The Presidential Commission into ICE's Governance published its interim report in early August
See https://ice.org.uk/about-ice/who-runs-ice/presidential-commission
"A majority of Trustee Board members should be elected by the ICE voting members"
Please take a look and give your feedback.
It took a lot of effort to get the SGM which led directly to the Commission, so please don't waste the opportunity!
But it can be frustrating at times. The September issue of NCE - which is the only open forum received by all ICE Members - had a feature article by the editor summarising the Commission's findings. It included some selective quotations from me taken from a letter submitted to NCE on 8th August. The Editor had acknowledged its receipt and indicated that it would be published. But it wasn’t. Why?
This is the second time this had happened. A letter submitted in good time for the January 2019 issue wasn't published either. It finally appeared in February... but rather too late to have its intended impact!
History seems to have a habit repeating itself. Very unsatisfactory.
The NCE article and my unpublished letter accompany this Discussion piece.
So back to the Commission’s interim report. It acknowledges the democratic deficit in the 2018 Governance changes. Those of us who were criticised for calling the SGM been vindicated.
But there are some serious shortcomings and issues to be resolved in the Commission’s interim findings.
The Commission has dismissed an Open Election of the Trustees in favour of elections from a closed list of internally vetted candidates or an election from Council. It sounds a bit like the elections in Cuba and/or some plcs!
The Commission is equivocal on the role of the President in chairing the Trustee Board, Council of both. It seems to me that the President needs to lead the Institution through Council. The Trustee Board is largely about legal and financial compliance, and it doesn’t need the President to do that.
And the role of the Nominations Committee needs to be more restricted and its membership more open and transparent.-
But please read the recommendations for yourself – and express your own views about them! And feel free to post them on CivilsMatters
The CivilsMatters Steering Group will be submitting its views in due course
Yours, Paul Jowitt
