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Highlights from 12 June

08 Jul 2010

For only the third time, ACCA's Council met outside the UK and Ireland in June.

Following the successful meetings and associated events in Kuala Lumpur (2006) and Beijing (2008), Council's meeting in June 2010 took place in Prague, Czech Republic. A number of associated events were arranged to coincide with the Council meeting, including a new members ceremony, networking sessions and a dinner for high profile members of the Czech accounting, business and academic communities.

The meeting in Prague was followed by visits of smaller Council delegations to other key markets for ACCA in the region - Poland, Romania and Ukraine. These provided opportunities for senior ACCA representatives to meet with members, employers and other key stakeholders.

The Council meeting itself featured discussions on a number of key topics.

• Council split into groups to discuss one of ACCA's strategic imperatives - the recruitment, conversion and retention of members and students. Future meetings in the next Council year will feature discussions on other strategic imperatives including embedding the Fit for the Customer programme and employer engagement.
• A second breakout group session was held to discuss ACCA's future governance. Through the group discussions, the Governance Review Task Force sought to canvass Council members' views on such issues as ensuring effective oversight, the role of Council and its future structure and Council's committee structure. The outcomes of the discussion groups will be fed back to the Task Force so that it can plan the next stage of the review.
• Council formally approved ACCA's strategy achievement targets for 2010- 2011. It also noted that a workshop on revising the achievement measures would be held at its November 2010 meeting.
• Council approved ACCA's Consolidated Accounts, Corporate Governance Statement and Operating and Financial Review for the financial period ended 31 March 2010. It also endorsed an ACCA CSR Report for 2009-2010, which will be published on the ACCA website with the AGM material.
• Council went on to approve the Notice of Meeting for the 2010 AGM and the President's Letter to Members. There will be one item of special business on the AGM agenda this year - a Council resolution seeking to extend the requirement to comply with the Code of Practice for Council Members, which already applies to elected members - to those who may be appointed to Council. (The AGM material will be dispatched in the middle of July and members are encouraged to engage with ACCA by submitting their votes by the closing date of 9 September. The AGM will be broadcast live from 1pm (BST) on 16 September at www.accaglobal.com/agm
• Council agreed recommendations from the Nominating Committee regarding the membership of standing committees in the coming Council year. It also received the regular presentation from the chief executive and a briefing from the head of ACCA Czech Republic on the challenges and prospects for ACCA in the Czech Republic.

ACCA's AGM will take place at 1pm (BST) on 16 September 2010 at 29 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2.  This will be followed by the Annual Council meeting, during which ACCA's officers for 2010-2011 will be chosen.