KNUD MOLLER, HON. SECRETARY

The LARIA AGM for 2006 was held at the Annual Conference at the University of Exeter, and was attended by twenty-three people. After the Minutes of last year’s AGM were approved, the main part of the meeting focused on the report from David Karfoot as Chair of LARIA, the Treasurer’s report, and elections.

Annual Report by the Chair

David Karfoot drew attention to the programme of work undertaken to examine local authorities’ research capacity and capability. This has resulted in four documents which can all be downloaded free of charge from the LGA’s website. Copies of the ‘business case’ leaflet were mailed to all local authority chief executives, and the toolkit received a most successful launch at a workshop held at the LGA offices in November.

David also said that although 2005 had been another good year for LARIA, we may now enter a more difficult period, as many of the stalwarts will be retiring during the next few years and replacements have been difficult to find. This and other issues concerning the future of LARIA will be discussed at a special meeting in early June.

Hon Treasurer’s Report

2005 had been an especially hectic year as far as the finances were concerned and the Treasurer’s report showed a downturn in turnover from over £90k to £78.5 and a slightly lower surplus of £2.2k.

Elections

As a result of David’s resignation we now have a new Chair in Jill Tuffnell of Cambridgeshire County Council. Clive Lloyd of Worcestershire County Council is the new Vice-chair. Knud Moller and Emma Burnett were re-elected as Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Debbie Lee Chan of Camden LBC was elected to Council in 2004 and was this time re-elected for a further two years. Dawn Price of Rotherham MBC had been co-opted in the past and has now been elected, together with Mike Soper of Cambridgeshire County Council.

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