Written by Mark Wills
In the midst of the ALERC annual conference, the Annual General Meeting took place just after lunch. Normally the AGM is the chance for the Directors to report directly to the membership – and for the members to query and comment on – all aspects of the organisation’s activities during the year. This year there were also several changes announced that significantly alter how the organisation is run.
There were some changes in personnel amongst the board of Directors. Gary Lewis stepped down both as Chair and as a Director after 3 years on the board and Alexa Tweddle also stepped down as a Director and as the Scottish representative on the board. To help fill the gap, Adam Rowe was welcomed back onto the board. Adam was a founding Director of ALERC back in 2009 and served as Chair for 2 years.
Nicky Court has stepped up to take on the role of Chair and her first act as Chair was to lead the conference in expressing their sincere thanks for the passion, dedication and hard work both Gary and Alexa put in during their time on the board and especially Gary during his time as Chair. As part of these changes the roles required to run ALERC have been redistributed and an additional role of Vice-Chair formally recognised to help support Nicky as the demands on the Chair have increased over the past couple of years. The new team of ALERC officers are:
- Chair – Nicky Court
- Vice-Chair – Mark Wills
- Treasurer – Eric Fletcher
- Company Secretary – Darwyn Sumner
Directors’ Portfolios
A further change to the way ALERC operates was also announced during the AGM. Each Director has taken on a Portfolio of work areas for which they are responsible for leading. Some Directors have a portfolio of one area, for example the Chair only has the responsibility of Chair as their portfolio. Some of the work areas that Directors’ have taken responsibility for include Membership & Recruitment, National Schemes & Societies/Data Flows, LERC business development and NBN Trust Liaison.
A full list of each Director’s portfolio of work areas will be appearing soon on the ALERC website and Directors will be seeking to recruit ALERC members to contribute to their work strands via working groups. Any interested parties from other organisations are encouraged to make contact with the appropriate Director either directly or via contact@ALERC.org.uk.