NEWS
AGM reports healthy finances , no increase in membership fee and allows online AGMs
The British Association of Occupational Therapists / Royal College of Occupational Therapists ’ ( BAOT / RCOT ) annual general meeting ( AGM ) took place on 21 September .
Before giving an overview of the organisation ’ s achievements over the past year , Professor Diane Cox , chair of council , reiterated that stamping out racism and improving the diversity of the occupational therapy profession is of paramount importance to RCOT .
The organisation wants to lead the profession by advocating strongly for a culture that values respects and celebrates diversity . Steps have already been taken , such as embedding equality , diversity and inclusion ( EDI ) principles in new publications , ensuring that they feature across media and communications and , crucially , an EDI manager has recently been appointed to continue this work .
Kim Atkinson , then-vice-chair of council , presented the audited accounts for BAOT / RCOT . The total income for the period 2019 to 2020 was £ 9.9 million , which included £ 8.6 million from membership subscriptions – which continue to be the largest source of income for the organisation – and £ 1.3 million from other sources of income , which come from a range of activities including advertising in journals , accreditations fees and investment income .
Total expenditure was £ 9.4 million , split between industrial relations (£ 1.6 million ), staffing costs (£ 4.5 million ) and professional activities ( 3.3 million ), which covers areas such as practice support services , research and development , membership services , journals and conferences .
After the year-end statutory accounting adjustments , there was a deficit for the year of £ 960,000 , compared with a surplus of £ 104,000 in 2019 . This was because of investment-generated losses of £ 1.5 million , compared to a loss of £ 411,000 in 2019 .
Council members ( l to r ) Samantha Flower , Kalimah Ibrahiim , Cathryn Holding , Professor Diane Cox , Lisa Ledger , Dr Kee Hean Lim , Dr Duncan Pentland
This loss was due to investments performing poorly because of the pandemic . The investments have recovered most of this loss as of June 2021 , with a £ 1.4 million gain .
The balance sheet for the organisation on 30 September 2020 showed a net worth of £ 14.1 million , compared with £ 15.1 million the previous year . Of the total net worth , £ 5.3 million was held in cash and £ 7.8 million in investments , which both provide income from interests .
These reserves meet the target set by Council of having 26 to 52 weeks of budgeted expenditure to protect the organisation against any changes in income and expenditure .
It must be noted that the organisation still has a significant pension liability of £ 1.2 million for the defined benefit pension scheme and , as the pension buy-out is not finalised , this liability could increase .
These figures demonstrate that the organisation is in a healthy financial position and , as a result , Council has again been able to freeze subscriptions across all categories .
AGM also saw the approval of the new articles of association ; they are the written rules for running companies and were last amended in 2001 . They stipulate that the BAOT / RCOT AGMs must be held with members present in person only , which would have been impossible last year until the government passed temporary legislation to allow organisations to hold wholly virtual AGMs .
The pandemic highlighted the need to review and modernise the organisation ’ s articles and ensure they are in line with Companies Act ( 2006 ).
This year , in line with the old articles of association , we had to hold an AGM with members present in person . However , now the new articles have been agreed , future AGMs can be online , or hybrid and all members will be able to attend .
This month , help WFOT promote the profession ’ s development work
World Occupational Therapy Day will this year take place on 27 October . First launched in 2010 , the day has become an important date in the occupational therapy calendar to promote and celebrate the profession internationally .
The World Federation of Occupational Therapists ( WFOT ) is the international voice of the occupational therapy profession , which globally comprises 101 national occupational therapy professional organisations .
World Occupational Therapy Day is the opportunity to heighten the visibility of the profession ’ s development work and to promote the activities of WFOT locally , nationally and internationally .
There are many ways to promote and celebrate World Occupational Therapy Day 2021 and the theme for this year is ‘ Belong . Be You ’.
WFOT provides a range of resources that you can utilise to help promote the event , and they are available to download from the WFOT website Resources . For more information visit : www . wfot . org / world-occupational-therapy-day .
RCOT membership fees to stay the same for another year
RCOT is delighted to announce that there will be no increase to membership subscriptions this year – from October 2021 to September 2022 . This applies to all membership levels and renewal information has been sent out to members .
As the pandemic continues , RCOT members continue to be under pressure both at work and in their personal lives and we want to do everything we can to support them . One way is by offering all our members the financial reassurance that their membership fees will not be increased .
More information on membership benefits and fees can be found at : www . rcot . co . uk / your-membership-202122 .
12 OTnews October 2021