GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

second to none. I believe we have the capacity to grow and support unions.

All my staff have passed their probation now. Their contribution and efforts are

key to our success. I am most grateful for the support and hard work of my

team. They are always there for me. Unfortunately, none of them can make it

today! (Laughter)

Over the course of the year we have run a number of union finance officer

meetings. We have invited speakers from the Information Commissioner’s

Office, the Certification Office to give us talks and updates on latest

requirements. I hope this meeting proved informative and useful to you and

there are more to come. Currently, we are busy working on the numbers that

matter for the decision of the new build. Again, the finance team likes

challenges. We are here to help and continue the excellent work in serving our

members and our unions. Thank you very much and have a good day.

(Applause)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Wendy. Just a quick word from me. It is worth

bearing in mind that this team that Wendy has just described did not exist two

years ago and Wendy joined us less than two years ago. We are running a

multi-million pound organisation here, owning a hotel, a nursery and running a

number of trusts and the world’s most complicated, indeed, smallest pension

scheme. (Laughter) Basically I am not exaggerating at all when I say that this

is central to our activity and it is also worth bearing in mind that it is a key and

critical aspect of the shared service ambition that we have got that our finance

department runs the TSSA’s finances for them and is likely to pick up a lot of

other organisations’ finance work as well. That is part of the shared service

ambition. This is a considerable achievement in less than two years, it really is,

so congratulations, Wendy, and also to Doug, but mostly Wendy. (Applause)

A central aspect of the GFTU is that we are an education organisation above

all else really. You have got, I believe, an incredibly impressive prospectus of

the education programme that the GFTU is embarking on now. We want to

spend a bit of time this afternoon doing a proper job of introducing the work of

the Educational Trust. Constitutionally, by the way, this has got nothing at all to

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