Because of the lockdowns in place in most of the countries where our members live, this year the Guild’s AGM, which would normally take place at our Annual Conference, was held online. Nearly 100 members logged in to hear reports from Guild Chairman Mike Peters, other Management Board Members and the Guild Accountant, represented by Chris Preston.

The summary of Mike’s report follows:

“As your chairman, I am expected to maintain an overview of every aspect of IGBG activity throughout the year.

In my ten years in post, I have never known a year like this one. We have been faced with the perfect storm generated by Brexit and the pandemic. Both have affected our membership and the travel industry worldwide to varying degrees. Given that the full impact of the economic turmoil created by both of these events was unknown at the beginning of our year, I honestly feel that we have done extremely well and have weathered the worst of the storm.

Our resilience can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, the pioneering work of every member of the IGBG who formed the Guild, and those who have worked so hard over the years since to build and consolidate on those early foundations. Every single member who has freely given time to be a council member, validator, event host, honorary member, secretary, or adviser, have all helped to develop the IGBG into what it is today. We are all indebted to those of you who have contributed and to those who drove the IGBG forward.

The core strength created over previous years has helped the current Management Board immensely. Building on these foundations we have made significant progress in almost every area. As you can see from my summary, and from the Directors’ reports in each respective Annex, we have absolutely made the most of a testing and difficult situation. The work of the past twelve months has done much to future-proof our organisation, we can now look beyond the pandemic with optimism.”

Chris Finn, our Accreditation Director, was re-elected for another term on the Management Board Member, and Tim Stoneman and Marc Yates were confirmed as board members having been co-opted during the year.

Finally, Mike gave a presentation on the Guild’s Medium and Long-term strategy and Annual Plan for the forthcoming year.

(Minutes of the AGM and full copies of the reports and accounts may be found in the Membership Area)