Following on from the announcement of the AGM in our newsletter last week I wanted to confirm the arrangements for the meeting and provide some additional documentation. Please do log in and check your membership is up to date beforehand as only members are able to vote.
I do hope that you will also join us for the webinar which follows the AGM at which Dr Devdeep Ahuja will be talking to us about pain management from a VR practitioners perspective.  The AGM will be held on Tuesday January 26th at midday. To join the AGM please register for the combined event even if you can only attend the AGM itself.

I strongly encourage you to put the date in your diary, as it is important that we have plenty of members participating in the AGM.  The agenda is here, and the Chair’s report and the Treasurer’s report will be reviewed at the meeting.

At last year’s AGM we approved an updated Constitution (minutes here). There were several clauses (2 through 6) that needed to be submitted to the Charity Commission for their approval, and when we did so, we learned that there were several amendments we needed to make, and these needed to be resubmitted to them for approval. The last of these is still under consideration by the Commission, and as soon as that is approved we will upload a copy of the new Constitution and send you a link.  The proposed constitution can be seen here.

At the VRA, our Trustees play a key role in supporting the organisation.  As part of the AGM we will be holding elections if the number of nominations exceeds the number of positions. An application for election as a Trustee of the Vocational Rehabilitation Association 2021 can be downloaded here and more information about being a trustee can be found here.  Please note that the deadline for receipt of completed nominations is 5.00pm on Monday 13 January 2021.  If you would like to discuss the role further, please do let me know.

The process for the elections is as follows:-

1. The membership will be treated as those members registered and duly paid up on Friday 22 January.
2. Only members of the VRA are eligible to be nominated to stand for election as Trustees.
3. Each nominee must have a supporter who is also a member of the VRA.
4. Nominations must be submitted by 5.00pm on Monday 13 January 2021, by email, using the application form.
5. Details of nominees will be circulated to members following this cut-off time.
6. Members will be able to vote during the webinar at the AGM on 26 January, or may submit proxy votes up to 5pm on Friday 22 January. Members will be notified of the process for submitting proxy votes when the nominations are circulated.

Kind regards,

Deborah Edwards

VRA Chair