2020 AGM Update

Dear members,

In line with the Government guidance and the uncertain duration of the current lockdown, the Board of Directors decided to cancel the Annual General Meeting (AGM) this year but that did not negate the legal requirement to present key aspects of our AGM to you, the membership.

Specifically, we required the acceptance of a number of key actions:
•To vote to accept the nominees for Directorships on our Board.
•To accept the 2019 Statement of Accounts
•To appoint the auditors.
•To Approve the 2019 Annual General Meeting minutes

After being distributed on May 1st, the AGM voting survey is now complete and I am pleased to report that we exceeded by far the number of responses we needed in order to legitimise the results.
I am also delighted to be able to declare that both Peter Lavery FSyI and Andy Watkin Childs CSyP MSyI were unanimously elected to the Board of Directors for the next three years, and will continue to fulfil their respective roles as Deputy Chairman and Director of Standards Development.

The auditors were approved, as were the accounts. Three questions were raised by members have been addressed by the Deputy Chairman. These specifically related to the appearance of an overspend in the last financial year, which is the result of a change in the accounting process and relates to deferred income. Clarifications are boxed off below, with the sections in italics taken from the last page of the 2020 Audit Committee report.

In accordance with Financial Report Standard 102 section 1a, Armstrongs have accounted for deferred income in the accounts. The principle is to “match” the correct income with the correct expenditure in the correct period. [NB: Deferred income consists of the money you have received during the year which relates to next year’s services. For instance, this could be a membership paid in December 2019 which relates to the 2020 year.]

In the normal run of things there would be a deferred income figure bought forward from last year. Unfortunately, our accounts were not prepared on this basis before and all income received in the year has been recognised as income in that particular year. This is not correct in accordance with Financial Reporting Standards. The result of deferring income in these accounts for the first-time results in a greater-than-usual deficit (due to the fact we had not accounted for deferred income bought forward).

However, whilst noting the increased budget deficit the Audit Committee expects this to decrease/fall in line with budget following the accountancy realignment and additional reserves to be built up as a percentage increase against revenue. The Institute remains in a strong fiscal position with total assets of £204,401.00 (as of 31st Dec 2019).

You will appreciate that the Institute is growing steadily and as such, revenue is increasing. As a “not for profit”, the Institute does not make profit, only surplus funds which we then invest into better membership benefits. At the time of writing, we have invested a considerable amount securing a new collaborative community platform from Higher Logic. This platform will give every Special Interest group its own workspace to enable their brilliant thought leadership to be captured and shared for all.

The annual report would, ordinarily, have been available to you at the time of the AGM but, due to the current crisis and the commitments of the directors and other contributors, we extended the deadline for their contributions with a view to circulating the report a little later. You can read the full 2019/2020 Annual Report HERE

I thank all of the contributors for giving their time and effort when so many other priorities in their working and personal lives must take precedence in the present circumstances.

Thanks very much to you all for your assistance with the survey, and your continued support for and faith in the Security Institute. I hope it will not be too long before I have an opportunity to catch up with you in person. I would also like to convey my gratitude to the HQ team for designing and implementing the survey in order to enable us to meet our obligations, and our Company Secretary Nigel Churton MBE FSyI for his invaluable advice and assistance to the HQ team and myself.

Best wishes,
Professor Alison Wakefield PhD CSyP FSyI