Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal June 2007 Volume 5(3)

CILIP governance changes

These governance changes will affect you

After an intensive 18 months of reports and working groups you, as members, will be asked to vote on changes to the governance of CILIP at the AGM in October. Audrey Walker explains all.

I start this article with an apology. It will not be witty, full of funny stories or anecdotes to keep your attention from wandering; it is an outline of the changes that CILIP is working towards. As the CILIP in Scotland representative to CILIP Council I thought it would be useful to set out these changes for CILIP in Scotland members. I have reported, after each Council meeting in London, to Policy & Resources committee and CILIP in Scotland Council, but not all members see or read these reports and this article will bring the important elements together.

In 2005 CILIP Council asked Derek Law to chair a Governance Review Task Force (GRTF) as CILIP needed to reduce the number of trustees to comply with charity regulators’ rules. At present all councillors are trustees. GRTF reported to Council in December 2006 suggesting changes to the governance of CILIP council and changes to the way it operates.

At the same time the New Business Model Working Group (NBMWG) has been working on the CILIP model to reduce spending, help to bring in a balanced budget and reduce the deficit in the pension fund. The two groups worked independently but some of the information did overlap. GRTF report was presented to CILIP Council in December.

It proposed changes to the council structure, role of the President, Vice-President, Past-President and creation of a policy forum.

The 12 new councillors will not have constituencies but be Trustees of CILIP. They will not be allowed to hold any post on a committee of any group, branch or Home Nation but will work for the organisation. The whole membership will vote (in the first year) for 12 councillors and their length of service will be determined by the amount of votes gained. One of the 12 will be elected as Treasurer by the councillors. They will serve one, two or three years, dependant on voting numbers, and then each year four places will be up for re-election.

Council will meet once a month and take over the duties of the present Council, Executive Board and Committees. The Officers of CILIP will report to the Council. The Council can co-opt up to three people each year to achieve balance in skills and / or jurisdiction. The Policy Forum will be chaired by the Vice-President and will send information, requests and suggestions on policy or strategy to the Council. Councillors can attend Policy Forum as observers.

In preparation for these changes being accepted the Governance Implementation Group (GIG) was convened and has worked on changes that will have to be made to
the Charter, Byelaws and regulations, which will allow this transitional work to take place.

The present Council of CILIP can make changes to the regulations but all changes to the Charter and Byelaws must be approved by the Privy Council. The changes to Charter and Byelaws were approved by the present Council at their April meeting and have now been sent to the Privy Council for their approval. Some of it is a tidying up of words or job titles; it will outline the structure for the new trustees and meeting structure. (For all changes please read the reports from the GIG on the CILIP website)

The membership will need to vote on these changes at the AGM in October (in London). Members unable to attend the AGM can give their vote by proxy to a member who will be attending the AGM.

The Treasurer in 2006 proposed a reduction of 50% capitation paid to Home Nations, Branches and Special Interest Groups for 2007. This was a follow-on from staff retirals, redundancies and job changes in Ridgmount Street 2005/06 that produced cost savings throughout CILIP to help the organisation move towards a balanced budget. The budget will not be balanced this year (2007) although the budget overspend has been cut and it now appears it is not quite as large as was originally anticipated. It will be difficult for many groups to work with this cut in finances but they have accepted the inevitable. In 2006 Council had to make difficult decisions on cutting budgets and posts in CILIP to assist with financial planning.

Further to these proposals there is a change to entitlement with your membership from 2008.

Geographically the divisions of CILIP – Branches and Home Nations will be as at present but membership as with Special Interest Groups (SIGs) will become an opt-in. Members will be free to select membership of any Branch, Home Nation or SIG as they wish, not defined by place of residence or work but they will only have two free choices. Members will have to pay an additional fee (approx. GBP 10.00) for three or more choices.
This could change the number of registered members in Branches, Home Nations or SIGs as members may decide not to pay for more than their two free choices and/or do not choose their Home Nation or Branch. It will affect the capitation fee paid by CILIP (Ridgmount Street) to each organisation as this is dependant on number of members.

In Summary
At the AGM in October 2007 you will be asked as members of CILIP to vote on (either in person or by proxy):

• Changes to Byelaws and Charter that have been accepted by the Privy Council
• Changes to the regulations as approved by the present CILIP council.
• Changes to the present structure of CILIP council to 12 national councillors
• The creation of a Policy Forum for Branch, Home Nation and SIG representatives.
• The creation of an Office of the President for the President and Vice-President.
• Changes to your entitlement of membership – two free choices of Branch, Home Nation or SIG.

Audrey R. Walker is Representative to CILIP Council for CILIP in Scotland and Librarian, Turcan
Connell – Asset Managers and Solicitors, Edinburgh.

Information Scotland Vol. 5(3) June 2007

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