MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE BUSINESS STATISTICS USERS' GROUP HELD ON THURSDAY 20^TH JUNE 2002 AT THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY, 12 ERROL STREET, LONDON, EC1

 Attendance

Ian Maclean in the Chair and 16 Members whose names were recorded.

Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence had been received from Ms Rachel Macleod, Ms Jayne Wilkinson and Messrs John Aczel, Brian Bowesman, Harvey Collyer, Jim Devin, Keith Dugmore, Melvyn Hayward, Eric Kilby, Stuart Platt, Philip Watson and David Wroe.

Minutes of the Previous AGM and Matters Arising

The minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 17^th May 2001 had been published in BSUG News and, there being no amendments or objections, they were duly signed by the Chairman as a true and accurate record of that meeting.  There were no matters arising from these minutes.

Chairman's Report

The Chairman noted that this had been a relatively quiet year.  Our Membership was reducing for a variety of reasons, despite the best efforts of the Committee to recruit new members.

The meetings held during the year had been excellent in terms of content, but were again poorly attended;  this has been a perennial problem for BSUG and is an issue which we have been solve.

The Chairman also paid tribute to the active role played by the Officers of the group and to the valuable assistance provided by the Committee during the year.

He noted that the role of the group was changing as National Statistics developed, both through the National Statistician and the Statistics Commission;  both of these are charged with actively seeking out the views of users.  However, it was felt that there was still rather an informal approach to this process and that we needed to find ways of getting comments into the National Statistics Theme Groups and then getting these groups to take those comments on board in the planning process.  The ONS were planning another Open Day for October and it was the intention of BSUG to “sponsor” a breakout session on the plans for the Commerce, Energy and Industry Theme Group as part of this event (this would replace the separate seminar which we had held this session).

The Commission is even more disappointing as they seem to do little in the way of consultation with users;  these is now a regular meeting between the Commission (staff and commissioners) and we hope that this will become more useful as it develops over the next year, but they are still missing the opportunity to plug into the existing network of user groups.

Treasurer's Report

The Treasurer presented the report attached to and an integral part of these minutes.

It was noted that our improved financial position was almost entirely due to the fact that there had only been two editions of BSUG News in the past year and not the usual three.  The Committee had taken this decision because of the financial position of the group.

The Chairman added a tribute to Ulric Spencer (Editor) and John Cunningham (Publisher) for all their efforts in producing BSUG News over the past year.

The other main issue was the further significant fall in the number of members despite a campaign which saw flyers for the group circulated with Economic Trends (with the kind permission of the ONS and The Stationery Office).  This was a matter of concern which the Committee would need to address at its first meeting.

The Treasurer’s report included the proposal that the subscription for the coming year should remain at £45.

The Treasurer’s Report, including the recommendation for the subscription level, was proposed for adoption by Ian Maclean, seconded by Geoff Noon and carried without objection.

Election of Officers and Committee

The Chairman announced that the Committee were nominating the following as Officers of the Group for the coming year:

Chairman  Ian Maclean, Business & Trade Statistics Ltd

Treasurer  John Cunningham, JCA

Secretary  Geoff Noon, Machine Tool Technologies Association

There being no other nominations, they were declared duly elected.

The Chairman indicated that the Committee would consist of the Officers, observers from The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, The Department of Trade and Industry, The Office for National Statistics and HM Customs & Excise, plus representatives of the Group elected by the AGM.

The existing elected Members of the Committee had agreed to stand again;  the Secretary had also received a nomination for Chris Meakin of the Economic Research Council.

There being no other nominations, the following were elected to the Committee:

The Chairman announced that the first meeting of the new session would be in conjunction with the ONS Open Day being held on 11^th October to discuss the draft National Statistics Plan for 2003.  The intention was to hold a plenary session covering cross-cutting issues, before breakout sessions for a number of the Theme Groups;  BSUG would be “sponsoring” the session for the Commerce, Energy and Industry Theme.

The Chairman then raised a number of possible themes, but with little feedback from the Members present.  It was suggested that the opportunity to network with other users of Business Statistics is a valuable function of the meetings.  It seems likely that different members of the group are looking for different things from the group which makes high attendance at meetings unlikely.

Any Other Business

There being no other business, the Chairman closed the Annual General Meeting.

 top

BUSINESS STATISTICS USERS' GROUP

Treasurer's Report to AGM, 20^th. June 2002

It is ironic that BSUG should produce its strongest Balance Sheet ever (at £784 hardly a fortune) at a time when it has its lowest paid-up membership (57, compared with 120 in 1994).  The explanation is simple - it has only published two BSUG News instead of the usual three; and since BSUG News constitutes its largest single item of expenditure, the effect of this has been significant.  It should be pointed out that the third BSUG News was cancelled and the publication dates 'spread', because there would not have been enough money to pay for the third issue, so our improved Balance Sheet is a result of necessity.  It should also be recognised that BSUG ended the previous year with a deficit of £709 which was not a cause for huge concern since it would have been underwritten, if necessary, by several of our supporters.

The year has been marked by a further slight fall in subscription income from £2,745 to £2,565 (4 subscriptions), accompanied by a decrease in expenditure of some £1,750. At the beginning of the year, BSUG had effectively some 61 paying members (the 2000-2001 subscribers) and a further 10 who had not paid, but equally had not resigned.

Loss of members is always worrying.  The biggest single cause without doubt, is people changing jobs and not telling us.  While our membership is technically an organisation membership, it is in reality an individual membership and when someone moves on, only occasionally is there a colleague who takes up the 'personal' involvement of the membership.  Our membership decline has been compounded by the fact that, while the role and nature of BSUG awaits some amendment/clarification in relation to that of the newly-created Statistical Commission, we have postponed a full-scale membership drive since we felt it important to be able to make a clear, unequivocal statement to potential members about what we stood for, and what we had to offer.

The Treasurer, with the Committee's agreement, proposes that the coming year's subscription should remain at £45 (for the fourth year running), because with the certainty that BSUG News will go electronic in the near future, a major part of BSUG's expenditure will diminish and it would be counter-productive to consider any increase in this situation.

BSUG's accounts are not audited since it is generally agreed that it is unnecessary and unduly expensive when the Group's turnover is only £5-6,000 a year. Until 2000-2001, it was always possible to balance income and expenditure within each financial year. With the financial year 2000-2001, expenditure exceeded income within the financial year, and consequently some payments had to be deferred until the subsequent financial year.

The Treasurer recognises that in the past year, post-payment of previous debt may have distorted the accounts presented here from one year to the next, but would like to emphasise that at the current year-end,  the balance for BSUG of some £784 is an accurate reflection of the Group's financial standing.  BSUG  is solvent, if not very so.

Fortunately, we have benefited from the continued generous support of The Stationery Office as our sponsor (which we would most publicly acknowledge) and the 'fall-back' support of NS, DTI, HMC&E, DETR, who regard us as 'a critical friend' - whom they are prepared to support, even if we are challenging and provocative.

John Cunningham
Hon. Treasurer,  20^th. June 2002

top

AGENDA

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE

BUSINESS STATISTICS USERS' GROUP (BSUG)

TO BE HELD AT 13.45 ON THURSDAY 20^th JUNE AT THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY, 12 ERROL STREET, LONDON, EC1

1)          Apologies for Absence

2)          Approval of the Minutes of the last AGM (published in BSUG News)

3)          Matters Arising

4)          Chairman’s Report - The Chairman will set out the decisions taken by the Committee in determining the way forward for BSUG and initiate a discussion for Members.

5)          Treasurer’s Report - this will include a proposal from the Committee to set the Membership Fee for the 2002-03 session at the current rate of £45.

6)          Elections

a.      Officers - Nominations have been received for the three current officers (Ian Maclean as Chairman, Geoff Noon as Secretary and John Cunningham as Treasurer) to be re-elected.  If you wish to nominate someone else, these should be sent to the Secretary before the meeting or handed in on the day before the meeting begins.  Please ensure that the person being nominated knows about it;  you may nominate yourself.

b.      Committee Members - New Members are always welcome for the Committee;  if you feel that you (or someone else) would be willing to serve BSUG in this capacity, please let the Secretary know before the meeting.  Formal nominations will be called for at the meeting, with those current Members who have indicated their willingness to stand for re-election being proposed by the Chairman.  If you plan to nominated someone else, please make sure they know about it;  you may nominate yourself.

      The following have been nominated as elected Members of the BSUG Committee:

Harvey Collyer, ISSB                                            Chris Meakin, Economic Research Council

Keith Dugmore, Demographic Decisions            Gerald Morris, BEAMA

David Fleming, Applied Business Statistics         Ulric Spencer

John Aczel, Economic Services                           Philip Watson, Elastomer Associates

Eric Kilby, Paper Federation of GB                       Jayne Wilkinson, The Stationery Office

7)          Future Programme

8)          Any Other Business

top