For the first time, today, I attended Socitm's offices in Northampton, and the Corporate Services Team Meeting. We discussed the accounts restructuring to enable effective cost monitoring, which appears to be proceeding well. There are a few other "informal" accounting practices that developed in the past, which have negatively impacted our cash flow, which are also being addressed.

In discussion of the new approach to membership classes and subscriptions that's under development, the Team identified some administrative considerations that we need to take into account in finalising the proposals.

The transition to the new CRM and CMS systems was also considered, and a prioritised implementation plan is to be drawn-up.

We also discussed administrative support for the October Conference & EGM. (There has been a further addition to the conference programme, with Paul Murphy, MP, Secretary of State for Wales, and Minister for Digital Inclusion, now likely to be speaking, of which more as soon as arrangements can be confirmed.)

We have been unable to find any contracts or job descriptions for the staff! The Team were advised that these are now being drafted as a priority, and the regular appraisal of all staff, which is among Adrian's own appraisal targets (now shared with staff, and also to be posted in the Members' area of the Socitm website) is also being put in-hand.

Despite the lack of documentation of roles and requirements, the Team has being doing a fantastic job, and staff have made many suggestions of their own on how things can be improved. We agreed the need to appropriately accommodate the CST Members in GovX Discussion space, and ensure they are able to contribute to the Outstanding Actions & Issues List. David (Goddard)'s plea, on behalf of the Team, was to ensure they are adequately consulted and kept informed of decisions, which I promised we'd do.