Committee administration

Guidelines for holding an AGM

An AGM can make an invigorating centrepiece to a day conference or symposium, offering an opportunity to reflect on the year's achievements and to encourgage discussion with the wider Group membership.

There are a number of formal matters that must be dealt with at an AGM. These are set out on pages 6-7 of the Group Management Regulations, which were ratified by the Board of Trustees in June 2020 and have been issued to Groups. For more on this, contact your Group Chair or Secretary, or liaise with the Head of Membership.

Claiming expenses

Group Committee members can claim reimbursement of expenses for costs incurred in the course of their work for an Icon Group Committee, in accordance with the Reimbursement Guidelines. Full details are set out in the Expenses Claim Form.

Once completed email the form to your Group Treasurer with VAT receipts and/or any other applicable documentation, and they will do the rest.

Holding remote meetings

Icon staff use Microsoft Teams to stage remote meetings both large and small because it is free to use, and can be accessed either via a web browser or via the Microsoft Teams app. You might find our Etiquette Guide for Large Meetings helpful. An alternative is to use Icon's shared Zoom account - but please ensure that you do not 'double book' by choosing a time when a webinar is already scheduled. Check both the meeting and webinar calendars!

Accessing member statistics

Sometimes, it's useful to know who you're organising your events and initiatives for! To refresh your knowledge, liaise with the membership team to receive a membership breakdown.

In accordance with GDPR, this will consist only of what you need to know to plan events or deliver your AGM:

Icon members subscribing to your Group or Network
Institution/Organisation (if given)
Membership category
Subscription type

Individual contact details of Icon members can never be provided, but with the breakdown, the office will provide a separate list of postcodes in alphabetical order (and thus anonymised), so you can develop an understanding of the geographic distribution of your subscribers to help plan locations for your events.

Communicating with members

Icon's Iconnect e-bulletin system was established to ensure all Icon members can readily stay in touch with the latest news, events and other developments. As membership details change every day, every Iconnect is sent by the membership team using up-to-the-minute information from Icon's membership database.

To send an Iconnect, email a word document of max. 300 words to [email protected]. Please provide at least 7 days notice to when you would like an Iconnect to be sent.

Please note that Iconnects to the Icon membership are scheduled in advance, and the flow is managed to ensure all Iconnects have the strongest chance of being seen by members, rather than overlooked in a flood of notifications in a given day.

Icon's events team will ensure your message is scheduled for dispatch as soon as possible - but 'last minute' Iconnect requests should be avoided, as these often cannot be accommodated.

For the same reason, please draft your Iconnects to ensure all the required information is provided at once, rather than in a series of successive updates - as these can disadvantage other Groups and Networks who will be similarly looking to get messages out to Icon members within the 'bandwidth' available.

Recruiting committee members

How can we recruit new Committee members?

Icon has explored motivation around Committee engagement through the triennial membership survey and interviews in 2018.

Many members report becoming involved to learn new skills, to broaden personal and professional networks, and to give something back to the profession - so with this in mind, as a first step it's a useful idea to look around at events. Are there any regular attendees who might be interested in the chance to get involved? There can be no underestimating the compliment of an invitation to join an Icon Committee - so worth bearing in mind!

Alongside this, there are larger ranks of Icon members who might not make it to events on such a regular basis who are nonetheless keen to get involved - particularly with today's methods of staying in touch remotely. An Iconnect announcement promoting available Committee roles is a clear given, and this can often provide a surefire way to draw interested members more closely into the fold.

Group Committee Roles:

Chair

Treasurer

Secretary

Events Officer

IT / Social Media Officer

Updating Group or Network pages on the Icon website

To update Group or Network pages on the Icon website, please liaise with webmaster Geanina Beres, Communications Officer. Geanina will work with you to make any changes required.