Minutes of EMAG committee meeting, 9^th April 2002

Held at: the Royal Society of Arts, John Adam Street, London

Present: Paul Braithwaite, Alex Henney, Tom Lake, Colin Slater, Rodney Allen, Betty McCann (Committee) Jeremy Lever (8pm) (Members)

Apologies: None

1. Minutes
   
   The Minutes of the meeting held on 23^rd January were approved.

   Noted that EMAG Secretary Adrian Howard-Jones had resigned in the interim. Alex Henney has agreed to assume the role.
   
   Margaret Felgate has announced publicly her intention to resign at the AGM.
   
   
2. Treasurer's Report £ 4,201.81 in the two accounts and commitments of around £ 2500 including expenses of the AGM.
   
   Should there be an annual subscription? Up to now the longer time-scale had not been envisaged. Bring this up for review at the AGM, after the current recruitment exercise. Agreed.
   
   
3. Membership: About 1800. Some have resigned on leaving the with-profits fund, but more have probably left without informing us. The committee agreed to ask Andrew Pike to rewrite the Objects and Membership clauses to be proposed as amendments to the rules for the AGM to allow ex-members of the WP fund to be members.
   
   
4. Meeting of group of Action Groups - 11 April 2002.
   
   The first meeting of ALL action groups was on March 12th where it was decided that it would be constructive to meet with the ELAS board. The 11th April meeting is the result.
   
   Discussion :
   • Vanni Treves refused to sit down with ELJAG reps. What should the other groups do?
     CS: the innovation was that all groups had got together, and this development is just an attempt to divide the groups.
     JL: it could be desirable to have ELJAG present if one wants to avoid litigation. It would be possible to express our regret for their absence, and that they should be present at future meetings at least until they determine on litigation against the Society.
     
     The committee agreed that the Board had made a serious error of judgement, since ELJAG had not set themselves against negotiation, but EMAG should attend under protest.
     
     
   • Our objectives - top is to gain the support of the Board for a campaign for Government compensation on grounds of failure by the regulators.
     
     Society should facilitate independent advice to policyholders on the rectification scheme.
     
     We are looking for a much more transparent approach after the Compromise Scheme - what is the Board going to do about relations with the policyholders? They probably do not see that they are perceived as embattled and secretive.
     
     
5. EMAG Recruitment Mailing
   
   The latest version of the EMAG letter was circulated.
   
   There will be no specific product advertising in the mailing - it is the financial advice service which is advertised by the enclosure.
   
   The committee expressed its thanks to Colin Slater for his very hard work on the mailing.
   
   PB to check the source of the communication purporting to come from the Society and communicate with Andrew Pike regarding the Society's questions.
   
   
6. Unit-based funds
   
   We still do not have a definitive statement of the position of the unitised funds and should demand the legal position.
   
   Nicholas Oglethorpe should be asked to summarise his understanding.
   
   
7. Committee asked PB to write to Margaret Felgate to resign with immediate effect from the committee as her expressed opinions were now fully at odds with the committee, had been publicly expressed and her position had become untenable. She had attended only one EMAG meeting ever.
   
   In the event that Margaret Felgate declines to resign promptly the committee agreed that it would proceed with formal expulsion from membership.
   
   Committee supported PB .
   
   The Committee noted the intolerable burden of detailed communications from one particular member and supported PB who had spent enormous time trying to resolve his endless questioning of the committee. Committee authorised PB to terminate these overly-demanding, unreasonable exchanges.
   
   
8. AGM arrangements.
   
   Prospectively to be held at the RAC club, Wed 5th June (jackets and ties required for gentlemen). Agreed.
   
   BM asked to prepare treasurer's report to 30th April.
   
   Notification to go out with at least 21 days notice,using e-mail where possible to save postage and printing.
   
   Proposed that the number to call an EGM to be half the square root of the number of members.
   
   Proposed that the time for committee to arrange an EGM be 42 days in view of the difficulty and expense of arranging accomodation.
   
   
9. The committee regretted that Margaret Felgate did not attend this meeting, which had been convened at considerable extra charge explicitly at her convenience.
   
   
10. Meeting closed at 10.00pm.