– Chartered Accountants Staffs, Salop and Wolverhampton ICAEW

ICAEW – Chartered Accountants Staffs, Salop and Wolverhampton
Extraordinary and Annual General Meetings – Tuesday, 19 May 2015
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Minutes of the EGM and 39 Annual General Meeting held on Tuesday, 19 May 2015 at
the Moat House Acton Trussell at 5.30pm.
Present: James Eyre-Walker (President) Arthur Bailey, Rob Hill, Craig Astbury, Chris
Beeston, Jenny Marks, Neil Phillips, Roger Stephenson, John Cox, Helen Arthur, Bob
Morris, Allison Ollier and Kevin Nichols.
In attendance: Linda Conway – Regional Executive
Guests
Katie Bailey (prize winner) and Avril Wood
Rhian Harding (prize winner) and Hayley Price
Laura Fox (prize winner) and Terry Hitchen, Andy Brabazon and Chris Reed
WELCOME
James welcomed all members, prize-winners and their guests to the meeting.
EGM
Further to the draft revised constitution being circulated to the Board and posted on the
website along with the EGM notice, a query regarding point 59 was raised – ‘On insolvent
dissolution of the Society, the members of the Board are liaible for the debts of the Society
that cannot be met out of its assets’. James pointed out that this had been included on the
old constitution and unless they incorporated themselves with limited liability then the
constitution would remain the same. Those present did not express any interest in going
down this route. James proposed the adoption of the revised constitution, subject to
ICAEW approval. Bob Morris proposed the adoption which was seconded by John Cox
and agreed unanimously by those members present. Linda to forward these to ICAEW for
official adoption.
AGM
1. NOTICE OF THE MEETING
Those present agreed to take the notice as read.
2. APOLOGIES
Apologies had been received from Tom Madden, Michael Groom, Amanda Digne-Malcolm,
Phil Wood, Shaun Philpott, Amy Gamble and Martin Jones.
3. MINUTES
Minutes of the 2014 AGM meeting were approved and signed.
4. REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The report and financial statements of the Board had been circulated to the Board
members and tabled at the meeting. Apart from a date error there were no issues arising
from the documents. Bob Morris proposed the approval of the financial statements which
was seconded by John Cox and approved unanimously by those members present.
5. APPOINTMENT OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINER
On behalf of the Board, James expressed thanks to Independent Examiners Tranter Lowe
(D&W) LLP. James proposed the re-election of the same company for the ensuing year.
Roger Stephenson seconded the proposal which was unanimously approved by those
members present.
6. APPOINTMENT OF OFFICE HOLDERS 2015/16
James announced the nominations for each position:
President – James Eyre-Walker
Deputy President – Shaun Philpott
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Vice-President – Phil Wood
Treasurer – Roger Stephenson
There being no other nominations these members were duly elected.
In the absence of Shaun and Phil, badges of office would be handed over at the next
Board meeting.
7. PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
“In accepting the position of President at last year’s AGM, my primary objectives were:
a)
b)
c)
d)
To support the ICAEW strategy locally;
To support Arthur Bailey in his National President’s year;
To respond to ICAEW’s consultations by consulting with members; and
To reinvigorate SSWSCA and its branches.
I also set out some objectives for the year (as set out in last year’s AGM minutes), but,
building on the Strategic Review undertaken by my predecessor, Rob Hill, last year, I
updated the Strategy and set out an Operational Plan for 2014/15 (which was approved by
the Committee in June) and updated throughout the year. That formal update of the
Strategy set out more detailed objectives:
 To improve engagement with business and younger members;
 To re-vitalise Branch and District Committees;
 To increase ICAEW training opportunities;
 To create District committees to support the work of national representatives;
 To identify a Deputy President to succeed me and a Vice President for 2015/16;
 To use events/courses to promote ICAEW services to members;
 To promote use of Linked-In;
 To address the financial deficit; and
 To increase the number of town groups.

This being my second term of office – the last being in 2000/2001 – I was able to “hit the
ground running”, but my personal circumstances and practice commitments haven’t always
allowed me to spend as much time on the Society’s affairs as I would have liked. The past
year has, therefore, been a mixture of success and failure. Amongst the successes, I
would highlight the following:

We hosted an outreach event for National President, Arthur Bailey, to which we
invited training principals in North Staffs and their students, increasing
engagement with younger members;

We ran two BASE events (an ICAEW national competition for school 6 formers) one in Stoke-on-Trent and one in Telford – attended by 18 teams of six, promoting
the ICAEW brand;

We again ran a successful programme of 15 courses at the Moat House Acton
Trussell, meeting some of the CPD the needs of members in practice and in
business;

We were represented nationally on the Technical Advisory Committee, Business
Committee and Practice Committee by me, Rob Hill and Ian Cattell;

We have re-written and updated the Society’s constitution for adoption by
members at an EGM prior to the AGM;
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JEW/SP

We have attended 6 ICAEW outreach visits to members, as a result of which we
have a number of new and younger members attending District meetings and also
persuaded a few to consider training ICAEW students; and

We held the Society’s Annual Dinner in Stoke-on-Trent which was attended by
around 200 members and their guests. More importantly, thanks to sponsorship
secured by Rob Hill, Colleen Hammond and Linda Conway, it ran at a surplus.
None of this would have been possible without the support of the Committee (shortly to be
re-constituted as a Board) and its sub-committees and especially Rob Hill, who has
continued to put in a great deal of time in the District. Nor would I have achieved as much
as I have without the administrative support of our Regional Executive, Linda Conway. I
thank them all for their help in the year.
Some of the other planned activity is on-going, such as a thorough review of our finances
to ensure that we eliminate the annual deficit in our accounts. However, there are some
activities that have not come to fruition, mainly due to time constraints. These include the
formation of a Practice Committee and Technical Advisory Committee at District level,
initiating a town group in North Staffordshire and making better, more effective use of
Linked-In.
It is partly with those omissions in mind, and the failure to appoint a Deputy President, that
I have put myself forward for a further term as President in 2015-16 and I am delighted that
Shaun Philpott will take on the post of Deputy President and Phil Wood that of Vice
President. Hopefully together, as a team, we can build on past successes and continue to
develop the Society as an organisation that is relevant to its members.
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention Peter Silver who stood down as Treasurer
at the end of last year for personal reasons. Peter has been actively involved with the
Society since its inception and put in a great deal of time over the years to the Society’s
benefit. We are very grateful to him for all that he has done.
8. CLOSURE
The meeting closes at 5.50pm.
PRIZE GIVING
James presented the following prize-winners with a cheque and certificate:
STRATEGIC BUSINESS MANAGEMENT – ARTHUR BAILEY CERTIFICATE OF
ACHIVEMENT
November 2014
Rhian Harding, Dyke Yaxley
BUSINESS CHANGE - A B SNOW CERTIFICATE OF ACHIVEMENT
November 2014
Katie Bailey, Afford Bond
BUSINESS REPORTING - A M BAKER CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT
November 2014
Laura Fox, Garratts
CASE STUDY – MICHAEL GROOM CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT
November 2014
Laura Fox, Garratts