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The AGM of the CMA
The Annual General Meeting of the CMA was held on Monday 8th. September at Waseley Hills Country Park (hosted by Worcestershire County Council including a welcome buffet lunch for all participants). In spite of the last minute change in venue over 30 members were in attendance. Andy Maginnis the vice-chair of CMA took us through the main business of the Association.
The annual reports of the chairman; vice-chair; treasurer; the six regions and the various special advisers were presented. Of special note was the fact that, though new members continue to steadily join, some existing members were not renewing their membership and the reasons for this need to be fully explored. There were no elections scheduled this year but some changes to National Council were made (see below) and ratified by those present.
Changes to officers
Following the recent resignation of Nick Eade as National
Chairman of CMA, the National Council at their meeting on Sept.8th considered
the potential options open to them to fill this position.
The CMA constitution does allow for this circumstance, and empowers the National Council to appoint a temporary Chairman until the next AGM. Elections would then be held in the normal way for Chairman (i.e. at the 2004 AGM). On this basis therefore National Council appointed Andy Maginnis the current Vice-chair to take on the role of chairman until the 2004 AGM. At the same time Roger Cole was appointed to replace Andy as vice-chair, again until the 2004 AGM. “CMA will become the largest and most widely recognised organisation representing countryside and urban green space professionals in England and Wales”
Conference 2003
The cancellation of the Annual Conference in Aberystwyth
was a disappointment to many, not the least those who had been closely associated
with the conference organization (including Tom Woodall, Wales Chair and Mike
Marshall of IRFC - the conference organizers). With only 17 registrations by
the cut-off date the decision had to be taken to cancel or suffer serious financial
penalties.
Having now picked ourselves up and washed the salt from our wounds, National Council felt that there are undoubtedly lessons to be learned from this. We wish to identify and address these as quickly as possible and in this respect, it is intended to bring together a small working group to consider 2003 in retrospect and possible options for the 2004 Conference (or indeed whether we should have a conference at all).
If you would like to join this working group (only one special meeting under the leadership of Malcolm Busby) could you please send your name and contact details to the CMA secretary Ceri Daugherty as a matter of urgency. Alternatively, If you have views about this subject and would like these to be considered by the working group then please e mail them to Ceri.
It is likely that the working group will meet in October and then present their proposals to the November meeting of the National Council.
New Senior Officer Liaison Adviser
CMA has a number of special advisers who take the lead on
such issues as Training; International; Marketing etc.
The corporate members of our association represent an important constituency for CMA. In the majority of cases these are the more enlightened employers of our members and as such we need to keep abreast of their thinking and they need to keep abreast of CMA thinking.
Previously an annual meeting of our corporate members is held. However, it is felt that our association need to build stronger bridges with the senior officers from these organizations. Thus a Senior Officer Liaison Adviser has been appointed – namely Ian Bamforth (Worcs. County Council). Ian was closely involved with the Professional accreditation group and is eminently suited to lead a small group in exploring such issues. Matters of strategy and development together with networking opportunities and the provision of a sounding board for senior personnel is felt to be areas for initial exploration.
New Website Monitor
Following an appeal in the last edition of Members News for
someone to keep the website updated, we are please to report that at the recent
AGM, Ian Rowat (Malvern Hills
Conservators) has agreed to take this task on. Please keep Ian up-to-date with
any items you would like included on the website. Ian can be contacted on 01684
892002.
Interim Business Plan etc
Most of you will be familiar within your own work environment
of such things as Business Plans or Strategic Plans or even Operational Plans.
Over the next few years the CMA has a number of key objectives it will be working
on and these have been assembled into a draft Business Plan for our Association.
This is still being worked on by National Council but so far we have identified
our mission as:
“CMA will become the largest and most widely recognised organisation representing countryside and urban green space professionals in England and Wales”
In addition we have recognised the following as being our key strategic objectives:
The Business Plan details the actions and targets for these key objectives and once finalised it will be published in RANGER magazine.
National Council
“NEW” - Member’s Information Pack
– distribution and availability
The Marketing Group have now finalised the production of a Member’s Information Pack for all members and prospective members.
The pack will be sent to all new members and also to those enquiring about membership via CMA Admin at Writtle. Copies of the pack will be provided to Regional Chairs for distribution at study/training days and a copy will also be sent to all individual members. Initially those members who have joined the CMA during the past 2 years will be the first recipients of the Pack and it is hoped that all CMA members will have received their personal copy by the end of the year.
The pack contains details of membership benefits; professional accreditation and how to assemble “points” for your CPD, as well as lists useful contacts both at the national and regional level.