Trustee board update – September 2025

As President, Jim Hall, was unable to attend in person, Senior Vice President, David Porter, chaired the meeting.

Finance update

Trustees received their annual Finance Assurance and Risk Committee (FARC) update from the committee chair.

The presentation covered the range of work the committee does to manage the institution’s finances, and trustees were assured that the right safeguarding mechanisms are in place. They extended their thanks to all the committee members for the attention they give to this important role.

Following the presentation, the chief financial officer provided an update on the ICE Group management accounts and provided trustees with the latest version of the rolling forecast. This included an overview of some of the constraints we face, in largely due to changes in international accounting rules.

Member engagement review

The director of engineering knowledge provided an update on the member engagement review which was first agreed in November 2024. Chaired by the trustee for member engagement, the review set out to understand the different ways members engage with the ICE and help to optimise it.

In the first year, information was gathered from a range of different sources that will allow the ICE to set a benchmark against which improvements can be measured.

It was noted by trustees that the new online membership system will make it easier to trac engagement across various different activities and support greater personalisation of content to match members’ interests.

Trustees also discussed future access options for the Knowledge Hub ranging from member-only access to open access. They agreed in principle that we should make some content accessible to all with some key publications being for members or paid access only. Further work will be undertaken to refine this.

Strategy and 2026 plan

Barring a few small tweaks to language, the trustees signed off on the 2026-2030 strategy. A number of trustees expressed their thanks to Janet and the wider ICE team involved in developing this document.

This will now be shared with Council on 21 October. It will then be shared with members via the website.

It has been agreed that the strategy will be on the agenda for all upcoming principal committee meetings so that the committees can understand what it means for their activities going forward.

With the strategy signed off, we turned our attention to the draft 2026 plan.

As a foundational year for the strategy, the 2026 plan provides an opportunity for the ICE to benchmark some key performance indicators which can then be tracked over the duration of the strategy.

Trustees were content to approve the draft plan and will formally sign off the plan and the associated budget in the November meeting.

Farewells

This was the final meeting for President Jim Hall, trustee for communications Liz Waugh and trustee for member engagement Ed Bingham.

The president expressed his heartfelt thanks to Liz and Ed for their contributions to the ICE, a sentiment echoed by the other trustees. All the trustees expressed their thanks to Jim for his leadership during his presidential term.

I will be taking over the presidency on 4 November 2025, to find out more about my plans for the year ahead, please join me for my presidential address.