Governing Body

 

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The EMCC UK Governing Body exists to provide advice, support and resource to Subscription Members as well as to the Board. While the Board is responsible for running the organisation, the Governors’ role is to ensure the organisation is run in the best interests of the Subscription Members. While not having direct responsibility for Board matters, they are guardians of EMCC UK's constitution, and have a governance role through which they are able to hold the Board to account.

Our Governor Members

 

The EMCC UK Governor Members ensure effective, transparent governance of our organisation. They are elected by our members.

Our Governor Members are:

Wendy Strohm (Chair of Governor Members)
Ivan Beaumont (President)
Tim Dench
Annabel Poate-Joyner
Jafar Akhavan Moossavi
Paul Watkins
Penny Aspden

In addition to the above elected Governor Members, the EMCC UK Board and Governor Members have appointed Chandra Ashfield, a representative from a suitably qualified Accounting Services organisation to act as Finance Manager.  For the avoidance of doubt the appointed Finance Manager will not be a Director of the company or a Governor Member and will not have any voting rights in meetings.

The role of the Governor Members is to hold the Directors to account on behalf of the wider membership. As the shareholders of the Company, they have the power to appoint and remove Directors and ensure that the constitution of EMCC UK remains aligned to the needs of Subscription Members.

How the Governors work

 

The Governors aim to:

represent the views of Subscription Members to the Board
ensure that the EMCC UK Board is running the organisation appropriately and for the benefit of the organisations Subscription Members
offer a resource to the Executive Team where they have particular insight, expertise or knowledge
• be a visible presence at EMCC UK and EMCC Global events, explicitly as EMCC UK Governing Members

Governors, Directors and President

 

The Governing Body is intended to be made up of eight Governor Members, constituting a President and seven further individuals. All Governor Members are elected by the Subscription Members, noting that the President is also elected to the Board of Directors. With the exception of the President who is elected for a fixed three year term, Governor Members may serve a term of up to five years, with the longest serving Governor.

One of the Governor Members may elect to serve as the Finance Director. Where a Finance Director is appointed, they are also appointed to the Board. However where no Finance Director is appointed, the Board and Governor Members may appoint a Finance Manager to ensure we have dedicated focus on organisational finances.

Where a Finance Manager is appointed:

They are not a Governor Member and have no voting rights on the governing body
• While providing professional advice to the Board, they are not Directors of the Company.
There will be seven Governor Members in total, where there would otherwise be eight if one of the Governor Members was acting in the capacity of Finance Director.

Whereas the President is automatically a Board member, one other Governor Member can be appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director. Either the Chair of Governor Members or the Finance Director (if one of the Governor Members fulfils this role) can be considered for the Board seat, the Governor Members to resolve this among themselves. Noting that in this instance the Finance Director would be automatically allowed onto the Board, in the case of the Chair of Governor Members this would be with the agreement of the Board.

While it seems a complicated arrangement, the intention is that the Board and Governor Member bodies work together for the benefit of Subscription Members while at the same time keeping an appropriate balance between the influence of the two bodies on the running of EMCC UK. This is a normal organisational structure for professional bodies such as ours.

From time to time the Governor Members may, at their discretion, decide that they wish to appoint a non-executive Governor Member. They may appoint no more than two individuals in this way at any one time.

Becoming a Governor Member

 

If you are an individual member of EMCC UK and would be interested in volunteering to become a Governor Member, there is an election process each year. Announcements will be made when the period for nominations is open, and an election pack will then be available.

If you would like to give feedback to the Governors about your membership experience, please download and complete this questionnaire and send it to us by email on [email protected].

Alternatively, you may contact our Governors to have a conversation. Please email us on [email protected] to initiate this.

Photos: Kaitlyn Baker and Will H McMahan