online vote and 20p per postal vote, to FareShare “nearly £25,000” YBS
Progressive Building Society, 2025 £2.50 per online vote and 20p per paper vote, up to £10,000, to Autism NI £5,000 Progressive
Leeds Building Society, 2026 30p per vote, to Barnardo’s or the Leeds Building Society Foundation, as the member chose £20,557.50 Leeds
Nottingham Building Society, 2026 £1 for every member who voted, to Shelter, Emmanuel House and ThinkForward £7,888 Nottingham

If you run a scheme, say clearly in the notice how much you will give, to whom, and whether there is a cap. Then publish the result.

Prize draws

Some credit unions run prize draws at their AGM. Derry Credit Union’s November 2025 AGM gave spot prizes to five members attending. A cash prize draw after the business of the meeting then saw “26 lucky members shared £3500 in prizes” (Derry Credit Union). In Ireland, Member First Credit Union held raffles for members attending its 2025 AGM remotely, including an early login draw (MFCU).

Prize draws tend to reward attendance rather than voting. Check with your board, and take advice if you are unsure, before linking prizes to how or whether members vote.

Plan for quorum

A quorum is the minimum number of members who must be present for the meeting to do business. The number, and what counts as being present, is set by your rules. Look it up early, and if you use hybrid check-in, track attendance against it before the meeting starts.

What happens if you are inquorate also depends on your rules. As an example, Hoot Credit Union’s rules (rule 94) set a quorum of “10 per cent of the membership, or 15 Members, whichever is the lesser number”. If no quorum is present within half an hour, a meeting called by members is dissolved. Any other meeting is adjourned to a date within 30 days, and the members present at that adjourned meeting form a quorum. Kernow Credit Union’s rules (rule 47) are similar but set 28 days.

An adjourned meeting costs time and money. Checking likely attendance before the day is much cheaper. Our AGM shows a live quorum count from RSVP and hybrid check-in, so you can see where you stand.

Checklist

  • Check your rules on advance voting, proxies, remote attendance and quorum.
  • Offer online voting before the meeting, plus post or in-person options for members who need them.
  • Send each member a direct voting link and a simple sign-in code.
  • Plan two or three reminders, and send them only to members who have not voted.
  • Put a plain-English summary at the top of every resolution.
  • Collect questions in advance and leave time for them in the meeting.
  • Stream the meeting with captions and publish a recording.
  • Check the voting page works on a phone and with a screen reader.
  • If you run a charity-per-vote scheme, state the amount, charity and cap in the notice, and publish the result.
  • Track RSVPs and check-ins against your quorum before the day.
  • Publish turnout and compare it with last year.

Sources

Running your next AGM or election online? Our AGM puts papers, live stream, questions, voting and results in one place, run by your own team.

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