At the AGM on October 2nd the EBU voted in its first female Chairman. Sally Bugden takes over after being Vice-Chairman to Peter Stocken for the last two years. Her Vice-Chairman will be Andrew Petrie. By the way, Sally wishes to be known as Chairman, not "Chair" or Chairlady!
I have, naturally, got to know both of them really well. What the Shareholders have wisely done is to put in place two very talented and incredibly hard working volunteers; people that will use their professionalism and dynamism to move our organisation forward.
Peter remains on the Board so as to continue to provide his inimitable depth of knowledge and experience of the EBU. I very much enjoyed having Peter as my "boss" and I have learned a lot from him. At least he will now have more time to devote to his puzzle making!
Sally unveiled the Board's business strategy roadmap to the Shareholders at the AGM. Rather amusingly called "Bidding for the future" the document (which can be accessed here) provides details of the Board's plans for the next five years and how it intends to move these plans forward. This will involve a a great deal of consultation with the membership and research. A number of working groups will be set up to work on areas in great detail so as to cost the development and implementation of the business strategy.
Among the things that are coming along are our plans to turn the Union into a charity. As is typical with most Government changes (except nationalising banks) the new legislation that we have been waiting for has been delayed again until Spring 2009. We are waiting for a new style of charitable company called a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) to be placed on the statute book. This new style of organisation will be the catalyst for the 21st Century governance procedures that we need to have. I will be learning more about the eventual introduction of the CIO next week at a seminar.
Last weekend we tried something new at one of our events (Great Northern Pairs). The Tournament Committee will review the comments made after this event at its meeting in a couple of weeks.
Our teams are presently in China at the Mindsports Olympiad and doing very well at the time of writing. For those of you that cannot sleep, BBO coverage starts in the early hours - details here.
