The meeting was held via Zoom on the 12th June.
As in previous years, all resolutions were dealt with by online poll in advance of the meeting; also giving a wider range of members the opportunity to engage with over 100 members voting.
Achievements over the last year
EWI Chair, Sir Martin Spencer, outlined some of the challenges and key achievements from the past year. During the year we:
- continued to see an increase in members, finishing the year with over 1,000 members.
- welcomed a further 4 new Corporate Partners.
- launched our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Statement, have been working to establish our current baseline member statistics for gender identity, ethnic origin, and disability so that we can measure changes over time, and have been actively supporting the Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses pledge and sit on their Global Steering Committee.
- delivered 35 events with 684 delegates including two successful conferences
- created a new content strategy which provides clarity on what the Institute should be talking about and how our content can support our business objectives.
- created a new Editorial Committee who are responsible for keeping EWI members in touch with the latest developments in law and practise for expert witnesses through all of its content channels.
- launched our new guidance on choosing, instructing, and working with an Expert Witness, providing essential guidance for lawyers and litigants in person on how they can maximise the relationship with their Expert Witness.
- responded to a range of consultations including the new Civil Procedure Rules for Scotland and the Civil Procedure Rule Committee’s Expert Evidence in the Intermediate Track.
- saw a 35% increase in the number of searches on the Directory and similar increases in the number of referrals compared to the previous year.
Financial position
The EWI turnover at the end of 2023/24 increased to £406,108, an increase over the prior year of 6%, principally from increased net profit from courses/events.
EWI made a surplus of £53,430 increasing the Institute’s net assets to about £122,377 which is approximately about three to four months’ worth of operating expenditure.
2024/25 Membership Subscriptions
At their last meeting, the Board discussed Member Subscriptions for 2024/25. The Board have agreed a modest 3% increase from 1st November 2024. Depending on your membership level this represents a small increase of between £3 and £10 per annum and will enable us to continue to invest in member benefits and our advocacy work.
Board Appointments
Kitty St Aubyn and Sam Makkan were appointed to the Board and Colin Holburn, Kathryn Newns, and Michael Pilgrem were reappointed to the Board.
Amendments to the Articles of Association.
Following the Board approved change to amend the name of the Institute’s Individual Membership level to Full Membership, the Board is proposing two small changes to the text of the Articles of Association which refer to Individual Membership.
These changes were approved by the Membership and the revised Articles of Association have now come into effect.