Annual Report 2011-2012
Foreword The development and growth of Medsin over its short 15 year history has been impressive. Supporters are always astonished by how much has been achieved with little more than enthusiasm and good will, and that our members are prepared to give up so much of their time and money to pursue Medsin’s vision and mission. This is all the more remarkable when this is all carried out whilst many are also balancing demanding medical studies concurrently. As a national committee, we were, and continue to be, inspired by the incredible Medsin members across the UK who give up so much for our organisation. The passion of our network to challenge health inequities continues to drive our development and growth, and as a National Committee we were honoured to have the opportunity to help support and coordinate this development. We tried to draw up a plan for the year to facilitate our members and diverse member groups in realising the potential of the network to work towards our vision of ‘a fair and just world in which equity in health is a reality for all”. We attempted to identify key factors that we perceived to be holding the network back, and to target these. Examples of limitations that we identified and our attempts to resolve these include: - Lack of strategic direction: through compiling a 3-year long-term development plan - Lack of communication resources/strategy: through our national magazine, and social media use - Lack of effective communication between branches: through improving regional teams - Lack of an online platform upon which to share resources and successes: through a new website - Lack of effective governance: through a new constitution, and improving financial management - Lack of sustainable input from adult supporters: through the board of trustees and new patrons - Lack of network consultation: through ideas cafés, a national survey, & a consultation on conferences - Lack of human resources: through funding a sabbatical national coordinator Medsin has achieved so much, and has the potential to achieve so much more. We hope that through our year we have helped to tackle some of the challenges and obstacles to Medsin’s development, and leave the network with a solid foundation to continue to build upon. We are excited by the future of Medsin and all that the incoming National Committee will do to enable our network to continue to work towards its mission: “To create a network of students empowered to effect tangible social and political change in health on a local, national and global level through education, advocacy and community action”.
National Committee 2011-2012
Summary of Successes of 2011/2012 Supporting Medsin’s Local Groups & Members Resources for Branches and Activities • A new website, with content, resources & a membership database for branches & activities •
A rebranded, restructured magazine, showcasing the work of our network
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Branded resources & merchandise including travel mugs, & resources for Fresher Fairs in 2012
Improving Communication Channels • Developing our social media strategy and engaging a record number of followers •
Re-establishing contact with all our branches and activities, and creating network agreements and by-laws to solidify and clarify the relationships of each component of the Medsin network
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Encouraging branch collaboration and co-operation through actively developing regional teams
Key Events & Campaigns • Numerous successful local, regional and national events, such as two Training New Trainers (TNT) courses, an advocacy training day, and our National Activities Weekend •
CONFLICTED; this year’s Global Health Conference; at KCL, drawing over 300 delegates
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Key campaigns such as our petition against the NHS reforms, representing every Medical School
Improving Medsin’s National Coordination Governance • A new constitution, voted at the AGA 2011 •
Tightening of financial management, with a review and balance of previous years’ finances
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New governance systems e.g. national auditing of branch accounts
Developing Medsin’s Capacity • Gaining practical & financial support, including the funding of a Medsin Sabbatical Officer •
Enabling the Board of Trustees to become fully operational for its first year
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Developing external relations: engaging with new patrons & organisations e.g. the DoH
Developing Medsin’s Strategic Direction • Generation of a Long-Term Development Plan of the Network, covering 3 years. •
Inclusive and consultative review of, and recommendations for Medsin conferences
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Network consultation on key topics of our development such as our name, engagement of students from a wide range of disciplines, and collaborating on local, national & international levels
Enhancing Medsin’s International Engagement Working with the IFMSA • Sending pro-active delegations to both General Assemblies and the Regional Assembly to run training, facilitate small-working groups, and bring back their experiences and skills to Medsin •
Proposing motions & policy statements, & speaking out on behalf of Medsin within the IFMSA
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Engaging in IFMSA’s strategic development, and representing the IFMSA at events e.g. the WHA
Engaging in International Issues • Developing policy and lobbying the GMC & BMA to promote ethical electives & exchanges •
Engaging in key international policy processes, e.g. through our Healthy Planet delegation to COP17 in Durban, and engaging in the Department of Health’s consultations prior to attending the WHA
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Generating a new role to allow future engagement with international organisations
National Committee Priorities for 2011/2012
Priority 1: Professionalisation of the Network - financial management and charity governance; ensuring we are meeting our requirements as a registered charity, updating the constitution, setting a new financial plan, developing and consolidating the role of the Board of Trustees. - of the website; developing a contemporary space that is easy to navigate, accurately informs & allows us to store resources. - of the magazine; developing a new, rebranded format that showcases Medsin’s work - of resources; developing branded resources and merchandise for all branches and activities to use
Priority 2: Clarifying and Optimising Membership - clarifying our relationship with branches and activities; ensuring we are supporting you with the resources that you need, and in return that you are maintaining your relationship with Medsin-UK - a membership database; via our website to provide us with accurate data about our members, surveying to find out our current membership - clarifying the local, national and international links; strengthening the links and communication between branches, regions, and national work in education, advocacy, activities and training
Priority 3: Building Capacity for Medsin’s Future - creating accessible, long-lasting resources; such as a new website, merchandise, speaker database, and education, advocacy & training resources - consolidating & contracting relationships; setting up memorandums of understanding with branches & activities, exchanges, conference hosts, national/international externals, & within the national committee - Financing the future; seeking sustainable funding through the alumni network, grants, advertising space, merchandise, and document production
Progress on Priorities
Priority 1: Professionalisation of the Network Charity Finances, Administration & Governance At the Autumn General Assembly in September, a completely new constitution was voted in, closely based on advice from the charity commission. Additionally, this constitution clearly outlined the role of the Board of the Trustees. This allowed the Board to become fully operational for the first time this year, and with their support the national committee has been able to implement better financial and administrative management. We have also developed a number of plans to ensure effective future governance, such as offering training opportunities in financial management for branch treasurers, and national auditing of branch accounts. Rebranding the Magazine & Website We have also worked to re-brand Medsin in a contemporary and professional manner, through the creation of a new website, complete with a set of new and updated resources. A national working group created a new Medsin magazine. Unlike previous editions, this new, rebranded edition was highly structured, with sub-sections showcasing each area of Medsin’s work; education, advocacy and action. Developing Branded Merchandise & Resources We carried out a National merchandise survey to determine what merchandise and advertising material our members would find useful, and have fundraised and gathered external support in order to provide branded travel mugs for sale at our events, and resources for the Freshers fairs in 2012. In addition we hope the new team will be well placed to secure a banner for each branch, Tshirts, and stationary, and to expand further Medsin merchandise as a potential source of revenue.
Priority 2: Clarifying and Optimising Membership Clarifying the Relationships between the National Network of Branches & Activities Having re-established contact with all 29 of our branches, and passed by-laws clarifying branches
responsibilities to the National network, we were able to collect branch affiliation fees (a small amount each branch pays to the National Fund) for the first time in three years. These funds have helped to provide branches with merchandise and start-up or development support grants. We have also voted in 6 activities at MAW11 and 2 at SGA12; thus 8 national activities under a new set of national guidelines, and we have worked closely with them during the Autumn General Assembly and National Activities Weekend to determine how best the National Committee can support activities going forward. Generating a Membership Database Our brand new website incorporates a membership database to provide us with accurate data about our members, and, through personal profiles, allow us to provide them with material that is most likely to be relevant to them. Additionally, utilizing the database enables us to publicise our key events and activities throughout the network, and communicate our successes more effectively. Strengthening Links through Communication Strategies Our new communications strategy has involved proactive use of social media, and blogs, and we have significantly increased our following on both Facebook and Twitter, as well as writing for other organisations e.g. PLOS and the BMA. We believe this stronger communication has facilitated a better understanding of Medsin and strengthened links between different members of our network. Additionally our regional coordinators have facilitated communication and collaboration between different branches.
Priority 3: Building Capacity for Medsin’s Future Creating and Updating Resources We created a number of new resources, the most notable of which are our new magazine and website, which contains a mixture of new and refreshed content, and will act as our main way to share other resources with the network. We have designed a new set of advocacy resources, including a new advocacy calendar and collated training resources, accessible on our new website. We’ve also reviewed and updated our policy statements to work towards covering all key areas of Medsin’s work. Additionally we have laid the foundations to enable the incoming national committee to generate a number of other resources, such as a speakers database, and information on post-graduate global health educational opportunities. Contracting and Consolidating Relationships We have made significant progress in drawing up memorandums of understanding within our network, developing new memorandums of understanding to be used in future years to cement relationships with branches and activities. A key step has been to comprehensively review Medsin’s conferences, and produce a report, recommendations, and new contracts to be used in future years. We have evaluated the selection and roles and responsibilities of those attending IFMSA general assemblies, and generated a new guidance statement to address these. Additionally we have integrated the Medsin exchanges fully back into Medsin’s work, and established clear pledges of support from a number of externals, and all our patrons. Financing for the Future For the first time, Medsin has pro-actively engaged in generating long-term sponsorship agreements through the creation of sponsorship packages, through offering nationally a range of opportunities such as advertising space on our website and magazine, and opportunities to engage delegates at our 2 annual conferences. These packages and presentations can continue to be used in future years to draw up year-long contracts with supporting organisations, encompassing areas of collaboration such as financial or in kind sponsorship, cross-promotion of events, and regular contribution content to publications and blogs. Additionally we have ordered merchandise, to be sold at a small profit as a sustainable incominggenerating activity, and evaluated possible mechanisms of engaging alumni supporters.
Much of these funding has been put towards the support of a sabbatical intern role for the student coordinating the network. This will massively increase capacity for next year’s committee, for example, by enabling Medsin to provide a more effective student voice for weekday events and meetings, which the outgoing National Coordinators could not attend due to clinical commitments. He will aim to fund his successor, and more, and in this way continue to increase the capacity of the national committee.
Conclusion After a challenging beginning, with few of the incoming team able to make the handover weekend, and many positions left unfilled, we were able to hit the ground running and feel we have made some effective progress this year. Despite not having fully completed all of our objectives, we hope we have worked towards professionalising our image, optimising our membership and building the capacity of the network, and where we have not completed a project we have done our best to hand it over effectively to the incoming National Committee. We would like to thank the network for their enthusiasm, passion and commitment for all that they do; it is Medsin members themselves who continue to inspire us, and who drive the network to new heights. We believe we leave Medsin in a strong position to exponentially expand, which we hope will enable the National Committee of 2012/2013 to take the network to new heights.