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Members Minutes 11 May 2009

association of professional
political consultants
 
MINUTES of a MEMBERS’ GENERAL MEETING
held on 11 May 2009 at Lexington, 198 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD
 
Present:
APCO                                                  Martin Sawer
B2L Public Affairs                                  Darren Caplan
Champollion                                          Sam Hardy
Cicero                                                   Iain Anderson
Cogitamus                                            Mark Walker
College Public Policy                             Warwick Smith
College Public Policy                             Robbie MacDuff (in the Chair)
Connect Public Affairs                            Gill Morris
Edelman                                               Michael Burrell
Foresight Consulting                              Mark Adams
Helen Johnson Consulting                      Helen Johnson
Insight Public Affairs                              James Tyrrell
Lexington Communications                    Gidon Freeman
Mandate                                               Gavin Devine
Open Road                                            Martin LeJeune
Positif Politics                                       Daran Hill
PPS                                                     John Mills
Tetra Strategy                                        Hanna Madalski
Weber Shandwick                                  Dominick Moxon-Tritsch
Whitehouse Consultancy                        Chris Whitehouse
APPC                                                   Mary Shearer (Secretary
)
 
Apologies:
Blue Rubicon
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Fleishmann-Hillard
Hanover Communications
JMC Consulting
 
Opening Remarks
The Chair thanked Lexington for hosting this meeting.
1.         Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Members approved the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2009. Matters arising and not otherwise on the agenda were as follows:
 
1.1        Conservative Party Report “Government to Government Lobbying”
            The Chair reported that Nick Hurd MP had cancelled the meeting arranged to discuss this report; he hoped that a new date could be arranged shortly.
           
2.         Annual Report
The Chair referred to the annual report since the last AGM; the Management Committee’s strategy meeting had been very useful in giving focus, but had been largely overtaken by the PASC Inquiry and its report. He outlined the main points in the report and invited members’ comments.
 
Michael Burrell referred to the training seminars and said he would like to encourage attendance by consultants at all levels, not just new entrants. The Chair said that this comment echoed those made by members during contact programme meetings, specifically the need to engage not just senior management and new entrants. This had been the aim of the Chair’s Newsletter, which he hoped could be circulated more widely in future. The issue of member and external engagement would be discussed further at the Management Committee’s strategy meeting in July.
 
3.         Membership
            The Chair announced that Precise Public Affairs would no longer be a member of APPC, having merged to become College Public Policy incorporating Precise Public Affairs. Chris Whitehouse asked that the Management Committee should consider the impact of two members from the same company being in its membership.   Mark Adams pointed out that appointments as Directors of APPC were in a personal capacity, not representative of their company.
            Action: Management Committee
 
            The Chair reported that the Management Committee would be meeting after the present meeting to consider a membership application. He asked all members to encourage firms not currently in membership to consider applying.
 
4.         PASC Report
            The Chair said that, whilst the Government has still not responded to the PASC report, the Minister had encouraged the sector to work together, hence the formation of the working party, whose issues paper had been circulated to all members. Members were invited to respond to the issues paper by 5 June, both to the working party and to APPC, so that APPC’s position could reflect members’ views. In addition, there would be a workshop at CIPR at 4.00pm on 19 May, to which all members were invited.
 
            Mark Adams, as convenor, said that the working party had held three meetings to develop its own terms of reference and to address the issues around the single umbrella body recommended by the PASC report to be established within six months. The working party had taken no decisions, but had instead aimed to identify the issues. The paper had been circulated widely, inviting comments by 5 June, either in writing or by way of a meeting.
 
            Members discussed various questions identified in the issues paper, including
·         The benefit of a level playing field
·         The definition of lobbying or a lobbyist
·         The focus on lobbying rather than other areas of consultants’ work
·         Whether only organisations, rather than individuals or firms, should be able to join the single umbrella body and whether incentives or deterrents should be offered
 
The Chair said there were certain APPC matters of principle, such as the Code and the Complaints & Disciplinary Rules & Procedures. He emphasised that the issues paper did not set out APPC’s views and he encouraged all members to respond by 5 June, recommending that the issues paper be read in conjunction with APPC’s submission to PASC. The Management Committee would meet after 5 June to develop an APPC position.
 
5.         Code Compliance
The Chair recalled that, in its submission to PASC, APPC had undertaken to “publish details of the annual returns of compliance” and this commitment had been well received. Following the consultation with members, it was proposed not to publish individual compliance checklists, but instead put a new page on the website along the lines of the draft circulated, showing the number of responses to the checklist questions.
 
Members felt that such a page would not be of any value in demonstrating members’ compliance with the Code. Mark Adams undertook to re-consider how the commitment could be met.
Action: Mark Adams
 
6.         Complaints & Disciplinary Rules and Procedures
            Warwick Smith reported that the legal scrutiny of the new Rules had now been completed, and they would be presented for final approval by the Management Committee at its next meeting. He emphasised that the scrutiny had not made any changes to the substance of the Rules, as set out in the flow-chart in the last Chair’s newsletter, but had tightened up the wording.
 
            The Chair reported that one Independent Adjudicator and one Expert Adviser had been appointed and other candidates would be interviewed shortly.
 
7.         Register Entries
            [This item was taken after item 3]
            As background, the Chair said that the issue of Register entries for firms offering both PA and PR services had been raised both during a training seminar and the membership contact programme. 
 
Darren Caplan tabled a discussion paper focusing on three areas – clients, firms and media campaigns. Members generally favoured the approach of “erring on the side of caution” but appreciated the difficulties, especially for larger firms. Darren Caplan undertook to amend the paper in light of the discussion and circulate it for comment and further discussion at the next meeting of the Management Committee.
Action: Darren Caplan
 
8.         APPC in Scotland
            In the absence of Ross Laird, the Chair reported that APPC(S) would be holding its AGM on 8 June, when a new Chair and Secretary would be elected.
 
9.         Any Other Business
            There was no further business.
 
Date of Next Meeting
27 July 2009 at 5.30pm at Weber Shandwick

 
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