BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT Annual Report and Consolidated ...

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
This has been a momentous year in the evolution of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (“BCS” or “the
Institute”) and it has been my privilege to lead it through both calm and choppy waters.
Through our transformation programme, launched in September 2009, the Institute has taken a major step
forward in fulfilling our Royal Charter objective – to advance knowledge and education in computing and IT
for the benefit of the public. We have transformed our membership networking capabilities using social
media and web 2.0 technologies and methods. We have developed the Chartered IT Professional standard
ensuring that it is demanding to achieve and relevant to employers’ requirements so that they will
increasingly use it as a basis for staff recruitment. We have established the new BCS Academy of
Computing to create a cohesive community across universities, schools and the business sector committed
to the advancement of computing. We have developed a series of externally facing programmes to
educate the general public, government and business about the value of IT to society. This year we made
substantial progress in these ambitious programmes.
BCS has changed considerably in recent years. Since 1990 our membership numbers have doubled.
Today we have over 70,000 members in over 120 countries. The average age of new members has fallen
and now stands at 27, while the average age of all members has also fallen – our average member today
is 35 years old. Retention rates remain at a very high level and membership satisfaction rates have
continued to rise and have stood at a high level for several years. Nevertheless, 2010 will be remembered
by many as the year of the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in which Trustees and the CEO faced a
vote of no confidence.
The call for an EGM, signed by 52 members, was received in April 2010 and there followed a number of
discussions in which we sought to understand and resolve the underpinning issues. This revealed a wide
range of concerns, many misunderstandings and, most disappointingly, a lack of knowledge about the
work already in hand to bring improvements and resolve problems and was proposed in the absence of a
clear way forward should the EGM motions be carried by the membership. Many of the concerns raised
with us stretched back over a number of years. We were encouraged to find at this stage that many
signatories wanted to withdraw their call for an EGM but unfortunately not all were prepared to do so and
the Institute moved inexorably to the point at which an EGM became unavoidable.
The EGM campaign (on all sides of the arguments) was the first in the Institute to be carried out in the
social media age. Anyone could contribute to the debate and publish their point of view on public websites.
A major challenge for Trustees and the executive was the degree of misleading and inaccurate information
about the Institute in circulation at this time and the potential for reputational damage.
At the EGM on 1 July 2010, the motions of no confidence in the current Trustee Board and CEO were
defeated with 76% of the votes cast against the motions. A motion submitted by Trustees asking members
to endorse the strategy adopted by the Trustee Board of developing the Institute into one of the world's
leading professional institutes for IT was carried with 78% votes in favour. A record 32% of our professional
members voted in the EGM. These results gave a clear mandate to Trustees to complete the Institute’s
transformation plans to become a world-class organisation for IT.
We have not, however, overlooked the problems raised with us during the EGM debates. I have
established a group to clarify the causes and to allocate the issues to the appropriate Board or Committee
for resolution. I have also instigated a consultation on the most appropriate number of signatories to be
required in future to call an EGM; balancing the need to provide members with a mechanism to raise
matters of significant concern where all else fails against the need to avoid unnecessary and disruptive
disputes. We are also setting up a whistle-blowing group for members to report problems that cannot be
resolved through normal channels.
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