The Board met on 11 February, with a one hour follow-up meeting being held by phone on the evening of 18 February. Ten directors attend the scheduled meeting and eleven participated in the follow-up. The main matters covered were as follows:

a. Liability Insurance:  A representative of the brokers, Howden, attended to provide an update on the major claim that has been made against the BMC’s Combined Liability Insurance policy. Discussion with the broker also covered a range of relevant matters including the impact of the first ever large claim on the way in which future risk will be perceived by underwriters and the prospects for future premiums. The discussion was relevant to the agenda item on subscriptions and the Board also agreed a proposal to set up a task group to review all aspects of the Liability insurance, with a report to be provided for the next meeting on 8 May.

b. Subscriptions: The Board reviewed in detail the information available in relation to the BMC’s budget for 2019 and the financial projections for 2020 and 2021, taking into account the impact of the immediate substantial uplift in premiums for the Combined Liability Insurance. Board members had the benefit of the discussions that had taken place at the Finance & Audit Committee and at National Council two days previously. It was agreed to endorse the view from National Council that subscriptions should be raised by £6.00 across all categories of membership, to be implemented as early as practicable.

c. Strategy and Financial Planning: The Board considered a paper which outlined the need for aligning strategy, operational delivery, and financials to a timeline that would allow a draft financial plan to be reviewed in early autumn and a final budget for 2020 to be approved in late autumn. The plan would take account of the recommendations emerging from the ODG workstreams, noting that not all of these would be amenable to detailed costing within this timeline. It was also agreed that an initial review of the 2019 financial plan should be completed ahead of its next meeting.

d. Competitions:  Nick Colton joined the meeting to assist with discussion of a paper which had been prepared for the Board’s January meeting and to provide an update from a recent meeting of the Competitions Committee. The Board will continue to review progress on a number of issues, including through a risk register approach suggested for this high profile area of activity.

e. Organisational Development Group:   An update report was noted, together with a detailed report now available in relation to Membership Engagement (workstream 8), which will receive detailed consideration after the AGM.

f. Nominated Directors:  With three Directors withdrawing from this item because of direct involvement or personal connections with candidates, the Board agreed with the Nominations Committee recommendations in relation to candidates to go forward, including the grouping of candidates relative to the priority criteria as advertised.

g. Articles of Association, Terms of Reference and Memorandum of Understanding:  The latest drafts of these documents had been discussed at National Council two days previously and the Board agreed with the suggested adjustments to wording.

Gareth Pierce
Chair, BMC Board of Directors

READ: Minutes of the February 2019 Board of Directors meeting

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