ISPO UK MS AGM 2025 - Draft Minutes of 2024 AGM

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the ISPO UK Member Society
held on 13 December 2024 via Zoom

1

Welcome

Steve Seccombe (Chair), welcomed all to the meeting. Apologies were received from Liudi Jiang and Chantel Ostler.

2

Confirmation of the Minutes of 2022 AGM and matters arising

The minutes were accepted as an accurate record. There were no matters arising. It was noted that no AGM was held in 2023.

3

Chair’s Report

Steve Seccombe reported. The last formal AGM had been held in 2022 during the Annual Scientific Meeting in Watford. The 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting had been a one-day event in Manchester. It had been a good event, despite delegate numbers being lower than anticipated.  However, there was  limited time to organise an AGM within the programme. The virtual AGM post-ASM and before the end of 2023 had been the intent, but ultimately had proved difficult to arrange.

For much of the early part of 2024 the UK National Society had  invested significant time and energy in supporting the planning and organising of the upcoming 2025 World Congress and 2025 TIPS events. However, the Executive Committee considered it important to show willingness to be involved and support collaborative events with our neighbours ISPO Netherlands, Sweden and Norway as co-hosts to two major international events within the North Sea region.

Plans to hold a joint ISPO/BAPO Conference in October 2024 had fallen through, ultimately leaving little time for the organisation of a national event before the year end.  

As a non-profit making organisation, all ISPO income is used for educational purposes, to support our existing members and encourage wider membership. A proportion of each ISPO UK membership subscription goes to ISPO International to support the work of the global organisation and support lower income countries.

In closing, Steve reminded colleagues that there are many opportunities to become involved in supporting ISPO through leadership roles and within various committees at both national and international level, and encouraged members to consider how they might offer their time and skills to support and contribute to the aims and objectives of ISPO.

4

Honorary Treasurer’s Report

The finance statement for ISPO UK MS for the year to 30 June 2024 was tabled and ISPO UK Treasurer, Laura Brady noted the following points:-

ISPO UK’s two main sources of income are membership subscriptions and surplus income from the national conference and exhibition. Both these sources of income were impacted by the restrictions and changes to normal practices during the Covid pandemic period (2020-2022) and recovery from this downturn was proving more challenging than we might have hoped or anticipated.

The return to face to face conferencing at the 2022 event in Watford was well supported and both that event, together with a successful online TIPS event and the one-day ASM in one-day Manchester conference in October 2023 had generated surpluses for ISPO UK and halted the depletion of reserves.

The commitment to support the upcoming 2025 World Congress and 2025 TIPS events had necessitated a level of upfront costs during the financial year. However, steps by the organising committees of both event have been taken to mitigate against risks as far as possible and the Executive Committee feel comfortable with the level of advance payments that have been incurred.

It was disappointing that proposals for a collaborative conference with BAPO planned for October 2024 had fallen through, leaving little time to organise an alternate stand-alone event. Loss of surplus income from an annual conference may have an impact at the end of the next financial year.

5

Change to Constitution

Some minor changes to the constitution (last amended and adopted in October 2011) to remove any gender based references within the constitution, had been considered by the Executive Committee and laid before the membership for consideration.

 In addition to the above, a proposal by Alix Chadwell was tabled to the membership to reword Article 7.1, relating to Annual Membership Fees, as follows…

“An annual membership fee shall be paid in respect of all classes of membership. This includes a proportion paid to ISPO and a proportion retained by the UK Society. The National Committee has the authority to adjust the annual membership fee in line with increases made by ISPO to maintain the value of the proportion kept by the UK Society. Increases to the UK Society portion of the annual membership fee will be determined by the National Committee and approved at the Annual General Meeting. All monies received shall be credited to the General Fund of the UK Society, and shall be the property of the UK Society, and vested in the National Committee.”

The proposal, seconded by Morven McAlinden, was duly approved by the membership.

6

Committee Elections

Sioned Steventon reported:-

• Two committee member, Imad Sedki and Mike McGrath, having served their tenure on the Executive Committee, had intimated their desire to step down.
  
  
• Four further committee members – Liudi Jiang, Peter Kyberd, Morven McAlinden and Chantel Ostler – have all served their tenue as Executive Committee Members and had intimated their willingness to continue for a further term.
  
  
• The nomination of Brian Clements (Technician) to join the Committee had been proposed by Imad Sedki.

On behalf of the membership, thanks were expressed to Imad and Mike for their contribution as Executive Committee Members. Thanks also expressed to Liudi, Peter, Morven and Chantel for their willingness to continue as Committee Members for a further term of three years. It was further agreed to invite Brian to consider joining the Executive Committee and, should he accept, to formally welcome him on board at the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

There remain two further vacancies on the Executive Committee for the coming year. Anyone with an interest in joining the Committee, or any further nominations to be directed to the Executive Committee.

7

Any Other Business and Date of next AGM

There was some general discussion by the membership on how ISPO UK might consider additional collaborative opportunities/reciprocal arrangements with other organisations including BACPAR and BSPRM. Members were open to considering further opportunities and encouraged the Executive Committee to explore any options which may come to light.

Steve closed the meeting by expressing his gratitude to the Executive Committee and Irene Cameron, for their support and encouragement during a difficult and busy year.

It was agreed that the 2025 AGM would be held at the 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting on a date, on or around first week of October.