2020 Annual General Meeting

ON THE NIGHT / A trio of talks - Bertie van Wyk informs on workplace design; past Chapter President Amrita Raja AIA summaries the past year and oversees the business meeting; new Chapter President Chris Musangi AIA looks to the future.

Although an Annual General Meeting is a serious, formal event, the AIA UK Chapter enjoys surrounding the mandatory business content with a celebration of the past year and a lookahead to the next. Following a tradition starting in the 1990s, this year’s AGM was hosted by our long-term sponsor, Herman Miller. Herman Miller’s generous hospitality before and after the business meeting perfectly balanced commercial affairs with social enjoyment.

Prior to the business meeting, Herman Miller’s representative, Bertie van Wyk, gave a presentation on ‘Wellbeing and Social Ergonomics in Workplace Design’. He started his talk with startling statistics from recent research suggesting that only 8% of the UK workforce were ‘actively engaged’, 73% were ‘disengaged’ and the remaining 19% ‘best dealt with by a strong HR department’.

Concentrating on the critical 73%, he then illustrated how social interaction and work performance could be enhanced by considering factors such as personal space, physical and psychological proximity and territoriality in new office design. One quick-fix illustration – drag a flip chart into an office and watch the effect on idea generation...

As ever, the Herman Miller talk was both entertaining and instructive – and earned attendees 1.0 Continuing Education credits. If you missed the presentation, you could still check out Herman Miller’s research for office improvements HERE.

The formal part of the AGM dealt with approval of the 2019 Accounts and the election of the 2020 Board of Directors and Officers. Additionally, the 2019 President, Amrita Raja AIA, gave an overview presentation of the past year and the 2020 President, Chris Musangi AIA, gave a preview of plans for 2020. These Year End Presentations can be viewed in full HERE.

The Year End Presentation also includes a summary of the 2019 Accounts, statistics on Chapter membership and a list of Board Directors and Officers.

After business, many went home, but the party continued…