BMC Board of Directors: July 2018 meeting summary

Posted by Tony Ryan on 30/07/2018

A full meeting of the BMC Board of Directors took place on 19 July following an earlier teleconference on 11 July. The agenda was fairly full with a number of strategic items covered.

The meeting opened with a presentation from Alex Messenger, Head of Marketing & Communications on membership engagement and how various sections of the membership respond to different types of communication (and topics). The Board looked at how we might best use this to better engage with the membership and provide appropriate content and benefits for all groups of members.

The key issues covered in the meeting were as follows:

a. Appointment of a Chair: The role description and recruitment process for the Board Chair role were discussed and agreed. There was strong agreement that the role will be both challenging but also hopefully of great interest to those within the membership with the right skills. The Nominations Committee will finalise the timeline shortly, but it is hoped the vacancy will be advertised within the membership (and beyond) by mid-August, with a plan to run the interview process in mid-September. Members will be alerted to this via the usual BMC channels.

b. Chair & President responsibilities: The Board considered the important role-split between President and Chair and discussed where the boundaries were placed in terms of responsibilities in order to provide clarity; these will also be published once finalised.

c. ORG Phase II. Plans for implementing the Phase II recommendations of the Organisational Review were discussed in detail. An Implementation Group and a series of working groups are being set up and the aim is to implement the majority of the recommendations by the 2019 AGM. There was a brief discussion (to be followed up in more detail in October) on how the organisation will apply for funding and generate its own funds outside of membership subscriptions. This will clearly be affected by the implementation of the Phase II recommendations and any structural changes.

d. Legal advice: The Board considered how best to involve members in helping with provision of legal advice to the organisation and discussed holding an event (legal symposium) for those interested in getting involved. The potential need for a new legal & compliance committee was also considered alongside the likely need for the BMC to employ a part-time Company Secretary.

e. Appointment of Directors: It was noted that Amanda Parshall and John Roberts had been added to the Companies House register of Directors following the AGM on 16 June; the Board also ratified Dave Turnbull as Director further to the recent changes to the Articles of Association.

f. Potential structural changes. The Board considered some possibilities for the management of competition climbing including internal restructuring and the establishment of a subsidiary; it was agreed that further analysis was required and that this should be reviewed in detail by the Phase II Implementation Group before coming back to the Board.

g. In regular matters, the BMC’s finances and the risk register were reviewed. It was also agreed to undertake some external testing of the BMC’s cyber-security defences to ensure membership details are kept as safely as possible and a budget was approved for this. The process for appointing BMC-nominated Directors for the Mountain Training Trust and Mountain Training England boards was also discussed and agreed.

The Board meets next on 17 October 2018 in Manchester.

Simon McCalla
Interim Chair of the BMC Board of Directors

Your AGM: Thanks for your vote!

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Detailed info on the BMC AGM 2018

Find out more about the last AGM. It's a complicated topic, so start with this one:

READ: It's your BMC, and we need your vote

We were asking our members to vote on some significant changes to the BMC's constitution. Part of the discussion was the relationship between the BMC and Sport England.

READ: What are Sport England Tier 3 and Tier 1 relationships?

There were two constitutions to vote for: Proposal A (as recommended by National Council) and Proposal B, proposed by a group of members. To learn more about the two proposals, you can read a detailed comparison written by BMC honorary solictor Martin Wragg.

READ: A comparison of alternative constitutions

How did the recommendations get decided? Read more about the process that lead to this stage, including the reports from the Organisational Review and more.