Annual General Meeting 2008

19 November 2008, London Transport Museum

Minutes of the last AGM

15th November 2007 at Museum in Docklands

The minutes of the last meeting were accepted as a true record.

Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from a number of members including Mike Ellis and Dafydd James.

Report from the Chair

Commenting on the last year Ross noted how MCG was preparing itself for change. The consultations surrounding MCG@25 strongly suggested that MCG needed to transform itself to make it relevant to the way in which the sector now exploited ICT and New Media. These were exciting times for the group with many opportunities to both develop and influence the sector.

Ross reviewed the work of the group over the last year noting how it had undertaken a considerable amount of work both on its own and in partnership with other organisations.

Ross thanked all the members of the committee for their hard work especially those retiring this year. In particular Ross paid tribute to the work of the previous Chair, Debbie Richards, and wished her well for the future.

Finance Report

Angus reported that the groups finances were healthy having increased from last year’s total of £6043.04 to £7360.96 in spite of expenditure of £1356.08 on meeting costs, committee expenses and domain name renewals costs.

Membership Report

John reported that membership was following its usual yearly cycle with some 80 members expected to rise to above 100 as a result of the memberships renewed at or immediately before the meeting.

Corporate memberships had been slow to take off but were now starting to rise.

John asked all members to encourage their Finance departments to quote membership references on any payments to ensure payments could be credited correctly and to publicise the group’s activities to friends and colleagues and invite then to join.

Newsletter Report

Accepting that no newsletter had been published for some time Jon added that paper newsletters were beginning to give way to the more immediate publishing medium now available on the Internet.

Jon agreed that there was a need for a paper brochure describing the group and incorporating some measure of news and information adding that he would be considering how best to produce this in the light of any changes arising from MCG@25.

UK Museums on the Web

Ross reported that the annual UK Museums on the Web conference was another great success emphasising the group’s considerable contribution to the development of ICT and Web within the sector. Ross was pleased once again to confirm that UKMW would make a sizeable contribution to group funds.

Questions from the floor

Members of the committee answered a small number of questions from the floor from James Watson relating to the possibility of investing Group funds and from Vicky Mitchell regarding the use of Video conferencing.

Committee Elections

With only one nomination the meeting confirmed Ross Parry as Chair.
Agreed

Proposal
As the results of MCG@25 were expected to affect the composition and format of the committee John asked the meeting to agree that the meeting invite all those members who had expressed an interest on serving on the committee this year to participate as ordinary members until the new committee format had been established.
Agreed.

New Members
The chair will invite the following members to serve on the committee as ordinary members until new portfolios are established. These were Rebecca LOOSELY, Dave PATTEN, Gemma STURTBRIDGE, Linda SPURDLE, Ashley HARPER, Jerry WEBER and Angelina ROUSSOU

MCG Committee 2008

Any other business

There was no other business and the meeting was closed.