Governance

Council Members

Overall governance and oversight of the entire organisation is carried out by its senior committee: the EEMUA Council, which operates according to EEMUA’s Articles of Association and recognised good practice in corporate governance. Every EEMUA Member may nominate a representative to serve on council. The council representative from the member organisation will normally be a senior (engineering) manager or director with multi-functional and/or multi-discipline responsibilities within the organisation he or she represents.

The council’s role is to:

• Work with the EEMUA Board on the direction of EEMUA and its work programme.
• Ensure the association’s Articles of Association are up-to-date.
• Approve criteria for EEMUA membership and affiliation.
• Receive the directors’ annual report and accounts.
• Approve subscription levels.
• Approve the appointment of the auditors.
• Elect its chairman and any non-executive directors.

While the council sets overall direction and policy for the association, it also appoints members to the EEMUA Board, comprising both non-executive directors and EEMUA’s senior executives. Non-executive directors are usually drawn from the EEMUA Council and serve a four-year term. There are between three and eight non-executive directors on the board, including the chairman, who is normally also the council chairman. All non-executive directors are registered at Companies House as directors of the company in law. The board has both governance and leadership roles.

Its activities include:

• Ensuring EEMUA complies with company law.
• Ensuring the association’s finances are properly managed and on a sound footing.
• Developing and promoting the vision, culture and strategy of the association.
• Overseeing operations and supporting the chief executive and the EEMUA team.
• Recommending subscription levels.
• Contributing to the development of the work programme and steering its progress.
• Approving membership applications.

The day to day work on EEMUA’s wide range of activities is driven by its in-house team, which reports to the chief executive. Experts from within its membership interact with members of these teams on a day to day basis through a clear structure of committees, forums and working groups, whose scope as sub-committees of the council is defined in EEMUA’s articles. These sub-committees report routinely through the EEMUA Board. All sub-committees that carry out technical work report to the Board via the EEMUA Chief Executive. Occasionally, sub-committees provide reports directly to the council and to the membership through special events, such as the EEMUA’s Conference or its seminars.