Yesterday BIOS and BOSTU held their first ever fully virtual AGMs and they were a great success. 66 members were able to join us to hear about our achievements in the past year, which we believe is a record for a standalone AGM. While presenting from my dining room felt very strange, it was great to be able to speak to so many members at once, made possible by the resolution passed last year to allow for a virtual meeting.

It was also nice in the challenging times we are in at the moment to be able to reflect on how far we have come as an organisation. After a difficult 2018, I was delighted to be able to report a much-improved financial situation following a full business and budgeting review, and an increase in our membership to 1,347 members.

Our full Trustees Report highlights the full range of work that we were involved in throughout 2019, but the AGM is always a good opportunity to celebrate some of the highlights:

• training of orthoptists in the use of medical exemptions at all three UK HEIs
• a renewed commitment to orthoptic research, committing to £20,000 over two years for new projects
• BIOJ reached over 4,000 readers and 26,000 page views
• an increased presence on social media, with Twitter impressions four times higher than 2018 and reach on Facebook up 30%
• the launch of a newly expanded website: over 200,000 page views, including 13,000 views for our public information hub; 5,000 visits to our online member forums; and 6,000 visits to our online CPD log
• high quality clinical meetings and study days, including the extremely well-attended LOOP annual conference
• another hugely successful World Orthoptic Day, with over 26,000 impressions on Facebook alone for our video on Amblyopia
• a large rise in admissions for Orthoptics courses and our inclusion in the new maintenance grants for students of up to £5,000

The BOSTU AGM marked the first full year since the union was brought back in house under Sam Aitkenhead. Sam reported on the valuable work she has been doing alongside our team of Reps: the number of formal escalations has been reduced, with resources used more effectively for early mediation and support.

Nationally, the second year of the new pay deal was implemented in April 2019 and an agreement was reached in Northern Ireland, preventing the need for industrial action. We continued to plan for the future, with training provided for over 70 BOSTU Reps in 2019; this will continue in 2020, with a focus on EDI and mental health.

You can access the full 2019 annual reports and accounts for both BIOS and BOSTU here.

One of the highlights of any AGM is being able to recognise the incredible work that has been done by our members. Unfortunately, we are unable to hand over awards to these members in person but I would like to again take the opportunity here to thank the members below for their fantastic work, and we will hopefully be able to get a photo of them with their award in the coming weeks.

• Kathryn Smart – Services to BIOS – Trustee for North of England 2016-2019
• Aimee Brown – Services to BIOS – Trustee for Wales 2017 – 2020
• Martha Waters – Services to BIOS – New Graduate Representative on Council 2017-2019
• Julia Devine – Services to BIOS – Education and Professional Development Committee
• Lorraine North – Services to BIOS as Clinical Advisory Group lead for Retinal Disease
• Lorna McKay – Services to BIOS as Clinical Advisory Group lead for Glaucoma
• Alison Bruce – Services to BIOS as Clinical Advisory Group lead for Vision Screening
• Kathryn Whitfield – Services to BIOS as Clinical Advisory Group lead for VPD
• Nicola Bennett – Services to BIOS as Clinical Advisory Group lead for Stroke

The challenge for both BIOS and for BOSTU in 2020 will be developing on this progress within the context of COVID-19.  The success of our virtual AGM, and indeed the work being done to shift our CPD online, highlights one major change in the way we are working. However, none of us could have foreseen the changes to our work and our lives in general over the past few months and there is still a great deal of work to do to ensure we are able to deliver the support and guidance our members need in a very different context. I hope to be able to meet in person next summer to report on the work we are doing in 2020!

Veronica Greenwood

BIOS Chair

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If you are interested in finding out more:

BIOS Annual Report and Financial Statements

BOSTU Statement Accounts and Annual Report

All AGM Documentation is available here.