Dear Members of the BRCC,
I am sure that few, if any, of us could have predicted a year ago how 2020 would look. It has certainly been a most challenging year for everyone, including the Chamber.
Despite this, I have been very pleased to receive comments from members that they see the Chamber as being much more active this year than we were last year. Certainly, the move to online events as made a major difference to the range of members who regularly participate in Chamber events.
Although we were able to organise a few face-to-face events with appropriate safety measures and social distancing during the summer, the Chamber’s activities this year have been almost entirely online and accessible to anyone who has access to the internet. This shift in the Chamber’s business model has allowed us to better serve members – and potential members – who are located in places other than where the Chamber has traditionally organised activities: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and London.
The move online has also enabled us to offer members a chance to listen to and ask questions of high-level speakers such as the Romanian Minister of Public Finance, to name only one.
We have also developed a much closer working relationship with the British Chambers of Commerce and with the other British chambers in the BCC’s global network around the world. Next year should be an interesting one for the BRCC and our members.
One meeting which has traditionally been held “in person” has been the Annual General Meeting, at which members can ask questions about the statutory annual accounts of the Chamber and vote to fill vacancies amongst the places on the Board for elected directors.
The UK Government has issued temporary legislation dealing with the difficulties which companies such as the BRCC have encountered this year in preparing statutory annual accounts and in holding general meetings. The time for the BRCC to complete and file our statutory accounts and reports for the year ended on 31 March 2020 has been extended to 31 March 2021.
The provisions of the temporary legislation dealing with company meetings has however been initially applied to 30 September 2020, since extended until 30 December 2020. A further extension can be issued but at the time of writing it appeared that these temporary provisions for general meetings have not yet been extended beyond 30 December 2020, despite the continuing pandemic.
To cope with this situation the AGM of the BRCC is being summoned for a first convention on 30 December 2020, with the intention that on that day it will simply be adjourned until a date to be fixed before 31 March 2021 (which is the deadline for filing the statutory reports and accounts, as mentioned above).
However, convening the AGM now will give us a degree of certainty as to how the later re-convened AGM can be conducted under the conditions of the pandemic at that time. Separate notice will be given of the re-convened AGM, at which it is expected that the normal business of our annual general meetings will be handled.
A proxy form is attached to the notice of the first convention of the AGM for 30 December 2020.
The procedure is a little more complicated that it usually is, but the same can be said of 2020 as a whole. If you have any questions, please contact the Chamber’s staff at info@brcconline.eu.
I wish you all a very healthy and happy holiday period, as well as all the best for a successful and safe 2021!
Best regards,
Neil McGregor
Chairman