The Annual General Meeting of the Society of Research Software Engineering will be held at
10am – 12 noon on Thursday 30th September 2021.

Web link to the event: https://septembrse.github.io/#/event/X1008

The meeting will be held via Zoom. Connection details will be provided via the conference system, will be emailed to members and posted in our slack (in #general) shortly before the event.

Purpose

The purpose of the AGM is for the trustees to update the Society’s members on what we have been doing this year to develop the Society and further our shared aims, and for members, to vote on specific resolutions and to have the opportunity to ask questions and raise topics for future consideration. No member resolutions have been put forward to be voted upon during the AGM but we will be holding a number of votes this year described on the agenda below.

All members who joined before midday UK time on Tuesday 7th September, the time of this announcement, will be eligible to vote at the AGM. A voting token will be sent to each eligible member shortly before the meeting. This token will allow us to verify the validity of your vote, without requiring you to be identified, and will ensure that only votes cast by eligible members are counted.

Agenda

• Resolutions for Constitutional Changes (vote of resolutions described below)
• Elections and Resolution for the Appointment of Trustees (vote of resolution described below)
• Trustee Reports and Updates
• Interactive Q&A Sli.do questions session: https://app.sli.do/event/wedolqxn
  • Please feel free to add questions in advance
• Announcement on results of resolutions
• Conclusion and end

Resolutions for Constitutional Changes

A number of constitutional changes have been proposed this year. As per the constitution these have been proposed as resolutions which need to be voted on by members with a 75% majority of votes to pass. Each of the resolutions has already been voted in favour by the board of trustees and reviewed by a solicitor. The resolutions are available in the following formats;

• Written format with context of why the change is necessary (pdf)
• Via GitHub where our constitution is available with all resolutions as pull requests

Elections and Resolution for the Appointment of Trustees

The current trustees and their roles are listed on the Society’s website: https://society-rse.org/about/governance/ 

At the AGM, the longest serving half of the trustees will be standing down at the end of their elected terms. Five trustees elected in 2020 will continue for a further year before their terms are completed. An additional trustee elected in 2020 will also be standing down. There are therefore 7 trustee positions to fill.

Our trustee nominations process has identified 6 eligible trustees and as such there will not need to be a members vote on selection. Instead a vote will be cast by members at the AGM to resolve that the following trustee candidates be elected to the board of trustees:

• Sam Mangham, University of Southampton
• Matt Williams, University of Bristol
• Fergus Cooper, University of Oxford
• Mark Turner, Durham University
• Holger Schulz, Durham University
• Jamie Quinn, University College London

Papers and submitting questions or ideas

The second trustees’ annual report and annual statement of accounts are now complete, covering the period from July 2020 – June 2021. Highlights will be presented in the trustees’ reports at the AGM.

• Formatted Version of the Trustee Report (https://bit.ly/socrse-report-21)
• Annual Statement of Accounts (https://bit.ly/socrse-accounts-21)

Attendees to the AGM can submit questions ahead of the AGM: https://app.sli.do/event/js2lyctd. Questions will be addressed in the trustees’ reports and the subsequent Q&A session where possible, and at the end of the AGM we will explain how any topics that need more discussion can be taken forward.