MINUTES OF THE EDAS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 29 MAY 2015 AT PA
CONSULTING, EDINBURGH
Present:
Mark Bell, PA Consulting
Jenny Bloomfield, SCVO
Elaine Bone, EDAS
Robert Crawford, EDAS
Ian Davison Porter, BIDs Scotland
Norman Dow, City of Glasgow Council
Lesley Fordyce, PA Consulting
Karen Fotheringham, City of Glasgow Council
Jamie Fowler, City of Edinburgh Council
Gary Gillespie, Scottish Government
Suzanne Hamilton, Frontline Consulting
Jean Hamilton, Jean Hamilton Ltd
Simo Kruyt, Upstream People Skills
Geoff Leask, Young Enterprise Scotland
Susan Love, FSB Scotland
Donald MacInnes
Shona MAllister, City of Edinburgh Council
Laura McCansh, SQA
Paul McCartney, Peter Brett Consulting
Michael Marra, University of Dundee
Anne Meikle, Women’s Enterprise Scotland
Joe Pacitti, Heriot Watt University
Brian Patterson, Cyrenians
Robert Pollock ORE Catapult
Yvonne Prager, EDAS
Colm Reilly, PA Consulting
Christine Richard, OBE
Graeme Rigg, City of Edinburgh Council
Ewan Robertson, EDAS
Pat Sedakat, University of Abertay
Clare Sowney, Prince’s Trust
Patrick Watt, Skills Development Scotland
Hannah Young, Improvement Service
Apologies:
Irene Bell, Ishabel Bremner, Vivienne Brown, Stephen Canning, Kerry Keane, Liz McEntee,
Michael McGuiness, Karl Reilly, Taylor Stewart, Charlie Woods
1. Welcome: EDAS Chair, Robert Crawford
RC thanked PA Consulting for their hospitality and welcome and thanked members and
guests for attending.
The formal business of the AGM will be followed by a presentation from Gary Gillespie, Chief
Economic Advisor, Scottish Government and Colm Reilly, partner with PA Consulting, via
podcast.
2.
To consider and approve Financial Accounts for Year to end March 2014
A copy of the accounts to 31 March 2014 has been made available on our website and
offered to members on request. RC read a statement from the accounts:
“The charity incurred a deficit of £7,182 in the year. The total free reserves at the end of the
year to 31 March 2014 were £77,713. It is the policy of the charity to try and maintain its free
reserves, those not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets, at a level sufficient to
support the current activities.
In order to fund the development of our ‘route map’, including the development of a new
International course and the expansion of ‘one off’ seminars and similar educative events on
issues and themes central to our mission we feel it is prudent to maintain reserves sufficient
for one year’s worth of activities. Since our core purpose is to extend and deepen knowledge
of a wide range of economic development matters in Scotland and to make our findings
available to all interested parties, it is important that we are able to ensure continuity of
research on an ‘open-access’ basis and that sufficient funds are available to ensure for long
term planning against a back drop of variations in membership numbers.”
We are working on a joint event on Innovation with Nesta, taking place at Dynamic Earth on
23 June – RC looked forward to welcoming members to the event and other events taking
place in the coming year. Scotland’s Economy Sessions continue in the autumn – lined up
so far, presentation from Professor Anne Glover, former Chief Scientific advisor, and
Scottish Development International country lead contacts.
There were no further questions and the accounts were approved.
3.
Appointment of Accountants for the Next Year
The members present agreed that Soroban Accountants be appointed for the next year.
4.
Election of Directors
RC asked for member’s approval of the following:
-
Kerry Keane to be appointed as a Director and Treasurer endorsed by the
Nominations Committee.
-
Ishabel Bremner and Charlie Woods are both co-opted Directors and as such shall
retire from office at the AGM but shall then be eligible for re-appointment under
article 81; both have agreed to this.
-
Liz McEntee is an elected Director required to retire by rotation under articles 69 – 74
and stand for re-election at the AGM; she has agreed to this.
The above appointments were accepted by those present.
Resigned as Directors during the year were James Murray and Kirk Torrance (KT);
RC formally thanked both for their contribution.
KT had been involved in initial discussions on updating the EDAS website and the Board are
looking to progress this work with the benefit of his ongoing advice.
Responding to Simo Kruyt, RC outlined KT’s extensive expertise in the digital comms field.
An independent audit of the web has been conducted, and led by Geoff Leask, with advice
from KT, the Board will decide on course of action.
This concluded the formal business of the AGM. Moving onto today’s first in a series of
Scotland’s Economy Sessions, RC introduced guest speaker, Gary Gillespie, Chief
Economic Adviser, Scottish Government. An outline and presentations from this Scotland’s
Economy Session is published separately.