Medsin Board of Trustees Meeting Sunday 27th November 11-3pm
The Weston Education Centre, King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill
Present: Tim Crocker-Buqué, Dan Knights, Felicity Jones, Rhona MacDonald, John Yudkin
Apologies: Jelena Madir, Alan Ritchie, Sunil Bhopal
Minutes taken by Felicity Jones. Minutes checked by the meeting chair (Tim Crocker-Buqué).
GOVERNANCE
1.1 Update on Collection of Branch Affiliation Fees
-
-
-
-
1.1.1 Appointment of Jonny Meldrum
The National Committee are pleased to report that since the last meeting they have appointed a
new Vice-Coordinator – Jonny Meldrum.
His role is to oversee interactions between the National Committee and branches, and this will
facilitate the collection of affiliation fees.
In the month that he has been in post he has already (re-)established contact with 27 branches,
and is attempting to contact 6 more, 3 of which are definitely known to still be running.
1.1.2 Report on Progress
As the Board will be aware, the Medsin General Assembly voted at the last General Assembly to
charge affiliation fees based on annual turnover of branches, rather than raw bank balance.
Shermayne and Jonny have disseminated the model accounts spreadsheet to all branches to input
their full accounts from the year 2010/2011.
The rate and quality of responses has been poor, with the majority of submitted accounts being
incomplete. This in part seems to be due to problems accessing accurate accounting information
from the previous year's committee.
1.1.3 Plan Moving Forward
Our plan is two-part: for this year we have decided to revert for 1 last time to charging based on
raw bank balance (on 1st Sept 2011 - ie. the end of last financial year), which should be easy for
branches to provide us with.
An email should be going out to the Branch Presidents to this effect tomorrow.
Non-responders will be chased up by phone next week, and we hope to be able to invoice branches
with a deadline for payment of the end of December.
The National-Coordinators acknowledged that this is later than originally planned, but the trustees
supported the National Committee’s plan, in order to ensure we collect fees fairly.
In order to ensure that this problem does not arise in subsequent years, Shermayne will email by
all branches by 15/12/11, instructing them about how to fill in the model spreadsheet.
The National Committee has also agreed to upload it into a google spreadsheet form, and then ask
branches to use this google spreadsheet for their accounting, so we can check it throughout the
year, and perform an informal audit to ensure that effective financial records are being kept.
Lastly, we will be running a session on financial management for all branch treasurers to attend at
the next global health conference, in order to try to help branches to develop the skills to keep
effective accounts going forward.
Additionally, we will seriously chase up any non-responders after the new year (at least 3 times per
branch by any methods that they have previously responded to), and if they are still silent by the
end of Jan, we will contact them asking them to disaffiliate.
Draft letter requesting raw bank balance from 1st Sept
01/12/11
Shermayne
Liase with Jonny to send it out to all the branches
01/12/11
Shermayne
Phone branches that haven't responded
Calculate BAFs by 10th Dec (for those who have returned account
info)
Draft a comprehensive letter explaining need for, advantages of &
progress of BAFs to send out with the request.
Send out request for BAFs.
03/12/11
Shermayne
10/12/11
Shermayne
Money to be transferred to NC from branches
11/12/11
31/12/11
Dan &
Jonny
Shermayne
Chase results three times (& ideally by phone on one occasion)
31/01/12
Shermayne
& Jonny
1.2 Update on Collection of Outstanding Debts
-
-
-
The vast majority of outstanding debts from previous IFMSA delegations have been collected, with
only two individuals yet to pay. These remaining debts will be collected by the 31/12/11.
We have implemented our plan of collecting the IFMSA fee prior to attending the delegation with all
general delegates. However, there are some automatic delegates (who we don’t select) who
haven’t yet paid and who we are chasing now – as massive improvement on previous years in
which payment hasn’t been asked for until after the event.
All but £500 of the outstanding money owed from the three conferences has now been collected,
and we expect the last £500 to be transferred within the week.
We have spoken to the Exchanges Officers and have formally agreed that they will transfer a sum
of £1500 to us by the end of December, as this hadn’t yet been paid to us from last year.
The Board of Trustees wished to express their congratulations to Shermayne and Jonny (overseen by
Dan) for their hard work, and the excellent progress that has been made.
AP: Shermayne & Dan to write detailed financial report to send around to all the trustees. This will also
detail our plans with regards to sale and storage of merchandise, re-initiating the Branch and Activity
Support fund, and a more detailed and accurate budget for the year.
1.3 Investment Of Medsin’s Funds
-
We are still looking to invest our capital in a high income savings account (with good ethical
policies).
We would very much welcome your advice on where and how to invest this money.
Although we need to retain quick access to some of our capital, we think we could afford to tie up
£10k-£15k into a medium term limited access account if it could increase our revenue.
Tim questioned the location of the most recent ethical investment policy of Medsin.
Felicity and Dan don’t know that there is a more recent one. AP: Dan to email Jonnie Currie to ask.
Rhona suggests the Co-op or other independent ethical companies?
It also might be worth looking into CAF
John suggests an ISA as being an effective savings option for the amount we are talking.
AP: Shermayne in collaboration with Rhona and Alan to research a high-interest ethical funding
account – find an ISA or similar by the end of December
AP: Shermayne to send one or more suggestions around to BoT to discuss at this point
AP : Board of Trustees to decide by e-vote if not controversial and bring to next meeting if we can’t
SUSTAINABILITY
2.1 Update on National Committee Progress
Much progress has been made. Amongst other achievements:
- The IFMSA delegation for the Ghana meeting in March (MM2012) has been selected
- An advocacy resource document for the year has been put together
- Our first training event of the year has been planned for next weekend
- Medsin-UK’s delegation to COP 17 in Durban has been fully trained & is there now!
- Medsin Kings held a successful climate change & advocacy training weekend last week
- The Scottish branches have held an excellent regional meeting
- Several activities (Crossing Borders, National Exchanges and UAEM have held National meetings)
- Our Activity, UAEM (Universities Allied for Essential Medicines) has just won $25,000!
- The planning for our Global Health Conference, “Conflicted”, at King’s is going well!
- 2 new branches have started up and others are undergoing new leases of life.
- Felicity & Dan have now interacted with a number of our partners including Merlin, Interaction,
RSTMH, THET, the BMA, the Department of Health and the King’s Global Health centre.
2.2 Discuss of Potential Sources of Long-term Financial Revenue
2.2.1 Grants
-
Tim: recommends fundsforngos.org. Suggests that it would be hard to find unrestricted funding
because ethereal concepts of Medsin don’t translate easily into projects funders are looking for.
-
-
Good options for funding a National Coordinator in future years include: Vodafone world of difference,
EWB, THET, Kings Global Health Centre. AP: Dan & Felicity to look into these, & ask other charities for advice
Medsin is probably not yet in a position to access big funds such as those from UNESCO etc
John advises prioritising funding for a National Co-ordinator. He highlights the importance of considering what
the National Coordinator could give to a funder in return. E.g. What might RSM/RSTMH want help with? He
proposes that student input into the education curriculum, acting as a student representative for global health
would be key aspects to emphasise in an application.
Felicity suggests the need to specify what Medsin would achieve with a full-time position that they wouldn’t
otherwise; e.g. highlights the issues she is having attending weekday meetings.
She also suggests the need to consider how this would fit together with other National Committee roles.
She and Dan are hoping to draft the initial proposal in January.
Tim suggests Felicity and Dan raise the question of funding at the Alma Mata working group meeting.
AP: Felicity and Dan to ask which Royal Colleges, Intercollegiate Global Health groups might fund us?
2.2.2 Other Sources
-
Felicity lists a number of other sources that she & Dan are in the process of investigating:
Alumni (Yize) – Tim highlights importance of her attending the Alma Mata meeting.
Merchandise – Laura-Jane is currently carrying out a Needs Assessment of what Merchandise branches would be
able to utilise, and stock should be ordered by the end of January. AP: Once this initial research has been done,
Dan & Shermayne to discuss stock control with Rhona, and what level of profit to aim for with Alan.
Advertising space on website, Advertising space in magazine
Writing global health publications for a small fee (as many organisations like Medsin do in other countries);
Felicity is currently sceptical about which organisations would consider this
-
Running events which may make a profit e.g. Felicity mentions an opportunity to help RSTMH holding their
annual meeting next September, for which Medsin would receive a share of the profits
2.3 Discussion of Externals and Patrons
2.3.1 Externals
-
Felicity highlights the importance of strategically considering interactions as to either how they are
furthering our vision and mission or potentially providing us with funds/sponsorship in the future.
THET is one of the few organisations which is gaining rather than losing funding at the moment.
Tim suggests RSM and RSTMH as fulfilling both aspects of the above.
Generalised agreement that it is to broad a topic to discuss generally.
AP: Felicity, Mike and Jonny to send Dan a list of events that we’ve been to.
AP: Dan to incorporate this into our existing list of interactions, and to send a google document about
the externals we are interacting with.
AP: BoT to rank organisations out of 3 stars
2.3.2 Patrons
-
Felicity and Dan read out list of proposed Patrons – generally approved. AP: Felicity to circulate
updated list of patrons to add and suggest to
Disagreement over whether Medsin could have too many patrons, and if so what the maximum
sensible number should be?
Since the responsibilities and of a trustee far outweighs those of a patron, there was general
agreement that it would make more sense for John should trustee not a patron
Rhona suggests an individual from a Paliamentary select committee representatives for a patron?
Other suggestions include another member of the house of lords, and potentially a global health or
development journalist.
One suggestion was Sarah Bosley (guardian health correspondent).
3. Mentorship
-
Discussion of some specific projects had occurred in the development plan meeting.
-
AP: Trustees to look through the strategy document and contact individuals if interested in a project.
No other matters arising regarding specific projects.
AOB: Upcoming Dates
Next BoT meeting: Saturday 4th Feb 2012. 9.30am and finish by going for lunch together at ~1.30pm?
AP: Rhona to liase with Anthony Costello about using his office again.
Medsin Global Health Conference - 'Conflicted: The War for Health' at Guy’s Campus of King’s College London, at
London Bridge over the weekend Saturday 14th - Sunday 15th April 2012. Contact: ghc2012@medsin.org.
The Spring General Assembly will be Sat 28th April - Sun 29th April.
The new National Committee will be voted in at this assembly. Ideally the BoT would attend for at least a few hours.
If possible, we will arrange a separate BoT meeting either at the conference, or at the SGA, depending on availability.
Handover for the new and old National Committees for some point in June/July 2012. Date TBC.