A message from our President
RCN President Sheilabye Sobrany explains why you should vote yes to the resolutions at this year’s AGM
Dear member,
Three important resolutions will be voted on at this year’s RCN Annual General Meeting (AGM).
These resolutions will ensure your elected member leaders can transform governance, culture and finance at the RCN.
The changes are key to securing the successful delivery of the RCN’s five-year strategy released in May 2023. In three distinct ways, they would provide stability and allow for growth and positive change following the external reports by KPMG and Bruce Carr KC into the governance and culture at the RCN respectively.
Please take a few moments to understand each of them, and to cast your vote. Your elected RCN Council recommends that you vote in favour of each of them.
Resolution 1: Extension to Council members’ terms of office (ordinary resolution)
This resolution relates to newly elected Council members whose terms of office are due to expire on 31 December 2023. Members will be asked to vote to approve an extension of terms until 31 December 2024.
Stability in leadership is critical for everyone involved at the RCN – our members, elected representatives and staff.
The majority of current RCN Council members started their roles in April this year. They were elected to fill the vacancies caused by nine Council members stepping down after a vote of no confidence at the EGM in November 2022. As it stands, these new members’ terms of office are due to end in just a few months’ time on 31 December 2023.
Our priority is a review of the governance structure in line with the recommendations in the KPMG report. Following extensive member consultation our new governance structure will determine how we run the Council elections in 2024.Extending the current Council members terms of office will enable that work to take place seamlessly and will avoid a second set of expensive elections this year.
Resolution 2: Member subscriptions (ordinary resolution)
This resolution asks members to approve a further five-year dispensation for Council to set membership subscriptions, until 31 December 2028.
The RCN’s Standing Orders state that subscription rates can only be set by members in General Meeting. This restricts the financial planning which is needed to run an organisation of our size, and creates enormous financial risk and instability. Consquently, through a series of AGM resolutions since 2011, members have given Council dispensation to set these rates. Council has only used this dispensation once – an increase of just 1% in January 2014.
Council is not seeking an increase at the present time, in recognition of rising prices hitting members’ pockets, current levels of pay awards across all sectors, and the strength of our own membership numbers. It is important that Council is able to plan the RCN’s finances in order to provide financial stability and sustainability.
We will continue to do everything we can to deliver effectively and efficiently for members in these challenging times.
Resolution 3: EGM Threshold (special resolution)
This resolution relates to the threshold needed to call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), how requisitions for EGMs are submitted and authenticated, and how member resolutions can be submitted to General Meetings which have already been called.
Both KPMG and Carr recommended that the College reviews the threshold at which an EGM can be requisitioned. In relation to the ease in which members can call an EGM, Bruce Carr KC said, “It creates fear, paralysis and substandard decision making. It also gives a small number of members (0.2%) a disproportionate ability to affect the organisation. It is very damaging and should be changed so that when an EGM is called, it is done on the basis of a properly representative community within the College.”
By following the examples of similar organisations, we want to ensure this process is balanced, representative and that the whole College positively benefits from member democracy.
This resolution proposes a threshold of 5%, which is in line with other similar organisations/trade unions as well as the Companies Act. You will also be asked to vote for a lower threshold of 2.5% should the 5% not be passed. Voting for this resolution also means a change to the way in which EGM petitions are submitted and authenticated, and is designed to avoid a repeat of the misuse of members’ personal information and uphold the security and ensure confidence in the process of requesting this type of meeting.
It’s important that members can raise concerns and direct the future of the RCN. Therefore, alongside democratising the threshold needed to call an EGM, you’ll also be asked to vote to enable Council to set out a clear path by which members can submit resolutions on to the agendas of General Meetings which have already been called. If this is passed Council has committed to a policy change which means members also have a direct route to submit items and speak to them directly at Council meetings.
Together these changes will provide stronger and more robust governance and will ensure that resolutions at General Meetings can only be submitted with the weight of a representative number of members behind them, while at the same time creating more direct pathways for members, either individually or collectively, to raise items with Council.
If these votes are passed the RCN’s standing orders will be amended accordingly and Council will also agree a number of associated regulations and policy amendments – in the interests of transparency the full details of all these changes will be available on this voting platform and at the meeting itself.
We have recently been through a difficult period of instability but we are committed to a programme of transformation. These resolutions form part of that process and RCN Council asks you to vote ‘yes’.
Sheilabye Sobrany
RCN President
