BCS In Turmoil Over Rebranding And Changes

Reports are emerging of serious infighting over at the British Computer Society over attempts to rebrand the venerable organisation which was founded way back in 1957.

The BCS, which would now rather be known as the “Chartered Institute for IT”, is dealing with some members who are reportedly becoming increasingly worried that the new mass market transformation the society is taking is “less focused on membership and more on income generation.”

This was highlighted by concerns raised a few months by BCS member, Len Keighley, who wrote in Computer Weekly back in March that he had stepped down as trustee of the BCS in order to press for an emergency general meeting (EGM) to debate the organisation’s future.

The Nuclear Option

An EGM is essentially a meeting (other than the annual general meeting) which is called at short notice to discuss an urgent matter with a company’s shareholders, executives and any other members. It has been described as “the equivalent of shareholders pressing the emergency corporate governance button”.

This EGM is now scheduled to take place on 1 July.

“Over recent years, and more obviously over recent months, I have felt that there is a move away from the society I joined around 30 years ago to a form that is less focused on membership and more on income generation,” Keighley wrote in Computer Weekly. “While I would in no way want to remove the latter, it is the relative importance of these aspects that causes me concern.”

“I see the society much more as a group of members that, by the use of a business function, fulfils the objectives of its Royal Charter, than as a business that fulfils that role with membership as one of its income streams,” he added.

There is no word yet on the size of the opposition within the BCS to the changes. However, it is known that the signatures of 50 members are required to call an EGM.

“We are not commenting on the EGM to the press,” a BCS spokeswoman told eWEEK Europe UK.

Instead, according to Computer Weekly, the BCS has responded to the EGM by sending out a brochure urging its 70,000 members to back its executives and trustees.

Airing Grievances

BCS president Elizabeth Sparrow has reportedly responded to the EGM by asking Keighley to step dowan from the BCS’ governing board of trustees.

However, the supporters of the EGM have responded by setting up a public website so that BCS members can air their grievances and explain their reasons for calling the EGM.

“The EGM has been called because of concerns about irregularities in decision making by the BCS leadership, and the failure of Trustee Board to exercise its duty of overall management and oversight of the affairs of the Society,” says the site.

“We put forward two motions of no confidence (in Trustee Board and in the Chief Executive), plus a motion calling for a temporary halt to spending on the ‘Transformation’ programme until some fundamental questions about decision making and financial probity have been answered,” it added.

It also took the BCS to task over the brochure.

“The BCS President and Chief Executive have devoted a lot of BCS staff time and BCS monies towards working for the defeat of the motions. We, the signatories in favour of the motions, cannot lay our hands on such resources, and this simple website is our principal means of putting forward our arguments to the BCS membership as they are being asked to vote,” it said.

“This EGM has been requested only as a last resort, all other avenues to reveal the truth having been exhausted. The EGM mechanism is present in our Constitution as the final sanction that the membership can apply, when other methods of enforcing accountability have failed,” it added.