Draft Minutes
Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK
Minutes of the
Annual General Meeting
Saturday June 8th 2013 at 1.15p.m
held at
Wokefield Park, Berkshire
The Annual General Meeting of APTUK was held on Saturday June 8th at 1.15p.m at Wokefield Park, Berkshire.
There were 60 members present and the meeting was quorate in line with the byelaws.
Agenda:
1. President’s opening remarks
2. President’s address
Non-members of APTUK were asked to leave the AGM at this point.
3. Apologies for absence
4. Minutes of the AGM 2012 (Proposed and Seconded)
5. Matters arising from the minutes of AGM 2012, not on agenda
6. Secretary’s Annual Report (Proposed and Seconded)
7. Treasurer’s Annual Report (Proposed and Seconded)
8. Administration/Communications/Education Sub groups Annual Report
9. Election of National Officers
10. Resolutions
11. Any Other Business
12. Details of next AGM.
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK, held on Saturday June 8th 2013 at Wokefield Park, Berkshire.
1. President’s opening remarks
The President welcomed all to the Annual General Meeting of the Association.
2. President’s address
Fellows, National Officers and Members,
As usual, I would like to start my report by thanking my fellow National Officers for their dedication, commitment and sheer hard work throughout the year. The number of initiatives that we are involved in is reflected in our reports and I encourage all members to read and reflect on them. By doing this, you will understand the range and depth of our work on behalf of members and pharmacy technicians generally.
I would also like to take the time to recognise all of the work undertaken by Branch officers and members who replicate the commitment shown at a national level. Without this engagement it would be difficult to spread the word of APTUK and provide member benefits at a local level. So if you are involved in branch work – please accept our heartfelt thanks. I would also encourage attendance by Branches at our twice yearly Branch Development days which also incorporate our Executive decision making process; the feedback is always very positive!
Last year, I reported in my address that we were struggling to find nominations for the Editor of the Pharmacy Technician Journal. I am sure you will all know by now that my pleas for support were heeded and we have a job share Editor comprising Rachael Lemon and Ellen Williams. This has provided a new focus and renewed enthusiasm and I hope you will agree that the Journal has gone from strength to strength. Subject to your endorsement, this partnership will continue as a job share for a further two years providing excellent stability.
I am also delighted to report that nominations for this year’s National Officer elections has been incredibly successful with all posts being filled; subject to your endorsement later in the meeting! This bodes well for the future and I hope we will reach a position where elections do become competitive. I strongly believe that all organisations need staff turnover to ensure continued enthusiasm, drive and new ideas.
Sadly, as we welcome new officers, we must also say goodbye to National Officers who are stepping down. This year, we say goodbye to Sarah Wilcox who has had a long and diverse ‘career’ as an APTUK National Officer. Her commitment and support have been much appreciated and I know that Sarah is very keen to continue supporting APTUK as an organisation. We also say goodbye to Katherine Roe who has filled the treasurer post for the last two years and who’s quiet and logical approach will be sorely missed. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of myself, fellow National officers and members to say a huge thank you to both Sarah and Katherine – we look forward to seeing you as delegates at future Conferences.
So, now we turn to organisational developments, achievements, strategic ‘themes’ and future direction of travel.
It is worth taking the time at this point to reflect that the last year has seen the biggest change to the NHS for a very long time. Many people will have found this change unsettling and, the full impact of the changes has yet to be felt. The role of APTUK during such change is to support our members, represent the professional interest of pharmacy technicians and influence on your behalf and we have taken every opportunity to do so.
At the 2012 AGM we agreed two major initiatives. The first was the introduction of a post- nominal allowing members of APTUK to use MAPharmT after their names - to signify membership and their commitment to professionalism. This has been well received and I have seen many examples of written work where members are using their post nominal; I encourage all members to use them. The second initiative was for APTUK to become ‘Limited by Guarantee’ thereby giving the organisation a legal status. This was an enabling step to allow us to move other initiatives forward, principally allowing members to pay by direct debit. I am really pleased to report that we are now a ‘Limited Company’ and I fully expect members to be able to pay by Direct Debit by the end of the year.
It would not be right for me to speak about the broad aspects of our work without mentioning our finances; although, of course, this will be covered in much more detail within the Treasurer’s report shortly. Three years ago we were lucky enough to receive some financial support for CPD, our journal and our website from the Department of Health. As a result of very careful management by successive treasurers this money has been eked out over three years. This has allowed us to cap membership fees during this period, despite rising costs. Sadly, this money has now been spent and although we now have a good buffer in our reserve account we do need to ensure income and expenditure are, at the very least, level. This will be a major focus for our new treasurer with the help and support of all National Officers.
The vast majority of our income comes from membership fees and so the number of members we have is very important, both financially and how representative we are perceived to be. There has been steady growth in membership over the last few years and we broke the 900 barrier towards the end of the last membership year. Timely renewal by members at the end of each year is a continual problem and membership numbers always take a tumble at this time of year before recovering. We do spend a lot of time and effort encouraging early renewal and we hope that payment by direct debit will allow us to improve in this area.
The bottom line in terms of membership is that we still have less than 5% of registered pharmacy technicians as members of APTUK; this is simply not good enough for us to be considered truly representative. Driving up membership is, therefore, still a top priority for us; we are always open to new ideas and thoughts about what we could or should do to attract new members. Please let us know if you have any thoughts. It is an unfortunate fact that many pharmacy technicians see the Pharmacy Technician Journal as the only benefit of membership. However, as many of you will already understand, we do so much more. A strong and credible professional leadership body is absolutely vital to ensure that pharmacy technicians are both protected and developed. You can all help by encouraging non-members to join and promoting the work of APTUK.
So, is there more we can do in terms of services and support for members? The answer will always be yes! However, what we can deliver has to be achievable within current resources, be of value and be able to attract new members if we are to build up our sustainability. I have a view that the development of a resource allowing members to electronically record development against recognised competency would be a really useful tool. It could also contain career development profiles for different roles in a variety of sectors. We will be discussing this and other strategic issues at our first National officer meeting after Conference on 29 June. Let us know if you have any views on the development of new services. Your input is always really appreciated.
We have a number of communication routes with both members and other pharmacy stakeholders; these include meetings, the journal and our website. Jane Gill, our membership coordinator has been working hard to build up e-mail contact details on our membership database. This has been very successful and we now have e-mail contact details for 76% of our members. This means that we can quickly and easily communicate with members. This has been very well received and feedback from members on the recent newsletter about the Clinical Pharmacy Congress was very positive. We will continue to build on this work and maximise our use of e-mail as one of the main communication mechanisms with members. With the cost of postage there are very significant cost-savings to be made here! You can help by encouraging the sharing of e-mail addresses and informing Jane if your e-mail address changes.
Our work with other organisations such as the Department of Health, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, General Pharmaceutical Council, NHS Pharmacy Education and Development Committee and the Centre for Post Graduate Pharmacy Education has continued at a good pace. The focus has been very much around professionalism, maximising the skills and experience of pharmacy technicians, developing new roles and operating within quality systems. These are all very much linked to protecting patients and maximising the potential of all pharmacy staff. We have representation on the majority of high level pharmacy projects including Modernising Pharmacy Careers, Frameworks Oversight Group, Rebalancing Programme Board, Development of Quality Systems Guidance and Pharmacy Workforce Development. Another example of our collaborative work has been to open discussions and lead the process of reviewing the registration process for pharmacy technicians in secondary care. This resulted from feedback that there was often an unacceptable delay between completion of training and entry on to the register; sometimes damaging employment prospects. We were able to map the process and provide information and guidance to the GPhC to raise the issue on your behalf. We wait with baited breath to see if our efforts have borne fruit!
On the subject of professionalism, there cannot be a single pharmacy technician who is unaware of the unacceptable Mid Staffs NHS Trust situation and the subsequent ‘Francis’ report. As a relatively new registered profession, this example of institutionalised poor care offers us opportunities to learn and improve; both individually and as a profession. Behaviour, attitude and values are all key elements in demonstrating professionalism. Behaviour is everything you do and say and attitude underpins behaviour. Always remember; you choose how you behave! We will be following the debate and developments post-Francis and will strive to ensure that the outcomes are communicated and implemented within the pharmacy technician profession.
Finally, we have been actively involved in promoting leadership and role modelling for pharmacy technicians. As an emerging profession we need to see those with the right skills, attitude and behaviour put themselves forward in leadership roles. This will be critical to how we are perceived as a profession by other healthcare professionals, patients and the public. In many ways we all, individually, have leadership roles with a responsibility to show leadership to others in our day-to-day work. We should not forget this level of leadership as this is from where many observers will draw their conclusions!
I hope this report gives you a flavour of the work, past, present and future that we are involved in. There is much more detail in the individual officer and work stream reports which will either be read out in the next few minutes or are published on the website for you to read. Please take the time to listen and read to keep abreast of our work.
Finally, once again, thank you all for your continued support; you are the reason for our very existence!
Steve Acres MAPharmT
President
Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK June 2013
Non- members were asked to leave at this point.
The President formally opened the 2013 AGM.
3. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from the floor from: Helen Darymple and Alwyn Evans
Apologies were received by email or post from: Nikki Woodhall, Gary Moss, Samantha Quaye, Lesley Morgan
4. Matters arising from the minutes of AGM 2012, not on agenda
There were no matters arising from the minutes of the AGM 2012 received by the deadline of December 31st 2012. An opportunity was given to the members to raise any matters, but there were none.
5. Minutes of the AGM September 29th 2012 proposed and Seconded)
The President asked if it were the wish of the members that he signed the 2012 as being an accurate record of the AGM 2012. They said it was, so they were duly signed.