ACFA News - Conference Minutes

ACFA ‘GOD IN OUR WORLD AT WORK ’ ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Friday 14th November 2008 Conference Minutes

• Murray McEwan started the day with Worship & Prayer
• Marie Potter opened with Chairpersons statement
  Membership has increased from 41 in 06/07 to 59 in 07/08
  Alan Hiscox founder of ACFA 20 years ago, gave a historic reflection on the association.
• Geoff Shattock  - ‘God in the workplace’ - presentation

ACFA AGM

Committee reports:-

Each committee member Marie Potter, Graham Cleveland, Simon Webster, Martin Andrews and Mark Crofts reported back to the members what had been achieved in the past year.

These reports are as per the attachments for each committee member, as supplied in the Conference packs.

In addition to these reports, the following business was discussed and dealt with;

1. Martin raised the issue of monthly standing orders for the payment of ACFA membership; this was accepted by members, with s/o’s lasting for 3 years. Forms were enclosed in the conference packs and members were encouraged to return these asap for this years renewal. This Standing Order proposal was put to members - , Derek William, proposer; David Hindle, seconded, carried by membership.
2. Election of officers:
   The following were elected onto the committee -
   Treasurer – Derek Williams
   Committee member - Aidan Vaughan
3. Website & newsletters – the website although updated and improved is still not being used effectively by members via the forum, encouragement was given to use this facility to support and maintain contact with each other

It seems that some Newsletters have not been received by members via email, the list of email addresses will be updated as part of the information provided by membership renewal forms.

Communication – it was agreed this was a key element to ensure that members were supported throughout the year, both by regional informal groups, newsletters and via the forum website, plus the annual conference.  

1. Future of ACFA - Marie went through the 3 proposals for the future for ACFA, these were:

• ACFA to employ Ambassador to help promote association or Chair to receive £500 p.m. allowance to help run ACFA
• Have 2/3 committee members to organise membership, run website and annual conference
• Close the association down

Due to the success of the response to adverts in the Christian press for the Ambassador role and the appetite of the members valuing and wishing to promote the association, the proposals were deemed not necessary to be acted on.

It was agreed that the new Chair, Graham Cleveland, should be paid £500 p.m. for 2 months whilst applications were vetted and a suitable person appointed to the Ambassador role, God willing, by January 2009.     

1. Chris Sheldon – volunteered as accounts examiner, carried by conference.
2. AGM Closed

Other Matters

• Marie handed over to Graham as Chair person and all prayed for wisdom, guidance and protection for Graham as he takes this God given role on.

• Simon Webster – Encouraged members to link ACFA website from there own company websites and use chat room/forum. Until the Ambassador role is in place, it was agreed Simon would continue to look after website.  

• Graham Cleveland – thanked Marie for all her work as Chair for the last year and recognised Martin Andrews 8 year committee work with thanks and a gift from the association for all his hard work.

• Rathbones – Robert Hughes-Penny from our sponsors presented on the volatility of the market place and Rathbones thoughts on this.        

• Business Models – After lunch & networking, 5 different companies shared with us how their businesses worked, they were: Simon Carlin - The Lost Coin, Arwyn Bailey – Fiscal Perspectives, Murray McEwan & David Flowers – Flowers McEwan, Kevin Wiltshire – King’s Court, Aidan Vaughan – MPL Wealth Management.      

• A discussion then took place in geographic regional groups around any points that came out of the business models shared. With a view to look at some form of sharing support between each other locally

• Graham closed with the Chairs closing statement, including urging members to continue promote the biblical principles of financial planning further, to bring truth into peoples lives regarding the finances God has given them to steward.   

• Graham closed the conference in prayer