BUILA Annual General Meeting
Notes of the Meeting held at the Midland HotelManchester 11th December 2012
Present: Executive Committee: Tim Johnson (Northumbria, in the Chair), Charlene Allen (Reading), Adrienne Clarke (UEL), Alan Mclachlan, Bob Masterton (UAL), Charlie Carter, ( Loughborough), Mike Gibbons (Manchester), Kim Hadley (Portsmouth), Martyn Edwards (Nottingham)Jessica Guiver ( York St John) Philippa Collins Robson (Secretary)supported by 20 members.
Apologies: Executive Committee: Bobby Mehta, Roisin McEvoy
1 / WelcomeThe chair Tim Johnson welcomed members to Manchester and thanked the British Council for making the room available for the meeting.
2 / Annual Report for 2011/12
In introducing the AnnualReport, the Chairrecorded his thanks to the universities that had enabled their staff to be members of the Executive Committee and to the Committee members themselves. He also highlighted the executive’s intention to in future hold the AGM at the BUILA Annual Conference in July and to circulate the accounts for approval via email.
As well as reviewing the successful conference which had generated record attendance, the Chair also outlined proposals for adding value to the services for members.
Lobbying:In response to the above members voiced their concern that the sector was not being taken seriously and needed a co-ordinated voice, particularly on the current impact the Visa legislation was having. BUILA needed to raise its profile generally and particularly with VCs now that they as a group had a more international focus. There was an opportunity for BUILA to replace the British Council as the main international educational spokesperson. If BUILA did not step in then other organisations would fill the void. BUILA neededto undertake some lobbying around the Education Brand and to get some answers on the way forward.
Members welcomed a more proactive soliciting, collation and promotion of their views.
A request was made that BUILA lobby NARIC to make it more representative of the sector and that BUILA itself develop a more active representational role. Members also requested that a liaison role with ERASMUS be added to the executives’ responsibilities as this was an area of interest to them and there was still an opportunity to influence the programme.
One member brought the current survey on the International Unit at UUK to the executives’ attention and it was agreed that this would be circulated by the BUILA secretary to the named representatives for them to make their individual comments in addition to a BUILA response to the survey.
Training: With regards to a more comprehensive training programme to be offered to members, there was a request that the BUILA executive create a list and ask members to rank it in order of importance to them.
Communications: Members were interested in a facility being created to collect the archive of discussions taking place through the mailbase into a resource on the website. They wanted a simple website which provided contact points, and was informative and short.
3 / Financial Summary
Philippa Collins Robson the BUILA Secretaryintroduced the main points from the accounts, which had been subject to an independent examination in line with BUILA’s role as an association. The healthy level of reserves would enable a proportion to be invested into the proposed value added Services.
The Accounts were voted for and approved.
4 /
- O. B.
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