Minutes of the 39th Annual General Meeting held at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London, on Tuesday 16 May 2006.
AGENDA ITEM 1
– Report of Council and Financial Statements, 31 December 2005 The President proposed, with the consent of the meeting, that the report of the Council and the Financial Statements be taken as factual. There being no objections, the President stated that he would mention some of the issues in the Council Report later and went on to note a number of points which had affected the financial outcome for 2005:
The overall profit margin of £117,000 for the year was pleasing, largely due to a very successful conference.
Conference had realised a profit of £110,000, a significant increase over 2004 because there was now no requirement to share the profit with NHS Estates. Similar to 2004 the conference had attracted 550 delegates and speakers, over 50 papers, in four parallel streams, and 150 exhibition stands.
Management and administration costs had decreased because of reduced staff numbers which meant that even without the conference IHEEM would have realised a small £7,000 surplus.
The President then proposed, seconded by R P Boyce, that the Report of Council and the audited accounts be received and approved. The President then called for questions from the floor. D Svenson queried the comparatively high trade creditor figure for 2004. The Secretary explained that it included the conference profit share liability to NHS Estates. There being no further questions, the resolution was put to the vote and carried unanimously.
AGENDA ITEM 2 Elections to Council
Arising from the Report of Council the President reported that, in accordance with the Articles of Association, the following members would retire at the conclusion of the AGM:
C Astley General Member R P Boyce General Member D L C Browning Branch Member Scotland D L Hall Branch Member West Midlands R P Boyce, D L C Browning and D L Hall were eligible for re-election in their respective categories.
The following were the sole nominees in their respective category and accordingly were elected to Council unopposed:
R P Boyce General Member D L C Browning Branch Member Scotland D L Hall Branch Member West Midlands D Svenson Branch Member South & South West
The President drew the meeting’s attention to the retirement from Council of Colin Astley and thanked him for his enormous contribution to the Institute over many years through his service on Council and committees. The members applauded.
AGENDA ITEM 3
Appointment of Auditors
The President noted that Moore Stephens had changed to a Limited Liability Partnership in October 2005 and went on to propose that Moore Stephens LLP be re-appointed as auditors to the Institute and that Council be authorised to fix their remuneration. W A Mosedale seconded the motion which was carried unanimously.
AGENDA ITEM 4
Ordinary Business
The President asked for any items of ordinary business from the floor. No items were raised.
President’s Address Membership. Increasing membership remained as the number one goal in the Business Plan and members were asked to recruit new members whenever they could. Because of staff shortages, the Recruitment Manager had to take over as Membership Manager for 2005 and this had a detrimental effect on recruitment.
Nevertheless, 165 applications had been processed during the year. A more rigorous approach to the non-payment of subscriptions meant a net decrease in numbers for 2005. Numbers were now 1,900 individual members + 300 company affiliates (101 companies).
Engineering Council. There had been a small decrease in members coming forward for Registration from 30 in 2004 to 25 in 2005. IHEEM continued to play an active part in the Engineering Council’s business – represented on the Quality Assurance Committee, the Engineering Education Alliance, the Professional Development Forum, G15, and the Group B College Forum. Alan Mosedale was a member of the EC Board and Richard Boyce was the Chairman of the IPEM, IOM3 and IIE Audit Committees. IHEEM also supplies two ECUK Liaison Officers.
Branches. The President thanked the Branches for their continued enthusiasm and hard work. Branches were the foundations of the Institute. The President, who had attended the Welsh Conference, congratulated Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales for their own very successful two-day Regional Conferences.
Website. The President encouraged use of the website as a means of communicating between members. He welcomed suggestions for its improvement and asked members to register so that they could access the Members’ Only section.
Prizes. As a professional body, part of IHEEM’s role is to carry out the function of a Learned Society, which, among other things, includes the awarding of prizes. The 2005 winner of the Northcroft Silver Medal (for the best technical paper by a member) was Paul Robbins, Papworth Hospital NHS Trust, for his paper “Managing risk in device engineering”. Paul Robbins will be presented with his medal at the annual conference. The President remarked that the article was very interesting and that it was published again in the May 2006 edition of the Journal.
International Federation of Hospital Engineering. IFHE had held its annual Executive Committee and Council meetings in Antwerp in June. IHEEM was fully represented at the meetings and J Cook remains as the IFHE Treasurer. IHEEM continues to provide the administration service for IFHE.
Health Estate Journal. The Journal continued to set excellent and improving standards and was a very attractive publication which received praise from all. More articles from members were to be encouraged.
Institute Development. The work over the last 12 months had been concerned with how to increase the importance and relevance of the Institute and make it more responsive to the changing NHS landscape. A key issue is to broaden the membership base of the Institute (to include craftsmen, apprentices, facilities personnel, other related professionals) without diluting its core engineering expertise.
The President noted that changes at the centre to the DH and the forming of the Estates and Facilities Division had made the role of the Institute more pertinent and a number of new challenges and opportunities were on the horizon. Work continued on a multidisciplinary voluntary registration scheme but, on a related issue, no progress had been possible on establishing an Authorising Engineer register for Decontamination and Medical Gases – the supporting documentation was being reviewed again. De-coupling the membership grading structure from the ECUK
registration requirements had worked well. It was pointed out that no changes to the academic qualifications for membership had been made. Succession. The President introduced his successor to the meeting – Mr Phillip Nedin, BEng CEng FIHEEM. Born and raised in Swansea, Phillip Nedin started his career as an apprentice mechanical fitter in a local company. He moved to London in the mid 1970s and had a number of different jobs in industry, nuclear power and the health service while progressing academic qualifications which culminated in a degree in environmental engineering. In 1988 he moved back to Wales and joined Arup at its Cardiff office. He is now a director of the company and leads the mechanical, electrical and public health group, as well as having world-wide responsibilities for healthcare. His distinguished career continues and he is also a lecturer at Cardiff University.
Richard Nugent presented the President’s medal to Phillip Nedin. The new President briefly outlined some of the work in progress and highlighted the re-establishment of the recruitment drive and the introduction of simpler structures to Council and membership grades. He also intended to progress the Authorising Engineer registration systems, which were important because of the unique position of the Institute. Work was also continuing on the establishment of a trading subsidiary and the appointment of a Business Manager.
The President thanked Richard Nugent for all his work on behalf of the Institute, particularly over the last two years. He presented him with his Past President’s medal.
The AGM was closed.
