Saturday, 3rd October 2020
Online Meeting 10am - 12noon
The meeting will be in three parts. First the formal business of the AGM which we hope to complete within half an hour. We will then have a Members and Volunteers discussion and then after 12 please grab a drink and something to eat, and stay and socialise for a while.
Planning to attend:
Apologies:
Chair - Debbie Chippington Derrick
The current trustees of AIMS are:
Virginia Hatton resigned as a trustee on 31st July 2020. We thank her for all her work as a Trustee and we are very pleased that she will be continuing with her Volunteer work in the Publications group. Rania Guirguis was co-opted as a trustee on 11th September 2020. Under our constitution Trustee who have completed a three year term and those co-opted during the year must stand down, we also must have at least one third of the current Trustees stand down every year. All Trustees retiring at an AGM are eligible for re-election.
Trustee standing for election are:
All Trustee standing for election must be proposed and seconded at the meeting.
Nadia Higson
I have been an AIMS member for twenty years, an AIMS Trustee since November 2017 and Vice chair since April 2020, in which role I have been supporting Debbie with much of the day-to-day management of the charity.
I have a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and formerly worked as a research scientist. I still enjoy investigating and evaluating scientific research – something which I was able to draw on as the principal author of the AIMS Guide to Induction of Labour.
My professional background is in market research, facilitation and strategic planning, skills which I have used to support the work of the Trustees.
I volunteer on the AIMS Helpline, am a member of the Campaigns Steering Group and have been helping to support the development of the Social Media and Birth Information Groups. I also produce the quarterly members’ newsletter.
As an NCT antenatal teacher for twenty years and an active member of my local Maternity Voices Partnership, as well as from my work on the AIMS Helpline, I am keenly aware of the problems faced by maternity service users. This drives my passion to help AIMS to develop and grow its ability to support individuals as well as to become an increasingly influential campaigning force as our new structure evolves.
Verina Henchy
My name is Verina Henchy and I am honoured to be putting myself forward for election at the AIMS 2020 AGM.
I have been active in local and national birth campaigning ever since I trained to be a doula in 2010. I've worked directly with hundreds of families over these years, as a doula, a hypnobirthing course provider, a breastfeeding peer support and as a trusted 'wise woman' within the community. For several years I was a service user representative at Clinical Governance Group meetings within my local hospital and I now contribute to local policy and practice development by representing service users at my local MVP.
I initially became involved with AIMS as a consumer, purchasing and devouring every single book that has ever been published, sharing them with clients and advocating for women in an informed way. In 2018 I joined AIMS as a Helpline volunteer and in the summer of 2019, I was co opted as a Trustee.
It is a huge honour to offer my service to an organisation that makes such a difference to the lives of birthing people and their babies. What I hope to bring to the board is real time experience of current maternity services and my own insights gained as I help women to navigate services in my own local community. I am able to share relevant information that can help to shape our campaign work - information gathered directly from the doula and birth worker community where my connections and relationships are strong. Furthermore, I have a passion for the intersectional feminist agenda that supports the rights of all women and birthing people and recognises the way that people’s social identities can overlap, creating compounding experiences of discrimination.
In addition to my interest in birth work and campaigning, I am a mother of two, stepmother of two, mother-in-law to four and grandmother to five!
Rania Guirguis
I am honoured to be standing for election as an AIMS Trustee – a charity I have tremendous belief in and respect for.
I came across AIMS a few years ago while researching resources to support my birthing choices. I have since read many AIMS books and articles out of interest in the topics involved more so than out of need. I am passionate about empowering women as they make choices in relation to giving birth, by raising awareness of research and providing information about pregnancy and birth.
I am a business strategist and manager with twenty years’ professional experience. I have spent half of my career in strategy and business consulting across industries. The second half was in the food sector in various roles ranging from leading organisation transformation to defining and implementing strategies and most recently co-founding a company. I am particularly interested in nutrition and health of women and children. I aim to bring my functional expertise to support AIMS through its next phases of development.
Originally from Egypt, I settled in England more than sixteen years ago. Currently, I live in North London. I have a six-year old son who was born at home, three nieces and nephews and three grown-up step daughters. I hope I can add another perspective to AIMS group of Trustees.
I look forward to being part of AIMS journey and future and to contributing to its mission of supporting all maternity service users to navigate the system as it exists, and campaigning for a system which truly meets the needs of all.
7. Any other business
8. Close of AGM
We are making changes to the structure of AIMS. A consultation document was shared with Volunteers in August, and finalised plans will be shared with Volunteers and those attending the AGM, and any other members who are interested.
We have had the old structure for many years and recognised the limitations of having just one main committee trying to do everything. AIMS has often been perceived as a large organisation with quite a few people in the ‘offices’, but the truth is very different, with just a small number of people doing most of the work.
Since 2017, we have been trying to make the organisation more accessible and have gained a large number of new Volunteers. This is giving Volunteers more choices about how they would like to be involved without them having to ‘join everything’. We are now at a point where we need to introduce a clear structure to support all the Volunteer work, give Volunteer groups more autonomy and enable Trustee to take a more ‘traditional’ Trustee role.
We want to spend time at this meeting discussing what difference these changes will make to AIMS, to you if you are (or are thinking of becoming) a Volunteer, and how we can make sure the new structure works for everyone.
In small groups (15 minutes) we would like you to discuss
Feedback from each of the groups (15 minutes)
The three principal authors of the first of our series of new AIMS Guides will talk about the book they have written. There will be a short time for questions.
The new AIMS Journal editor will introduce themselves & their plans for the Journal.There will be a short time for questions.
The CSG will explain their work and the ways you can get involved with AIMS Campaigning work.
Anyone who wants to stay on the call is welcome to do so, and so please do get a drink, something to eat and stay and socialise for a while.
If people want to discuss a specific topic we can set up a break-out group.