Minutes
Minutes
1. Confirmation of Minutes to Last Meeting – 14th June 2016
The minutes had an amendment regarding Hampshire Chamber of Commerce as opposed to Southampton. The minutes were then agreed to be a true record of the meeting.
2. Matters Arising From Minutes to the Meeting of 14th June 2016
ACTION on Nick Gladwell to investigate extensions to Xero – Complete
ACTION on Nick Gladwell to oversee the change to the registered office address on the Companies House register – Complete
ACTION on Maurice Perrin to advise on the split of the financial accounts – Complete
ACTION on Nick Gladwell to process Blue Book invoice and advertising revenue invoices – Complete
ACTION on Nick Gladwell to propose structure for costs to be applied to the Lloyds Membership account – Complete
ACTION for Nick Gladwell to chase late payment of Membership fees – Complete
ACTION: Peter Mansbridge to provide staff details to Warner Goodman - Complete
ACTION: Mark Lockie to forward all work place pension details to Nick Gladwell - Complete
ACTION: Nick Gladwell to progress research, registration and administration for the new pension scheme in time for the November 2016 deadline - Complete
NEW ACTION: Nick Gladwell to investigate joining the Hampshire Chamber of Commerce – Cost £204/year as SCMS is a charity. – Complete.
Mike Eckles asked what progress had been made with regards to electronic signatures and Bob Barnes explained this was an MCA question that had been passed to Paul Johnson.
ACTION: Paul Johnson to report on the acceptability of electronic signatures by the MCA – To be discussed at BCC meeting in Feb 2017 – no policy presently.
Bob Barnes/Clive Robinson Paper on Membership – See new updates - ACTION CONTINUES
ACTION: Nick Gladwell to report on vertical audits achieved.
Completed VSA’s = Paul Johnson, Mark Lockie, Ross Hunter, Steve Clarke & Bob Barnes. – Action continues
ACTION on CEO Certification to amend office practice to ensure that payment is received before certification work on a vessel is started. Invoicing is now done independently of survey work using Filemaker and Xero databases. - Complete
Action on CEO Certification to obtain the mandate to sign cheques and alter address with banks. This is still in progress due to red tape delays regarding authorisation from retired signatories – Action Continues
ACTION on Chairman and Norman Finlay to speak to those concerned requesting assistance in the production of articles and the Technical Handbook. - ACTION CONTINUES
ACTION: Nick Gladwell to negotiate a new MCA audit date. Tuesday 4th Oct 2016 - Complete
ACTION on Peter Mansbridge to investigate the efficiency of existing banking arrangements. Once all the address changes and signatories have been made then the number of bank accounts will be reduced to the minimum required to address the costings between Benevolent Fund, CA Account and Membership Account. - Complete
ACTION on Peter Mansbridge to raise the simplification issue at the next CA Committee meeting.- Complete
3. Financial Report
Nick Gladwell went through the key financial summary:
CCLA Benevolent Fund Shares value 30/6/2016 = £231,687.70
Lloyds Benevolent Fund Account = £1,476.82
Lloyds Membership Current Account = £9,883.41
Lloyds Savings Account = £2469.08
Lloyds Visa Card = -£61.19
Lloyds CA Trading Account = £19,023.24
HSBC Money Manager = £75,677.00
HSBC Business Acc = £127.00
Total money in Bank Accounts/investments on 30/6/2016 value = £340,283.06
This compares to £412,446 at the beginning of the year ie £72,163 spend on moving and redundancy payments. (At 2016 AGM we said approx. £50k moving costs and £23k redundancy)
The accountants had been changed to the local (Whitely based) Menzies. They were being very helpful with the new Xero accounting software. Petar the new Finance Administrator had been excellent in correcting the many problems inherited from Beverley and getting the SCMS invoicing and debtors in shape.
Nick raised the issue of the Membership and CA work fees had been set for 2 years in 2014 and rises were scheduled for Oct 2016 but proposals for increases should be discussed. Paul said the CA Committee would discuss CA charge changes shortly. Nick advised that he would like to see sufficient fee rises to start to regain money depleted in the last 12 months by MCA Audit work and moving, whilst trying to remain competitive with other CA’s.
In general Nick stated the new running costs, ignoring the move/redundancy costs are in line with the SCMS total income and at a guestimate this was at the £190k/year level. Membership money was about £22k and would not cover office/staff etc costs so needed the CA money to keep SCMS afloat.
Nick raised the issue of Peter Hicks who had received payment, pension and now redundancy this year totalling Gross £14005.22 from the CA Trading Lloyds account, making him the highest paid full time employee in the London Office. Mike added that regardless SCMS was committed to paying Peter Hicks £5k per year pension and this should have been taken from the Benevolent Fund money. Nick should refresh CA Trading funds given to Peter Hicks as Pension.
NEW ACTION: Nick Gladwell to draw £10k from the Benevolent Fund to be transferred to balance the Lloyds Trading account to cover Peter Hicks payments re Pension payments.
4. Office Management
Stuart Gladwell updated Committee Members on the new office and staff situation.
The new full time staff had settled in well and were performing their allotted tasks. The various office procedures had been amended to allow better use of electronic systems and the office was operating a “paper light” policy reducing hard copy file sizes and reducing paper usage. Christine was making changes to the Filemaker Pro database and doing internal audits ready for MCA inspection. The certification side was now up to date and the backlog gone. Problem files had been reduced down to 6. The office has received good comments from customers regarding the quick turn round times of certification and answers to emails.
Stuart said the Filemaker database Membership section was also now up to date with electronic copies of correspondence being attached. The SCMS website and FEMAS website had been corrected and relevant members now paying the correct fees.
The IT was now reasonably reliable with few breakdowns but at least one computer plus two screens should be replaced each year as some items were very old. A new server was fitted this year as it broke down just prior to the move. Pinnacle were providing good service but a local cheaper supplier would be sought later in the year.
Norman, Paul and Mark all agreed they had also received favourable comments from customers regarding the new office/staff and service.
5. MCA & CA Position Update
Paul Johnson gave a summary of the CA Committee work including the build-up to the coming MCA Audit Oct 4th 2016.
He said that the MCA had asked for a one day audit and that only a small SCMS team was required for the audit. He proposed Mike, Paul, Nick & Stuart only should attend or if Mike as President was unable, then Mark in his place as Vice President.
6. Membership
Nick said that Bob Barnes had completed 9 Membership applications in the last month and there are probably another 6 in the pipeline. A new procedure was being written to cover this work as he was aware that membership application had not always been processed efficiently and delays tended to loose prospective members. Membership presently stood at 249 but the age of members was heavily weighted in the 60 to 80 age bracket.
Bob Barnes introduced his updated paper originally from Clive Robinson FMCS and also presented an “Action Plan” entitled 10 Point Policy Proposal. The paper and Policy document were heavily debated with the final agreement that a “Membership Working Group” should be formed led by Bob Barnes. Dave Walker & Mark Lockie agreed to be on the WG with Clive and Bob. Other volunteers would be sought and it thought that perhaps Maurice would be a valued asset and might be persuaded to join the group.
There was a discussion regarding possible Complaints regarding members. These should be referred to Mike and Bob if not about CA work (CA have a procedure in place).
Norman informed the Committee he was busy putting together a new edition of “The Link” an information paper for membership which he hoped to have out by November. Norman was also trying to get interest in reforming a Joint London/South East District Meeting.
Mark Lockie informed the Committee he was planning to hold a CA Training Day in October with help from Paul & Nick. This was also planned for October.
Discussions took place regarding getting new blood on the Committee and diluting the perceived “Past Presidents” Club situation. Mike restated his hope of Co-Opting Members such as Simon Oakes, Marcus Lankford and Graham Slack as representative of the next generation.
8. Date of Next Meeting
Future meetings were proposed to be on the 3rd Tuesday each quarter. This would make the next meeting Tuesday 15th November 2016 at 10am in SCMS HQ Southampton.
