Yesterday we held our AGM at Trinity Park, Ipswich where we welcomed just under 300 members and guests – it was great to see so many members turning out to support us this year.
We hailed a positive year for the Society – one in which we invested heavily into our branch network with new and improved premises in Ipswich and Woodbridge, defying a wave of bank and building society branch closures by other providers in our local area.
As well as demonstrating support for its local community and service users, last year, we signed up to the Women in Finance Charter, committing to improving gender parity within workplaces across the Finance industry.
We also saw a year in which we refreshed our proposition for mortgage intermediaries and further diversified our business mix by developing improved later life, shared ownership and self build offerings.
Alan Harris, Chairman of Ipswich Building Society, stated: “It has been an overwhelmingly positive year for the Society; we have seen an excellent arrears performance, improved capital strength, and developments across our mortgage product offering, as well as several valuable, new appointments to our Board of Directors.”
After business was concluded and the votes counted and verified, we welcomed our guest speaker Tracey MacLeod to the stage. Tracey, who is a broadcaster and writer, entertained us by sharing her fond childhood memories of growing up in Ipswich and her continued love of Suffolk, as well as a few anecdotes from her long career and a behind the scenes look at Masterchef – Tracey told us the answers to the three questions she always gets asked: who brings out the third plate; is the food cold by the time she tastes it; and does she know who has won!
Tracey was a long-running presenter of BBC2’s music and arts programme, The Late Show, and has also hosted shows on several national radio stations. As well as her music specialism, Tracey was an award-winning restaurant critic for the Independent up until its migration online in 2016, and now regularly appears on the hit TV series, Masterchef, as a guest critic.
We want to thank all of our members who came along and supported us – and we hope to see you again next year!
