On Wednesday 4^th of September 2024, the Society of Research Software Engineering held our AGM at RSECon24 in Newcastle.

In this blog post, we summarise the key outcomes of the AGM, namely the standing down and election of members of the board of trustees. We have also included a recording of the meeting, along with the slides that were used. Finally, the trustees have compiled some responses to the questions from the Q&A session that we were not able to respond to on the day.

Trustee Elections

Each year, a number of trustees must stand down and a new batch of trustees is elected.

This year, four trustees stood down:

• Matt Williams
• Evelina Gabasova
• Peter Schmidt
• Robin Nandi

The membership elected five new trustees:

• Pip Grylls
• Godwin Yeboah
• Samantha Ahern
• Yo Yehudi
• Abie Alexander-Ikwue

Recording & Slides

The full video of the meeting, along with the slides, is available below:

Questions & Answers

There were a few comments and questions submitted via Slido that we were not able to answer in the room. The trustees have attempted to answer most of these questions, and you can read our responses below.

What does the expenditure on the mentorship scheme pay for?

• What costs / expenses does the mentorship scheme cover?
• What does the money spent on the mentorship provide? Is it platform costs?
• Why does the mentorship scheme costs to the society?
• Who gets paid on the mentorship scheme? The mentors, the mentees or is in zoom licenses?

We use an external company to run the mentoring scheme’s pairing of mentors and mentees, administration, helping with any issues and training. They also run continuing development sessions and finishing up and wrapping up training. It costs about £200 per person in the scheme, which we think is great value and are looking to expand the scheme for next year. We’re very grateful to mentors who provide their time for free and make the scheme as successful as it is.

Why is the Society paying VAT to HMRC?

We have income above £80,000 per year so are obliged to register for VAT and collect VAT on our services (that are VAT collectable). We don’t pay VAT to HMRC but instead collect it and pass in onto HMRC. Quarters will not balance perfectly in terms of when we have collected VAT and pass it onto HMRC. There are some complexities over time with VAT, but over time, this balances.

Could the Society get approved by HMRC as a tax-deductible professional membership?

Yes, we’re on the list of HMRC-deductible professional memberships.

Bluesky as Twitter alternative?

We’re on Bluesky and will no longer be posting on Twitter/X.

Does the Society have any plans for a policy/standard approach for supporting RSE-related grant proposals?

Members can request letters of support from the Society, you can email [email protected]. We can offer some limited in-kind contributions and will assess this on a case-by-case basis. Please reach out, preferably as soon as possible, but no closer than four weeks from your internal deadline, so we can discuss, draft, and get Trustee-wide approval.

Events and initiatives fund

• Could you front cash to other younger national associations so they can kick start their own RSE conference? (Like you did for Nordic conference this year.)
• Would be good to see some of surplus going towards supporting international RSE communities especially in Majority World
• How can members apply for financial support to organise activities?

We have the events and initiatives fund. We protect £10,000 per year, which anyone can apply for. We’d welcome applications to this fund, which can be used for anything of value to the RSE community. We’re also happy to help other organisations get off the ground and share our experience. Just drop us a line!

Some RSE groups are very male-dominated

We recognise that there are imbalances in the RSE community. We believe strongly in increasing our diversity as a community and would encourage people to join the EDIA and Role Diversity Working Group.

It would probably be great to encourage more participation in the Society from outside of academia.

Agreed. We have a bias as a community towards academia and we want to change this. We’d especially encourage someone from the private sector to stand as a trustee so that we can use their experience to understand more of how to reach people with their background. An alternative is to think about setting up a SIG.

Can we change the constitution so trustee voting is done in a slightly less mad way (e.g. online vote, formally add trustees volunteering on the day)

We only use online votes in competitive trustee elections – e.g. in 2023, when there were more applicants than vacancies. Where there are the same (or fewer) number of nominations as vacancies, then a show-of-hands vote in the AGM is sufficient.

This year, only two people put their names forward during the nomination process, resulting in two nominations for five vacancies. We decided to ask for additional people to nominate themselves during RSECon, which was not ideal, but meant we could fill all vacancies. Having a full complement of trustees allows us to ensure we deliver on the Society’s goals.

For next year, we are working hard to extend and promote the elections. However, the only way to avoid a repeat of this situation is for enough people to nominate themselves at the appropriate time.

Has there been any thought on how to curate a pipeline of future trustees/community leaders?

You can already take part in Special Interest Groups (and take leadership roles) and Working Groups. We think that these areas will give a hands-on experience of what it is like to work for the Society. We believe that it is a great opportunity for those at any stage in their career. We would like to have a range of levels of seniority in our trustees.

Any updates on accreditation?

Accreditation with BCS or other organisations is on our radar but would require a lot of work (and potentially cost to members, the society or both). If you have relevant experience, or have done similar, would you mind sharing, you can email [email protected].

What types of skills are you still seeking for the Society to help it grow/adapt for the future?

To enable us to broaden our representation and build a diverse community, we are particularly looking for those with an interest in communication, leadership, strategy and policy. The main thing is that you should have a passion for the RSE community!