Choose a Continuity Candidate

From Mnd

I am loath to suggest that you should vote to keep the incumbents in their positions, but there is a good argument for doing just that.

The rule of precedence is important: so much of what the Trust will do in the future is constrained by what it has done in the past.

New MNDs will soon discover that it is difficult to find out what the board has decided in the past, because there is, for example, no online repository of minutes of previous meetings.

You need someone who can vaguely remember what has been agreed and implemented, and more importantly why it was done, and has kept all his files. That person is … well … me.

Only two of the current incumbents are standing: my colleague Lucy Steinert left the company in December, and retiree Dave Mitchell is stepping down as an MED to write novels or make films.

Personally, my vote will go something like an M Planner first, myself second, and then, because I know they can do the job, Mike Butcher and Brian Marks. I am also an official supporter of Michael Eacott, John Roycroft and John Phillips.

1. M Planner
2. Myself
3. Mike Butcher^a
4. Brian Marks^b

Notes

• a. Mike is a relatively young retiree and, to my mind, very good at working systematically. Worth a special mention is his continuing experience as a director of the universities pension scheme. (For an example of how a great pensions website could look, go to the USS site.)
• b. Brian has been an MED before, and was prevented from standing in the 2005 election by a discriminatory rule that no longer exists. Brian works tirelessly and fearlessly to hold the IBM Pensions Trust to account. He also helps runs AMIPP.