Thursday 29 August 2024
Dr James Gagg is RCEM’s Vice President Treasurer. He has the important job of keeping the College’s finances in check. In this blog he explains a bit more about the role, what he has learned in his first few months in the job and how he’s looking forward to meeting as many members as possible at the Annual Scientific Conference in October.
“Where has the year gone! August is coming to an end and all eyes are set at the College on this autumn’s Annual Scientific Conference, and for me in particular the AGM, which is the Treasurer’s opportunity to address the College directly.
It also happens to mark around 200 days since taking up this position.
As you can imagine when starting any new role, there is a steep learning curve, and this has been no exception.
Within days, I was on a panel interviewing various companies to undertake a Governance Review of the College.
Being Vice President Treasurer, of course, the focus is very much on the finances of the College.
But how we run the ‘business’ of College is also incredibly closely entwined with meeting the requirements of the Charity Commission, as well as ensuring the we work within the ordinances and charter that are part and parcel of being a medical Royal College.
The Governance Review has been undertaken, and our reviewers have been hugely positive about the College’s work in this area, but as is always the case, there are still some things we can improve, and they have provided us with some helpful guidance.
What is apparent is that the College is now something quite different from when I first became a member back in 2006 (incidentally, the same year it became a College, having previously been the Faculty of A&E Medicine).
At that time, the College was small with approximately 2,000 members and fellows. Now there are more than 12,000!
As a result, not only has the complexity of running the College increased, but so has its finances, with a turnover now in excess of £10 million per annum.
This year sees us reviewing and setting the budget for the next three year financial cycle, a process that of course means reviewing our income streams, expenditure and ensuring the budget enables us to meet the blueprint set out in the College’s Corporate Plan – Delivering Excellence in Emergency Care.
I’m sure others within the various College committees and boards I now sit on will recognise my favourite approach of “and how does this look through the eyes of a member or fellow”.
I think it is vital that this question is the touch point as the majority of the College’s funding comes from three sources: membership subscriptions, examination fees, and conferences and events.
To be blunt – without these income streams, there would not be a College.
I touched on the complexity of the College earlier.
If we look at the breadth of work that goes on, it really is staggering.
From delivery of exams (both at home and abroad) to policy strategies, RCEMLearning to GreenED, regional and national conferences to Global Emergency Medicine, research to quality and effectiveness… the list goes on.
However, perhaps the value to our members of this work isn’t always apparent.
This vast range takes a huge amount of work from dedicated members and fellows who give their time to causes they are passionate about.
In addition, we have our employed staff members, of which there are now 74, who equally have a passion for emergency medicine.
As VP Treasurer, as well as being a voice for the membership, I have to consider the College staff, their pay, pensions and benefits etc just as any other business has to.
We need the strongest team in the office, and we are in a competitive market.
The challenging times of the pandemic, and huge rises in inflation in recent years, have seen the College’s ‘Reserves’ (which put basically is the money we have in the bank) eroded. We took the decision to do all we could not to pass on these costs to the membership at the time.
However, to keep operating, we need to address losses and the economics of inflation just as any other business would.
And thanks to diligence and hard work we have this year seen the deficit of the last couple of years returning to a surplus. This is vital as it gives the College the resilience it needs to continue to survive, develop and invest in the specialty.
However, it is important now that although we are looking towards a surplus this year, that this is used to build the resilience needed to maintain cashflow for the daily running of the College, as well as rebuilding our cash reserves for whatever the future may throw at us.
Without some money in the bank, we would not have got through the last few years.
Our reserves are our own ‘insurance policy’. They should be sufficient that we can weather the storms, ensuring we can continue to support our members and the specialty not just today, but for generations to come.
Our Trustee Board, of which I am a member along with other key College figures and external members, maintain the scrutiny needed.
The one thing I have learnt to date is that the VP Treasurer role is a privilege, as it enables me to have a foot in both camps: representing both the membership and the business of College.
I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the Annual Scientific Conference in October, please do say hello!
I’ll of course be presenting my first Financial Overview at the AGM where I will be able to elaborate on more of the detail.”
Learn more: Meet our new VP Treasurer, and find out why he feels he has big shoes to fill
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