Fellowship Network

How do we make it work?

The information is set out below as a possible “straw man” option to make the PMI Fellowship Network run if we are to launch it in Nov 2014 ready for meetings to be held in Q1 2015.

1.Ahead of the launch date

a)What do we want the Fellowship Network meetings to achieve?

I believe that these will be judged successful if

  • There are sufficient participants (ideally 6 – 12 Fellows) at each one
  • The topic proposed for discussion [initially by Membership Committee but hopefully later by the Groups themselves] is deemed relevant, stimulating and will be helpful either directly (job wise) or raising standards of information/discussion
  • There is an output so that people can see that the meeting has contributed to a future article/seminar topic/wider survey/starting point for a White Paper etc
  • Participants in the Fellowship Network get some added tangible benefit of being involved. One such benefit may be the research documents that Spence Johnson are willing to provide for free that normally they would charge for; UBS might be willing to underwrite the cost for these. Terri has been speaking to Magnus Spence on this issue and can cover it in more detail at the meeting. The Committee’s thoughts on this and other benefits it would like to see made available are welcomed.

b)What do we want the role of the Fellowship Network Ambassador (FNA) to achieve?

At the outset, I think we want the following

  • For him/her to act as Facilitator – taking a briefing note from Membership Committee on a given topic, coming back with any comments and then chairing the meeting so that relevant action points are covered [it might be that we appoint FNAs in pairs – one to chair, one to record and swapping roles at each meeting]
  • FNAs should actively promote the benefits of upgrading to Fellowship when speaking to PMI Associates.
  • Ideally – we want them to be spread across the UK though we may have to get the ball rolling in locations near to where FNAs are based and then rolled out to a wider set of locations
  • We ask the FNAs for formal feedback after each event [It may be that the Committee needs to design a report template for what we want to see]. It may be that we call in the FNAs on an annual basis when the Network is established to have informal feedback with the Committee over lunch

c)Selection criteria for FNAs

At the deadline we had received 16 applications from the following FPMIs for an FNA role.

One question that we have yet to establish is how many would be willing to travel to support the FNA role [assuming PMI paid travelling expenses]? For example, if there are no FNAs in Scotland. Or do we attempt to persuade a regional group to put people forward – which seem to get away from the volunteer concept?

d)How do we physically run the meetings?

I believe that we need to set out the following criteria

  • Find a number of sponsors willing to offer office space and refreshments
  • Most likely to find space at breakfast or evening times so I suggest we ask for rooms for 2 hours (say 8.30 – 10.30 and 5.30 – 7.30) and see what reactions we get?
  • May need to find a space at table for a host venue participant – even if not FPMI – to get buy-in?
  • At the start, Membership Committee should look to set the topics. Some ideas – just to get the ball rolling:
  • Does DA = Dead (on) Arrival?
  • Collective DC – is it just too foreign for the UK?
  • What would be the benefits of a single Pensions Regulator?
  • What should we expect from Professional Trustees beyond experience?
  • What are the downsides around freedom and choice in the pensions market?
  • Pensions post the general election – what do we want our MPs to do?
  • What are the future skill sets of the pensions/benefits manager?
  • Think we need to get the FNAs in for a scoping meeting ahead of launch in Nov to flesh ideas out more firmly
  • How do we ensure that PMI Fellows indicating that they will attend actually do so? Think we state that there are limited places available, build a reserve list etc. Our biggest problem may be that the commitment is clearly there from FNAs but less so from other Fellows who may dip in or out depending on topic/location/pressure of work etc. This, I think, will be our biggest initial challenge.

2.The launch

Realistically, I think that this needs to be towards the end of November to give us adequate preparation time to agree with the FNAs how we choose the initial subjects and what the output will be. We have provisionally scheduled Monday 24 November as a possibility and the Board is in favour of getting a hosted venue rather than incurring additional cost. I think that it would be safer if we could get a hosted venue as it is hard to predict numbers likely to attend with any certainty though I think it would make sense to include

  • Actual FNAs
  • All other PMI Fellows (including Council)
  • Press/Media

We have a certain amount of money set aside by Just Retirement to assist with the Fellowship Network and it was left deliberately vague as to how it could be used. I would be happier if we could have a number of sponsors – perhaps we could announce venue sponsors for Q1 2015 – rather than Just Retirement. We can discuss this in more detail on 23 September. We can also discuss if the Committee feels that Terri should actively explore commercial partnerships for the Fellowship Network (e.g. a company that might be willing to pay for a series of engagements with senior FPMIs on a topic that the Committee feels might be to the mutual benefit of both parties [a key issue is which Committee would have final say – Commercial Development or Membership?]

3.Post launch timeline

  1. Agree venues/timings for Q1 2015 ideally in a number of UK locations like London/Birmingham/Bristol/Norwich/Leeds/Manchester/Glasgow
  2. Send out a register of interest form to all Fellows at start of Dec and follow up with marketing campaign [ensure that we get mobile numbers so that text messaging can be sent?]. This continues throughout Dec/Jan with a view to holding these in Feb and March.
  3. Board was concerned that one of the “perks” for FNAs was reduced Annual Subscription. Think this need to be a future possible when FNAs have been running for a certain time. One for the Committee to address on 23 September.
  4. How many meetings are envisaged? Ideally, if any location proves more adept at holding meetings I don’t think that we’d want to restrict them but realistically I think quarterly looks a more realistic target.

The views of the Committee are welcomed.