Budgerigar Society Press Release – 3rd May 2021

The Budgerigar Society Press Release – 3^rd May 2021

Summarised report of the General Council Meeting held on Thursday 29 April 2021. There was a full attendance.

Election of Officers

At the 22^nd and 29^th April 2021 General Council meetings, the following officers were elected to serve the Society for the three year period commencing April 2021.

Chairman – Maurice Roberts

Vice-Chairman – Grant Findlay

Judges Panel Officer – Trevor Terheege

Publicity Officer – Terry Tuxford

Contract / HR Manager (New Post) – Ghalib Al-Nasser

Official Historian (New Post) – Ghalib Al-Nasser

Rules Administrator (New Post) – Ghalib Al-Nasser

Show Cage Inspector – Gren Norris. Reserve – Adrian Richards

Closed Ring Inspector (New Post) – James Muir

NCA Delegates – Ghalib Al-Nasser, John Cosby, Terry Tuxford. Reserve – Chris Snell

WBO Delegate – Grant Findlay. Reserve – Maurice Roberts

General Council Budget Sub-Group* – John Cosby, Grant Findlay, Bob Francis, Maurice Roberts, Ronnie Simpson. Reserve – Terry Tuxford

General Council Board* – Ghalib Al-Nasser, Grant Findlay, Richard Miller, Maurice Roberts, Terry Tuxford. Reserve – Ronnie Simpson

* Chairman and Vice-Chairman automatically included.

Other Society appointments are:

President 2019/2021** – Ronnie Simpson

President Elect 2019/2021** – Phil Reaney

Vice President 2019/2021** – Chris Snell

Administrator – Jason Julien

Editor – Terry Tuxford

Promotions Administrator – Mat Ackers

Patronage Administrator – Ronnie Simpson

Society Trustees – Janice Al-Nasser, Grant Findlay, Dave Hislop and Maurice Roberts

Club Show Committee – Show Director – Dave Hislop, Floor Manager – Peter Smith, Competition Manager – Ian Ainley supported by Scott Ainley, Front of House Manager – Richard Miller, Show Secretary – Ronnie Simpson, Society Administrator – Jason Julien, Society Chairman – Maurice Roberts or Vice Chairman – Grant Findlay.

Disciplinary Panel – To be selected in accordance with the new rule change.

**Subject to suitable handover date

Terms of Reference

Prior to the meeting the GC had been given opportunity to propose amendments to the Society’s Terms Of Reference (TOR). Those submitted were mainly clarifications and were discussed and agreed unanimously. There were no changes to the Confidentiality aspects of the TOR and these were also agreed unanimously.

Request for Return of Ballot Papers

This subject had been discussed at the last GC meeting and all 5 requests had been responded to advising that the Society would not be returning voting papers. However, the written requests received from M Chase, P & V Hickling, A Luke, D McKeown and G Turner had been added to the agenda as agreed.

The letter from G Turner caused the GC concern and the accusations in his request were taken seriously. It was agreed on a vote of 13 for and 1 abstention to write to G Turner and point this out and request that he retracts the accusations and those he made on Social Media.

As stated in the Press Release dated 28^th April 2021, all members are advised that the voting papers are safe and secure with the scrutineer and will remain the property of the Budgerigar Society until they are destroyed. This follows custom and practice over the many decades when the Society has never received the completed ballot papers back from the scrutineer. They are always retained by the scrutineer for a period before destruction.

GDPR

The Administrator has been dealing with the solicitor on the GDPR case. This was following the Society’s response to the ICO re the EGM requisition signatories matter raised by some members.

The GC were advised that the error of publishing the EGM request including the signatures had been acknowledged and an apology sent to all 107 signatories. However, two of those members reported the Society to the ICO as they were not happy with the apology and actions proposed within to prevent this happening again. The ICO had written to the Society under two separate cases and the Administrator has been consulting with the Society solicitor.

The solicitor dealt directly with the ICO on behalf of the BS and a response was sent by him to the two members involved and these responses were also sent to the ICO by the solicitor.

Within the response, the Society has resolved that Society officials who deal with personal data will receive training on data protection law and regulations. The Society policies will also be reviewed and revised as necessary, and consideration made to the appointment of a Data Protection Officer for the Society.

The solicitor has agreed to review the Society’s privacy and data protection policy and advise on whether a data protection officer is required. For the training, the solicitor recommends holding off until July this year to allow changes to the UK GDPR and Data Protection regimes due to the end of the Brexit transition period, to be included.

The costs provided by the solicitor for this advice and training totalled £1,300.

It was proposed to take the actions as suggested by the Solicitor – this was agreed unanimously.

Subjects for discussion at future GC meetings

A list of subjects was included with the Agenda including the manifesto commitments made by both the successful and unsuccessful candidates in the recent GC election. This list is not exhaustive and can be added to by members of the GC.

A discussion took place around the merits of re-forming the Away-Day sub-groups, which will be strengthened by the inclusion of the new GC members.

After the discussion it was agreed to include the following subjects at the next meeting:

• Three-Year Plan for the Society/GC.
• List of ideas from GC candidate submissions.
• Website update.
• Letter from D Guppy re showing of non-rung birds.
• Consideration of Silver Bird Award Nomination(s).
• Presidential Handover arrangements.
• AGM arrangements.
• How often the GC should meet and how.

Date of next GC meeting – 13^th May 2021 via Zoom.