WISTA Annual General Meeting
Date 15th March 2019
Held at HFW Friary Court, 65 Crutched Friars
London, EC3N 2AE United
Board Attendees; Sue Terpilowski, Rachel Lawton, Teresa Peacock
Apologies received from Bridget Hogan
Committee Attendees; Maria Udy, Winnie Sorensen
Open and Welcome
ST opened the meeting, welcoming all, she wished to thank a number of people:
Rachel Lawton for all of her hard work as Treasurer, and to her firm Mazars for their generous sponsorship of a number of events.
Bridget Hogan, who she called a ‘star’ for all of the help and mentoring she had personally given to ST especially in the early days of her appointment to President of WISTA UK.
Teresa Peacock, Membership Secretary and some of her team at Spinnaker namely Lauren Thipthorpe and Georgina King for their support.
Maria Udy and Winnie Sorensen who had taken over the events for WISTA UK and had done a great job.
New Appointments – Newly Created
ST thanked them for taking on these roles and offer our help and support.
Mairead Ni Cheonin has taken over the position of Webmaster International
Communications Team – new members: Helen Kelly, Penny Thomas and Nicola Good
Two new subgroups were recommended and approved:
Marketing Group
Regional Support Group – Possible synergy with Maritime UK and mirror their ‘Hubs’. Scotland would be another suggested Regional Group.
Any recommendations please to ST for people to be part of any of the sub groups.
Membership Report
TP updated all on the membership numbers. 2017 we had 153, 2018 we had 171 which represents a 12% increase. Renewals for 2019 are 130 paid, 101 outstanding. These will be chased.
HFW and Ince Gordon Dads are the largest corporate members with 16 and 15 respectively.
ST urged continued encouragement for members, listing the partnership work with the Women in Maritime taskforce, Maritime UK, SPNL and ICS as an effective way to get the message to a wide audience.
Conference 2019 – London International Shipping Week
LISW – 9th September 2019 will be our event. The venue is City Hall. The first section will be an industry topic, second section will be around women in maritime. Possibly related to the taskforce results.
The Minister for Shipping should be in attendance, a request has also gone into Princess Ann. The event will be free to attend. ABP should be sponsoring the Cocktail Reception afterwards.
Charity of the Year
Nominations were;
Stella Maris
Seafarers UK
Careers Promotional Forum
The chosen charities were Seafarers UK and Careers Promotional Forum.
We are happy to run an event to raise a donation for Stella Maris.
Elections
We do not have a ‘formal’ procedure for elections. For the next elections, we will adopt the International Protocols where possible.
Board positions – those standing must have been a full member of WISTA UK for one full year.
President position – those standing must have been a serving board member for one full year.
Nominations must be in 28 days before the AGM.
These points were voted on and agreed by a majority vote.
Treasurer – Rachel Lawton was happy to remain in post – agreed
Membership Secretary – Teresa Peacock was happy to remain in post – agreed
Secretary – Monica Kohli has agreed to join Bridget Hogan as Co Secretary. Monica also offered to take on a role in gaining sponsorship. Accepted with thanks.
Julie Lithgow offered to move into the Regional Group Support Role. Accepted with thanks
President Role – Mairead Ni Cheonin and Sue Terpilowski said a few words to support their application for the role of President. A ballot then took place. Sue Terpilowski was re-elected for President WISTA UK.
Treasurers Report
Rachel updated all attendees on finance. The accounts were presented and approved.
AOB
WISTA UK Ambassadors – TP has spoken to Bob Sanguinetti, CEO for the UK Chamber of Shipping, with a view to him becoming a WISTA Ambassador. TP will see if there are any official guidelines around their appointment or commitment.
A discussion followed around having female ambassadors, Dame Louise Elman, MP for Liverpool Riverside was suggested.
Elections – A heated and emotional discussion lead by Mairead Ni Cheonin followed regarding the low numbers of members attending the AGM, and if that meant a meaningful election had taken place. She was clearly distressed, angry and unhappy about the process.