Council minutes 23rd April 2015 ‐ At the Society’s Headquarters

1. Confirmation of Minutes to Last Meeting – 10th October 2014
The minutes to last meeting were agreed as being a true record. 

2. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising. 

3. Certifying Authority Committee
a. Chairman of CA Committee
Paul Johnson was confirmed as the new Chairman of the CA Committee. He noted all the work over many years carried out by Norman Finlay and asked that this be acknowledged.  
Bob proposed a vote of thanks to Norman Finlay this was agreed unanimously. 

b. Appointment of John Bowen (Examiner Standards) and Nick Gladwell (Auditor for vessel standards)
Mike suggested that we need someone who has a background in coding for these positions. Clive argued the opposite but that they need to be appropriately experienced. Paul J suggested that the two are related and could be performed by one person. He continued by saying that although the paper was excellent he wondered if now was the correct time to do this with the impending MCA Audit and that it might be better to wait until the new Secretary was in place before proceeding. He also suggested that such assessors be remote from the CA Committee and that rather than formally appointing them we note that they are available on an Ad-Hoc basis. He preferred not to set this in stone now in case it was found to need some adjustment in the future. He added that he could see the value of Nick Gladwell but that John Bowen does not need to be a member of the CA Committee. 
Bob agreed that we would review at the next Council meeting. 

c. Number of Vessels
The Secretary presented the number of vessel currently certified by the Society the current total being 1,033, he commented that the drop in number compared to the last Council meeting was not a result of loss of vessel but more tidying up action to remove dead files from our system. He explained that dead files came, e.g. from vessels where the 5 year certificate had expired and it was not immediately known if the owner intended to renew certification and the files had been left active, there were other reasons.

d. CA Committee - Chairman’s Report.
Paul J ran briefly through the reasons for the MCA Sanction being imposed explaining that at the last MCA Audit they went trough the information from a technical viewpoint, rather than as previously where it had been primarily an administrative audit, where b they picked up some missing items, that combined with some outstanding action items from previous years led then to the conclusion, probably rightly that we were not doing as well as we should have been doing. We received a letter from them saying that they would re audit us again in March, we then had Nick Gladwell carry out an internal audit, that too was not favourable so we then applied for a time extension for the next audit, a meeting was arranged at MCA to update them of the progress we had made. The meeting was very disappointing in that it became apparent that their decision had been made before the meeting started, their decision was that we were not to take on any new vessels for coding or accept any transferred in vessels until such time as the new audit was conducted on June 8th.  

This affected our agreement with Damen for new vessels, and MCA also considered that it would impact on their reputation as well, so an exception was made for these vessels under certain conditions. We have just used this process successfully for the first Damen vessel. A formal application was required. 

We have started a detailed review of each and every one of our 1,033 files. He added that this is a bit of a gamble as time is not on our side, so far we have completed 300 files which is around one third, or target if 50%, this is bit of a gamble that the MCA confidence in us would be reinforced at the next audit from the fact that we are doing a deep review of each file, not just a quick look at each file. This would hopefully offset the fact that we haven’t completed every file before the Audit. If it doesn't then they could still sanction us further, say another 3 months, but we could always call them in earlier if we felt we were ready. He added that he was not aware of any particular effect these sanctions are having on our bottom line, so far the number of vessel we have not been able to Code is less than 10. Bob added that the MCA did say they were pleased with the progress we had made but thought we should have brought all the files up to date. Paul J added that this has had an effect of other CA’s as well in that they have also had to tighten up their procedures but we had been hit harder than the others.  

Bob asked abut the fleet of 16 vessels Ed Geary wanted to Code, Paul O replied that these were not until later in the year.  

Paul J added that one effect of this extra work is that our Administrative staff are struggling to keep up with the additional workload, there is a lot of work coming in.  

He continued on subject of professional standard issues and mentioned a particular vessel that had been detained by Port State Control in France, he had arranged for another Examiner to inspect the vessel. He would like to pass this report on to, possibly John Bowen, together with the Pendennick survey, to review the survey standard. The particular survey is also under review with another CA. In future where there is clear evidence that an Examiner is not performing as he should we need to be seen to be investigating him and taking appropriate action. One difficulty with this Examiner is that his paperwork is generally good but it does not necessarily reflect the condition on the vessel. Clive said that the concept of having to check on someone else, a peer review, is not pleasant but is necessary. 

Bob mentioned random vessel audits, Paul J replied that he thought we need to examine the Examiners more. There followed a discussion on how to handle problem Examiners. In conclusion Paul J stated that we must be seen to handle all Examiners equally. 

4. Membership & Professional Standards
In view the resignation of John Wallace from the Membership Committee, John Banister agreed to take his place on this Committee.

a. The Secretary reported that there had been a steady, but slow, stream of applicants.

b. Council were asked to approved two Applications for transfer to Fellowship, Nick Bushnell and Ed Geary. No objections were raised and they we so approved.

c. John Banister and Maurice Perrin had agreed to interview candidates for the next Secretary of the Society.
John gave a report on progress made and steps to take, there were two candidates to interview and these would be arranged as soon as possible. The applicant from Germany was not considered suitable. It was agreed that the Secretary is a full time job. Clive added that he felt there should be two posts, one for Code work and the other for Membership matters.

Paul J added that his idea was for one person to be responsible to Council with anther staff member dealing with the membership. John said that he saw two priorities, the MCA Audit and the appointment of a new Secretary.  

5. Budget Managers’ Report
Relevant documents in support of the following were distributed before the meeting. 

a. The Secretary presented the Society’s Annual Accounts which had been produced by our accountants Menzies. The accounts were approved.

b. The Secretary presented the Benevolent Fund  account for the year
He explained that at present they do not show any expenditure for 2014, despite several awards being made. The awards had been made from the Society’s main account and refunded from Benevolent Fund when some of the investments had been cashed in, this exercise was not completed until 2015. The Benvolent Fund accounts were approved.

c. The Secretary presented his table showing extra days worked
and the additional casual worker employed in view of the additional workload due to the MCA Audit. The Secretary was instructed that he could employ his staff any necessary required to meet the workload.

d. The Secretary presented the contingency budget allowing for a potential 20%loss of income.
He explained that the 2015 budget showed income well in excess of the expenditure and that the 20% loss in income would have little effect.

6. Development Committee
Clive went over the points in his paper that had been circulated to all councillors. He addressed the strengths and weaknesses of the Society as he saw them. He proposed a new name “Society of Consulting Mariners” several comments were made, no conclusions ere reached. 
As a first step it was agreed that we should call a General Meeting with the sole purpose to consider a Resolution to change the voting method, so that on-line voting will be accepted in the future with a 50% agreement required of the entire membership to pass any future Resolution is approved.  

Post meeting note 1: The ‘General Meeting’ has been called for Wednesday 28th May at 14:00 in the Society’s offices and a proxy voting form email to all members out. The agenda contains a single Resolution on the change to on-line voting. 

Post meeting note 2 by Secretary: Our annual rental is £20/sq.ft. (for 585 sq.ft.) It includes: free use of the central area in our office; free access to 5 meeting rooms of various sizes (from 4 persons up to 50 persons capacities); and free car parking. 

Post meeting note 3 by Secretary: Regarding Clive’s proposal to change from Apple computers to the more common PC platform, the office staff very much like the Apple computers to the extent that two of them have purchased their own, the President and Paul Johnson also have at least one Apple computer each, as do several other members known to the Secretary. There is great flexibility with the Apple Macs to the extent that they can even run Windows OS natively (not in emulation) although it is not obvious why you would want to lose the advantages of the Apple OS. They are highly resistant to malware such as viruses and trojans. There are cost advantages for Apple computers, the longevity is considerable, operating system upgrades are free, support required is minimal providing they are not operated in the Windows mode.  

7. President’s Report
a. List of Members
Bob reported that he had looked at the List of Members document and drafted amendments for the new version.  

b. Events Programme
Bob’s proposed list of events had been circulated to Council. He said that it should be circulated as soon as possible for each year. 

c. SeaWork Exhibition 11-13 June
Bob confirmed that he and Clive are organising the stand this year, the emphasis would be on recruitment. Volunteers to man the stand would be welcome. A two sided stand booked next to press office. Office staff would be welcome to assist us on the stand. 

d. Annual Dinner
This event is being organised at the Intercontinental Hotel in London. At the end of September. 

e. Ladies Weekend Event
Various venue options were discussed including Banbury, Oxford, Buxton and Chester. 

8. Headquarters Relocation
a. The Secretary informed the meeting on the plans for developing the Marine Society and Sea Cadets offices and also for a new building to be constructed between the main building and Lambeth Road.
This latter building would overlap our present office building which would need to be demolished to make way for the new construction. Planning permission is still outstanding and timing for us to vacate the present office build is estimated to be not before mid 2016. At that time we have been offered alternative equivalent office space in the main building which would continue to be available for further year (to mid 2017).
Our lease agreement requires the Landlord to provide at least 6 months notice to vacate the office. 

b. There was a long discussion on where to locate the office when we need to move from 202 Lambeth Road. Various options were considered. No conclusions were reached.

9. Any Other Business
The President read out a letter from John Wallace in which, due to his advancing years, he resigned from the Society and all associated committees. Bob said he would reply to the letter and thank him for all his service over the years.  

10. Date of Next Meeting & AGM
It was agreed that the next meeting and AGM would be held on the evening of Tuesday 16th June at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club, Ocean Village.