BMC Organisational Review Group Newsletter: May 2017

Posted by Ray Wigglesworth on 01/06/2017

On 23 April 2017, the National Council of the BMC proposed the setting up of a committee, with an independent chair, to carry out a review of the structure, aims and governance of the organisation.

Following confirmation of the proposal, on 1 May 2017, work began on forming the constitution of the committee and preparing a file of documents relevant to the tasks involved in the proposed review.

The committee has now held meetings on two occasions – 2 May and 18 May 2017 – and we have put together a series of files dealing with the modern approach to structure, aims and governance in other similar organisations.

What we hope to achieve

The central aim and scope of the review group (as set out in our terms of reference), is:

“To review the BMCs organisation, governance and decision making structures in order that they may reflect current best practice…(in other similar organisations) … whilst continuing to act in the best interests of the membership; to recommend a new structure and mechanism to facilitate broader engagement and consultation with all BMC members on key areas of the organisation’s work.”

The committee is still in the early stages of gathering together the information on organisational structures, codes of governance and the legal requirements for trustees/directors/managers and there is much to do before we can begin drafting any proposed recommendations.

There is, however, a need to keep you, the membership of the BMC, informed of what we are doing and with that in mind the committee was unanimously in favour of producing a monthly newsletter and a Questionnaire ( i.e. membership survey).

Reasons for a membership survey

We felt that a membership survey was a good idea for three key reasons:

To let you know what we were doing;
To promote openness and transparency;
To obtain feedback from the members.

It is hoped that the Questionnaire will be sent out in June 2017.

Who is on the Review Committee?

The composition of the Review Committee is as follows:

Fiona Sanders, Rebecca Ting, John Roberts, Paul Caddy, Simon McCalla, Matthew Bradbury, Rab Carrington and the independent chair is Ray Wigglesworth QC.