The AGM had its largest turnout of more than 800 members in Kingston; and was streamed live via the Internet to more than 700 members at six locations across the island, and two overseas offices.

Earl Jarrett, general manager of the society, in his formal address to the meeting, welcomed members at JNBS branches in Savanna-la-Mar, Spanish Town and Ocho Rios, along with those gathered at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville and Morant Villas in Morant Bay; and at the organisation's overseas represen-tative offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Toronto, Canada.

Welcomed by clients

Dudley Lewis, a resident of Grove Garden, Westmoreland, was one of 110 members who observed the meeting at the JNBS Savanna-la-Mar branch.

"I really enjoyed the streaming and am pleased to see the progress of the society and hear about the many achievements," Lewis said.

Further use of technology was seen in the online pre-registration and registration of members attending the meeting at The Pegasus; and the use of multimedia PowerPoint presentations through-out the programme.

Twitter, the online social network, was used to forward questions from members in remote locations to the main meeting.

Member Ombudsman at JNBS, Michele Pollard Gonzalez, advised that "the video stream was also available through the JNBS website, www.jnbs.com". She said that a video version of the AGM would also be mounted on the JNBS website at a later date.