| UKITA - re-organisation for March 2010 and beyond |
| Friday, 19 February 2010 15:42 |
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UKITA is a thriving membership association and trade organisation, representing SMEs in ICT. UKITA are now relocating and re-structuring to provide more modern benefits and services to members post the recession.
2009 was a challenging year for UKITA and I’m sure for you all too. The combination of business pressures that the credit crunch bought and the unfortunate loss of Tom Brookes for nine months, were particularly challenging; putting on hold the majority of development plans the Board had wanted to implement for growth during the year, whilst keeping UKITA operational. Within this context it was agreed by the UKITA Governance Board at the Board meeting held on the 28th January 2010 that there was a need to reduce further the operating costs of the organisation, ensure effective cover for day-to-day operations and to concentrate on reviewing and modernising the membership offer. After considering the options available it was decided that from an organisational efficiency and risk mitigation perspective the general management, communications, web-site administration and membership liaison, would benefit from being part of a larger administration team than the current UKITA membership income could support. It was therefore agreed to pursue the possibility of contracting out these basic services (in accordance with the same current objectives laid down in the UKITA constitution) whilst maintaining the Board structure, membership, and constitutional rules. The Board of UKITA are pleased to report that the results of their investigations lead them to believe that such a model will prove successful and enable the organisation to grow generally in accordance with the plans that had to be put on hold last year. This new structure will allow the Board of Directors to focus on the strategic direction of the organisation rather than operational management. Such a development will allow our Business Manager Tom Brookes to pursue new career goals and as such he will be relinquishing his role effective from 26th February: we would like to take this opportunity to formally thank Tom for his commitment and energy over the last 3 years with UKITA, helping us in the transition from a public funded Advantage West Midlands project to a self-sustaining IT trade association for SMEs in UK. We wish Tom well for the future and will in parallel close the Warwick office to reduce our overheads – the new postal address will be: UKITA Ltd. We continue to work closely with AWM through the ICT Cluster, Business Link in the West Midlands, represent our members via Business Voice West Midlands, continue to forge strong associations with BCS, FSB & others nationally and be the voice of UK ICT SMEs in Europe via PIN-SME. It is intended that all of the information, business and promotional opportunities will continue to be presented to all members via the web site; new benefits and models of operation will be developed during the year to encourage growth of both individual members’ businesses and that of UKITA. Contact details and further information will be posted on the web site. If you have any queries please contact me directly on 07901 783380 or preferably This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Fred Noble 19/02/2010 c/o
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