Shared Interest Society Limited Annual General Meeting 6th March 2010 The meeting was held at Council Chambers, Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QH at 11:00am on 6th March 2010. Philip Angier, Moderator, welcomed 76 members and their guests to the meeting and went on to introduce the opening speaker. Richard Adams gave the introductory address. Patricia Alexander, Managing Director, presented a report on the Society’s activities during 2008/9. Tim Morgan, Finance Director, gave a presentation on the financial results for the year and then, along with members of the Society’s Management Team and Non-Executive Directors, responded to questions from members. 1) What is the BLF? – The BLF is the Big Lottery Fund and is the grant making fund of the National Lottery. As such it is one of the most important grant makers in the UK and the organisation has to weigh up the value of the fund against the source of the funds. 2) Why has the membership level not increased? – Hard to give a specific reason. There is a low turnover of membership but the main challenge for the Supporter Relations Team is to bring in new groups of members. The Supporter Relations Officers (Sally & Ruth) are helping to raise the profile as are Communications staff, and it hoped that further new opportunities to present Shared Interest will come out of this. All of this work is aimed at building the foundations which will hopefully lead to a snowball effect. It is also worth noting that the value of membership has risen £10m in 10 years 3) Where did the Foundation come from and what is the difference between the Foundation and the Society? – The Foundation is a separate legal entity which carries out charitable work as opposed to lending. It was set up in 2004 and the money received from donations is used for projects such as training. 4) The accounts show the salary of the M.D. has increased to £67k from £59k. Where has the increase come from and also why do the non-executive directors receive a salary, not just expenses? – The salary of the M.D. is set independently by the Remuneration Committee composed of 3 non-executive directors. The “salary” as shown in the accounts also includes the cost of pension contributions and employer’s national insurance contributions. The non-executive directors receive a salary as part of their appointment and the salary level is set by management and not by the non-executive directors, any increases are usually in line with staff salary increases. 5) Addition after the meeting: The MD salary point has been checked and large apparent change is because the 2008 figure was mistakenly understated by £6,000, 1