The Stempra AGM took place online again in 2025 to allow for as wide attendance as possible. The chairs thanked the Stempra committee, both the outgoing members and those staying. Those leaving the committee this year are; Kathryn Ingham, Hannah Taylor Lewis, Clare Bebb, Jodie Bell and Freya Gadsden-Bolton.
Meeting Minutes 24/03/25
Attendees
37 attendees including 8 committee members
Agenda
- Update from the Chairs
- Accounts update from the Treasurer
- Discussion on spending the Stempra surplus.
- Approving the accounts and appointing auditors for the next year
- Appointing new committee members
- Discussing any other motions or items for discussion proposed by the membership or committee
Committee Nominees
- Secretary: 1 nominee for 1 position
- Digital Content Editor: 1 nominee for 1 position
- Non-portfolio: 6 nominees for 3 positions
Minutes
Co-chair Shane Canning opened the meeting with an update on some event highlights from the last year including Stempra North and Stempra Scotland. We hope to host more regional events in future and will look at other regions where we have membership representation.
The annual Press Officer Training Day was completely full, and we enjoyed some brilliant speakers. We gathered feedback after the day and while it was broadly very positive, we will continue to work to improve it year on year based on comments and ideas from the membership. One of the most successful parts of the planning was opening the planning subcommittee to the wider membership so that people wanting to get more involved in Stempra could join and learn more about the organisation. We will run this again next year.
Thank you to our professional development partner EurekAlert for their support.
Co-chair Ruth Francis updated the membership on the new website which launched in August. There will be plenty of space for new articles as part of an expanded resource for members, so if anyone would like to contribute an event write up or has ideas for written content, please get in touch.
The committee membership has been adjusted to reflect the increasing digital needs. The website editor and social media editor roles will be replaced with two digital content officers. This will allow for flexibility across web maintenance, content creation and channel management.
We are also going to commission someone to carry out a survey of our membership so we better understand the people who make up our community and how we can better serve them.
The chairs thanked the Stempra committee, both the outgoing members and those staying. Those leaving the committee this year are; Kathryn Ingham, Hannah Taylor Lewis, Clare Bebb, Jodie Bell and Freya Gadsden-Bolton.
Shane and Ruth gave advance notice that they will be stepping down next year, and welcomed conversations with anyone who might want to stand for the position.
Accounts update
- Treasurer Ed Day talked through the major spends of the year, including larger events and lunch and learns, and noted that we still have a healthy surplus.
- Thanks were given to auditors Kerry Noble and Daisy Barton. Ed will seek auditors for next year.
- Ruth and Shane highlighted that some surplus will be needed to ensure that staple events like Press Officer Training Day could continue in the event that we lost our sponsorship.
- The will be more spend on a membership survey and a move away from our current payment system Love Admin.
- The membership raised no issues with the accounts.
Nominees for the committee were introduced and given the opportunity to say why they were standing for a position.
- An anonymous vote was held and members were also given the chance to raise any concerns about unopposed positions.
- There was no opposition from the membership
- We welcomed Jade Passey as Secretary, Arjun Sanganee as Digital Content Officer, and Clare Green, Caitlin Higgott and Alex Durk as non-portfolio members.