Royal Charter and By-law changes approved at IChemE AGM

VOTING Members (Fellows and Chartered Members) of IChemE have approved changes to its Royal Charter and By-laws, with the results announced at the AGM on 20 May.

The amendments to IChemE’s governing documents were backed by 89% of the 965 members who voted. 7% voted against, and 4% chose to abstain.

In 2018, IChemE agreed that the Royal Charter and By-laws would be kept under continual review to allow any necessary amendments to be brought forward on a regular basis.

The 2019 changes are:

• To amend two minor changes to the Royal Charter: a typographical error (“Trusteees” to “Trustees”), and to change the reference to “company” to read ”Institution”. (Royal Charter)
• Amendments to the membership grades and processes in line with the changes proposed by the Qualifications Committee, which includes introducing a new regulation to provide further detail on the requirements of referees for applications (By-laws).
• Clarification to the time scale before the names of members in arrears of subscription, or those who have not complied with continued professional development (CPD) requirements set out in the Regulations, can be removed from the Register of members by the Board (By-laws).
• Clarification to the time frame allowed for Extraordinary General Meetings to be called and held. The proposed change provides the requisitionists with a longer time period within which to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting, should the Board fail to do so (By-laws).
• Clarification in relation to the notice of, and participation in, General Meetings.
• Removal of some of the detailed clauses, specifically those referring to the Code of Conduct, from the By-laws to the Regulations, where it is deemed more appropriate for them to appear (By-laws).
• Re-numbering of some By-laws as a result of the above changes (By-laws).

The AGM also saw changes within IChemE’s Board of Trustees: Stephen Richardson, of Imperial College London was elected as IChemE’s new Deputy President and will serve a six-month term. In November 2019, he will become President and serve for 18 months, ensuring a full three-year term as a Trustee (Deputy President, President, and Past President).

IChemE President Ken Rivers and IChemE Past President John McGagh were elected to extend their terms until November 2019, in order to allow Richardson time to get up to speed with the activities of the Board of Trustees.

Iain Martin, who has served as Honorary Treasurer since May 2018, was re-elected for the role.

The 2019 AGM was broadcast live. Members who were unable to attend the AGM can watch a recording of the broadcast via IChemE’s online member forum Interface.