ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - Minutes of the virtual meeting held on 4 June 2020

The agenda enables the normal reporting obligations but, given the nature of an on-line meeting, it is not possible to conduct all business in the usual way, for example in the case of the election of new Council members and Officers the traditional ballot mechanism is modified. [...] The Society marked the 100th anniversary of the election of female Fellows and explored the barriers that continue to limit many people’s access to study and a career in the geosciences. [...] Amongst the meetings held at the Society were:- Bryan Lovell meeting: The role of geoscience in decarbonisation Janet Watson meeting on the deep carbon cycle (in conjunction with the Deep Carbon Observatory) Shackleton conference on marine geoscience and carbon with the Marine Studies Group The themed years continue with the Year of Life in 2020, Year of Space in 2021 and the Year of Sustain. [...] The first, from Stephen Fryer, related to the financial future of the Society and how Council planned to address the issues of the decreases in income from Fellowship dues and events, Graham Goffey said from the 2019 results it was clear that there is a need to return the Society to surplus and the budget for 2020 anticipated this. [...] The first was around the degree with which the Society has been engaging with senior levels of government and the response to that; the second was the strategy going forward regarding the physical home of the Society.