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MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Apologies for absence
Minutes of the previous AGM
and Matters Arising
Chairman�s Report 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 unable to 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; there 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 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 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 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: Secretary�s Note: following the reorganisation of Government Departments in the Spring, the DTLR has been replaced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Transport and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Retail Statistics are the responsibility of ODPM and Construction Materials of the DTI. Programme for the Coming Year 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 Any Other Business |