Read the highlights of key issues discussed at our most recent meeting held on 13 September 2019 in Melbourne.
Your Board is committed to improving communication with you.
We were joined for the whole meeting by James Beck and Rob Newman from Effective Governance.
They have been engaged by the Board to help us deliver the various obligations under the Australian Charity and Not-for profit Commission (ACNC) Compliance Agreement signed by all Directors.
Ian Parry and Melissa Tan representing the ACNC also joined the meeting for part of the morning session.
In the Board meeting itself, we were briefed on the RACP’s financial position at the end of July 2019. This report showed a strong year to date operating surplus against budget which was largely the result of the delay to the start of significant College IT infrastructure upgrade projects and other key projects which will begin during the second half of the year. This increased project activity and expenditure are expected to significantly reduce the current operating surplus and bring it back closer to budget by year end.
The surplus includes a one-off sum of $1.8 million in additional revenue from prudent management of Foundation funds, on advice from our funds manager, and some timing adjustments on spending on upgrading IT systems for the College.
We discussed RACP Congress 2020 including pricing and structure and noted further detailed planning work, led by Lead Fellow Professor Don Campbell, and by the Congress and Fellowship Committees.
We approved a proposal to extend the Tri-Nations Alliance in two stages, firstly within existing Tri-Nations countries, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and secondly to seek to extend it to other regions including potentially the United Kingdom, Europe, USA and Asia.
Wider Tri-Nations Alliance membership would enhance the opportunities to enable sharing of leading adult learning approaches to improve curriculum development, education and training, assessment and professional development. We endorsed a strategy for a carefully phased transition to Computer-based Testing developed with guidance from the College Education Committee.
A detailed communication plan, giving members as much information and advance notice as possible, is under development. The College is undertaking a thorough and carefully risk managed approach to the re-introduction of Computer-based Testing and will ensure the system is robust and fully tested prior to implementation.
We also considered the draft College Strategic Infrastructure Investment Plan 2020-2025 presented by Brian Freestone, Director – Development. Further discussion of this initiative will be held at the October Board meeting.
Additional reports noted included an update on the work now underway to upgrade and improve the College website, which will come back to the Board for decision at a later meeting.