Report of the Trustees Meeting Held on Saturday 24 March 2007 at the Leicester Marriott Hotel

The Trustees met for their bi-monthly meeting on 24 March 2007 in Leicester. This meeting took place after a meeting of Regional Chairs and Trustees in order that Trustees could hear reports from the Regional Chairmen and to find out the issues of regions and also to gain the advice of Chairs about certain key future issues.

All the Trustees were present and the first item was the approval of a Strategic Plan Sub-Committee which was to comprise of the National Vice-Chairman, Pam Jones, National Treasurer, Aidan Linton-Smith, Mr Mike Egan and Mr Bob Stephens. This committee will gather together all the ideas from all of our stakeholders and formulate a strategic options plan for consideration of the full board. This is for our Strategic Plan commencing 2008.

The Trustees then heard a report from Pam Jones on the National Service Framework on long term medical conditions and then went on to discuss the future composition of the Board of Trustees for 2008 onwards. The Trustees had had the benefit of the thoughts of the Regional Chairmen at their combined meeting and a full discussion took place. It was apparent from that discussion that several Trustees and Regional Chairs had changed their views and were now very supportive of the idea of having 12 Trustees. Having fully discussed the matter the Trustees voted unanimously to ask the Annual General Meeting to adopt a special resolution to have future Trustee Boards composed of 12 trustees elected by national ballot of all the company members.

An ethical investment policy was then discussed. When our new investment adviser was appointed the issue of ethical investments was discussed. We would not normally, knowingly directly invest in arms manufacturers or cigarette manufacturers, but other investment opportunities could be taken. However, there are ethical considerations for all companies and after discussion it was agreed that our policy would be:

“Our investment managers will seek to invest the Fellowship’s funds without ethical constraint but on a best endeavours basis, to avoid investing in any institution or fund whose activities or actions infringe good ethical practice.”

The next major issue was a paper which asked the Trustees to approve a new fundraising post. As our work expands we need additional finances to fund the work, especially the key posts of Welfare Co-ordinator and Membership & Development, which although funded at the moment by the Lottery and section 64, will cease after two or three years. This post will centre on getting major donations from rich individuals and from major Trusts and companies and, if successful, will bring in large amounts of money for the Fellowship’s use. Whilst there is concern about taking on additional members of staff it was agreed that to raise further funds we need to invest in fundraisers and that we cannot expect the membership to fund any further developments. This post was agreed.

A compassionate leave policy for staff was also approved with appropriate guidelines.

The next item was amendments to our Memorandum & Articles of Association. As a result of our application to register as a charity in Scotland so that the Scottish Region can carry out its work there and because of changes to company law certain administrative changes are needed to our Memorandum & Articles of Association and these were drawn up by the solicitor and formally approved. The amended Memorandum & Articles of Association will be placed on the website once all the changes have been agreed with the Charity Commissioners.

Christine Lumb then reported back on the Indoor Games which was agreed to have been a very successful event. The financial situation was then introduced by the Treasurer and discussed and generally it was pleasing to see that things were in line with the budget. The Chief Executive’s report was then considered and it was agreed that following a letter from the Chairman of our Expert Panel, Sir Bert Massie, an Orthotics Panel would be set up to take forward the key issue of orthotic provision for our members. Reports from the Information Manager, and the Membership & Development Manager were then discussed and the Trustees were very pleased to see the amount of welfare grants that had been given in 2006 and the geographical spread of those. Comments received from welfare recipients show the very positive effects that the grants have had on their lives. The meeting closed and Trustees will reassemble on 19 May 2007 at the MS Society in London.