EuRA Executive Group Report
The EuRA Executive Group meets three times a year and the latest meeting took place in February, in an undisclosed location! Wherever possible we take the opportunity to hold Executive Group (EG) meetings alongside a site visit for a potential conference venue, this saving time and costs and also getting the opinions of 11 people as to the suitability of a venue or city.
There is one topic on everyone’s mind right now… four letters, GDPR. EuRA’s Strategic Consultant for Legal, Gordon Kerr joined the meeting to go over what EuRA as an organisation needs to do to become GDPR compliant. Basically we need to seek very specific permissions from members and delegates for the information we hold and distribute globally. Signed up for the conference? We need to get you to give us specific permission to add you to the delegates list, the app, be photographed or filmed, have your details published on our website etc. This of course seems very counter intuitive as you are part of EuRA to have your company details as visible as possible, but that’s what we’re all dealing with.
We also ran through Gordon’s excellent guide to the GDPR which is now published and free to all members. If you haven’t yet requested your copy, email the office. This
invaluable guide sets out the logical steps to becoming compliant as well as a section on how the RMC’s are implementing the rules down the supply chain.
One topic that has been a source of some discussion within the group has been how to make the world at large more aware of the membership categories and especially how we as an organisation can recognise the commitment made by members who place a high value on training and EGQS certification. We’re not there yet, but discussions are ongoing .
One feature of all EG meetings is to review and keep up to date with the financial health of the organisation and it’s great to be able to say, we’re well on track. EuRA rarely makes a profit, but that’s actually a good thing! We are able to demonstrate and justify that we spend almost exactly what is earned in profits on services that benefit the members. Never in the 20 year history of the association have we been able to demonstrate such strong member value, with
our free to access online training certifications, research and data collecting initiatives, free access to legal advice and increased access to knowledge sharing via our social media channels. We also reviewed the RMC DSP Forum initiatives that are really starting to open up clear and honest communication in the supply chain. This all costs money and EuRA’s unique status as not for profit allows the EG to initiate costly new projects when they are clearly for member benefit.
Of course we are all excited about our first conference in India and the EG have also now finalised the programme which will be published after Dubrovnik.
Oh and we approved a conference venue for 2021… so that’s a big tick too!
For full details of your EG click here.