Since the last annual general meeting we have successfully launched the first regional branch of the Chamber, in Cluj-Napoca. It is the Board’s intention that this will be the first of several regional branches, each of which will be represented by a director on the Board of the Chamber. This will require changes to our Articles of Association.
We have also been successful in attracting more Founder Members, whose annual subscriptions are seen as an important income for the Chamber’s activities. Our ability to attract more Founder Members is however limited by the current restriction in the Articles of Association, which permits only six of them to appoint a director to the Board. The Chamber has reached agreement with the British Chambers of Commerce, the body which accredits the Chamber to receive public funding from the British Government for our activities, for the number of Founder Member Directors to be increased, so long as not more than six of them vote at Board meetings.
Various other changes to the Articles to clarify the existing wording or to reflect the fact that the Board now normally meets on a monthly basis have been proposed to and approved by the British Chambers of Commerce.
To make these changes to the Chamber’s Articles of Association, we need to pass a special resolution at a general meeting of members of the Chamber. This means that we need ¾ of the votes cast to be in favour of the proposed changes.
A number of companies have expressed an interest in becoming Founder Members of the Chamber, if the proposed changes are made. It has therefore been decided to deal with the proposed changes as quickly as possible by calling an extraordinary general meeting, rather than to wait until the annual general meeting of the Chamber later this year.
The changes which I have outlined above require changes to be made to various parts of the Chamber’s Articles of Association. Rather than to deal with changes to individual Articles, it has been felt to be more convenient to have a single special resolution, so as to adopt all of the proposed changes as package by adopting revised Articles which incorporate the proposed changes.
The proposed new Articles of Association, which incorporate all of the intended changes which I have described above, are in the Schedule to the notice of the extraordinary general meeting.
The BRCC office can provide a mark-up of the Articles showing the proposed changes in detail, if wished.
The Board hope that you will all support these changes to the Articles, as being important for the future success of the Chamber. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the EGM.
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