Inside BESA - Governance and Finance

In this latest 'Inside BESA' post, we explore how we manage our governance and finance.

Governance

BESA is governed by our Executive Council. Members of the council are elected annually in September and the results are announced at our AGM in November. Every member company is invited to nominate a candidate and candidates are then put forward for election. Each member company receives one vote per place available and the votes are cast via an online portal.

Executive Council members serve for a three year term and can serve a maximum of nine consecutive years (or three election terms) on Council. They are all senior leaders within their own organisations and are drawn from all areas of membership – furniture, early years, EdTech, publishing, companies big and small. The Executive Council meets four times per year and is consulted regularly on key issues between meetings. Executive Council acts as a critical friend offering scrutiny and challenge for the BESA senior management team (SMT) as well as providing a voice for all members, feeding in ideas, voicing opinions and helping to shape the direction of the organisation.??

We also operate a sub-committee that focuses on finances and operational issues. Membership of the Finance and Resources Committee (FRC) is drawn from within the Executive Council and comprises the Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and two additional members who are voted on by the Executive Council themselves.?

The FRC’s role includes the scrutiny of BESA's management accounts and cash flow forecasts quarterly, approval of the annual budget, to sign off the audited annual accounts, approve pay rises and promotions and to agree the cost of living pay awards.??

The Executive Council and Finance and Resources Committee can - and do - challenge, disagree and overrule BESA SMT recommendations as they see fit. This ensures that the association has a healthy governance and remains representative of the industry members it serves.

Finances

BESA is a membership organisation and our single largest source of revenue is membership subscriptions. Membership is calculated on a sliding scale based on the size of company with the rates published on our website for clarity. Any increases to subscription fees is proposed at the AGM and approved by members before coming into action from the next subscription year. Subscriptions run from 1 April to 31 March.

In addition to membership subscriptions BESA receives income in the following ways:

• Event ticket sales for BESA events from members and non-members. Non-members always pay a substantial premium to attend BESA events and only a limited number of our events are open to non-members.
• Sponsorship and exhibition sales revenue from BESA’s own events.
• A variety of other commissions, grants and commercial contracts.

BESA operates on a not-for-profit basis. Any small surpluses that do arise are used to fund further investment in member benefits such as our website and LendED platform, and also to maintain cash reserves.

Our finances are regularly reviewed and approved by our executive council and are audited by Gerald Edelman annually. Copies of our audited accounts are published in our annual report which is available on our website and shared with members ahead of our AGM. They are also logged at Companies House.