CILIP is inviting current members to an online General Meeting on the 19^th March 2024 to conclude the agenda items that could not be completed at the Annual General Meeting in October 2023. 

The agenda for the General Meeting will include: 

·                Presentation of the 2022 Audited Accounts (which were not ready in time for the October 2023 AGM);

·                An update on the Association’s financial performance in 2023/24;

·                An update on the appointment of new Auditors for 2024, and;

·                An overview of a number of proposed changes to CILIP’s governing documents (Bye laws and Regulations)

The General Meeting is convened by the Board of Trustees in accordance with Bye law 20 and General Regulations 22 and 23. There are no voting or assent items for this General Meeting, so we will not be running an online ballot of members. 

Financial reporting to members

CILIP has now completed the sale of our previous premises at 7 Ridgmount Street and the organisation has successfully relocated to an administrative office at the British Library. On the mandate of the Board, as communicated to the membership at the 2021 and 2022 Annual General Meetings, part of the sale proceeds have been used to close the deficit on our legacy Pension Scheme and to begin the process of Scheme exit. 

The Association has emerged from the challenges of recent years in good financial order and is now able to look ahead to the future with confidence. At the General Meeting, the incumbent Hon. Treasurer Stephen Phillips will share the Audited Accounts for financial year 2022 as well as an update on the organisation’s overall finances. 

The 2022 Annual Report and Accounts are available for members to view at https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/AnnualReports. Members will also find the accompanying Annual Report and Accounts for CILIP Pathways, CILIP’s wholly-owned trading subsidiary.

Proposed update to Governing Documents

The CILIP Board of Trustees has asked the team to liaise with our legal advisers, Bates Wells, to undertake a review of our Governing Documents. These currently comprise four main elements: 

·       Our Royal Charter

·       Our Bye laws

·       Our General Regulations

·       A series of Appendices to the General Regulations

Changes to the Royal Charter can only be made with the assent of the Privy Council. We do not currently envisage proposing any changes to this document. 

CILIP’s Bye laws and Regulations are relatively complex and do not reflect the changes to the Association in recent years including, for example, the creation of our Diversity Networks. We therefore propose to undertake a review with the following aims:

·       To streamline and simplify the operation of the Association while maintaining accountability to members;

·       To reflect changes in working practice, such as the use of hybrid meetings and electronic communications;

·       To provide greater responsiveness for the Board in establishing and managing delegated Committees and task-and-finish groups, and;

·       To merge the relatively complex Appendices into a single set of General Regulations in order to ensure consistency and good governance.

Any changes to these documents will require member support, so we would like to use the General Meeting to share the scope of the intended changes and to solicit member feedback to ensure that we continue to be accountable to our members. 

AGM 2024

This general meeting will not replace the traditional CILIP AGM, which will be held as usual in October 2024 (date pending). Members are reminded that they have the right to bring Member-nominated Resolutions to the AGM and information on how to do so is contained in our General Regulations at https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/Byelaws  

Please register to attend the meeting. The agenda and zoom joining details will be circulated in due course.