Item 3: To receive and adopt report of the AFT chairperson Shan Tate presented a Powerpoint presentation of current board
activity and plans for the future. She explained that when we talk about AFT, AFT is all of us. T e board has a responsibility to oversee the organisation, but the board alone is not AFT. She presented a diagram which showed that AFT consists of a large number of commit ees and board members try to maintain links with other organisations. All of these commit ees, activities and projects sit within the wider circle of the AFT community of membership. Shan was pleased to introduce Reenee Singh as our new chief executive, a new role that will allow us to develop the association and spread our message more widely. T e board had also been busy ensuring we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation requirements, preparing information for employers to make sense of the diff erent levels of training, working with Wiley over the Journal and membership services, supporting the Wales day, Aspens day, Eileen Jamieson day in Belfast and the upcoming Minuchin memorial conference. She asked Amy Urry and Nigel Jacobs to explain progress with the
training review, following the meeting that took place in July last year. Amy said that she had been co-opted on to the board 18 months ago because of her experience and interest in training and to take forward the outcome of the training review. It is also important to ensure we are still creative and fl exible in our approach to training and to consult and collaborate widely. It is essential we ensure standards are maintained and that trainees develop the skills required. T ere is a steering group and diff erent smaller groups working on specifi c areas, one of these being to ensure any gaps in training for those who do not have a prior professional qualifi cation are fi lled. Nigel Jacobs said that, as a result of the training review, it was felt
we needed to look at the training landscape and the practical ways to enable our members to enhance their opportunities within whatever structure they use; looking at access to research, assistance in presenting well at interview and how to promote ourselves externally. A small group called the ‘creating opportunities group’ had been formed to look at these issues and telephone conferences would be held. New members are welcome and anyone interested in supporting this work was invited to let him know. Shan continued her report and stated the importance of ensuring
AFT keep research on the agenda. She was pleased that Reenee Singh, in her new role as chief executive, would be able to help with this. Currently, Laura Sanger was doing a lot of work in responding to NICE guideline consultations, but she would appreciate more support from practitioners to do this. Conversations were taking place with the Tavistock Family T erapy Research Centre and Peter Strat on and Lisa Fellin were trying to develop a research activation google group (R G). A meeting would be held at conference to discuss this. It was also recognised that we need an electronic version of SCORE for those who have not established this within their own practice and we are making plans for this. Anyone interested in this should contact Peter. Shan had been particularly busy maintaining our links with other
family therapy bodies, International Family T erapy Association (IFTA), European Family T erapy Association (EFTA) and American Association for Marriage and Family T erapy (AAMFT). It was good to have the EFTA family therapy organisation meeting taking place alongside our conference in Manchester. T e IFTA congress will be in Aberdeen in March 2020.
56
Shan advised that she would be ending her term of offi ce as
chair, but hoped to remain on the board in order to continue her work with the training review and to further develop links with European and international partners. It was important that we all worked together to keep AFT fi t for the future and ensure continuity in times of change. T e chair’s report was adopted unanimously.
Item 4: To receive and adopt the report of the hon. treasurer and statement of accounts ending 31 December 2017 Susan Benbow, treasurer, gave an update on the fi nancial report
and accounts printed in Context. She advised that the HMRC had made a decision that the online component of the membership subscription at racts VAT. T is equates to 10% VAT on every subscription. T is was outside AFT’s control and would increase membership fees with immediate eff ect. It is unfortunate timing, as we had already agreed to increase membership fees by £5 in 2019 to support development plans for AFT. AFT needed to ensure that it had the staff needed to make the organisation fi t for the future and this would have costs. Susan was conscious that there is an issue about what we pay for as a membership organisation and what we expect people to provide voluntarily. We are very grateful to the large number of people who put a lot of work into the organisation voluntarily. She thanked Paul Kennedy for supporting her and the board
with the management of the fi nances and preparation of the accounts and asked the membership to adopt the accounts. T e membership approved the accounts with no abstentions.
Item 5: Appointment of the external examiners Paul Kennedy proposed that we continue with Stewart Bond,
Chartered Accountants to externally examine the accounts. T e accounts are not prepared by Stewart Bond, but the Charity Commission expect any charity with an income of over £250k up to £1 million to have their accounts examined by a professional accountant. AFT is not only a charity but also a registered company. If AFT was simply a registered company we would not need to do this unless our turnover was £6 million. T ough there has been a change of personnel at Stewart Bond, and we had thought about bringing the external examiner closer to Warrington, Paul proposed that we continue with the services of Stewart Bond, as the change in personnel has improved their performance and they had not increased their fee. All members in favour. Proposal carried.
Item 6: To receive and adopt annual reports from chairs of committees T ese had been printed in Context issue 158. Chairs of commit ees
were also invited to say a few words about their commit ee. Pat Gray, chair of the diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI)
commit ee, said that politically and socially we need to look at changes in our practice and how we can infl uence some social change. T e commit ee was small, current members being Alastair Pearson, Victoria Sharman, Charity Tawodzera, Amanda Middleton and Elaine McGoldrick. She asked any members who were interested to consider joining the commit ee. Jeanne Ziminski, chair of the accreditation commit ee (CRED), thanked her commit ee members and panellists for their hard
Context 164, August 2019
Minutes of the 43rd AGM of The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice held on 13th September 2018 at The Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel, M1 4PH
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