The word on Trustee meetings

The Trustees meet at least four times a year to ensure the Scheme runs smoothly. Here’s what’s involved in a typical meeting…

A typical Trustee meeting involves discussions on funding, investment, administration, legal and governance matters. The focus here is on monitoring performance in each area and managing risks. For example, the Trustees don’t just monitor investment performance – they manage risk to ensure benefits are secure.

In all of their discussions, the Trustees’ key concerns are around the security of benefits, the security and accuracy of member records and of course paying benefits on time.

The Trustees’ advisers also attend the meetings so that any issues that come up are resolved quickly and efficiently.

The agenda and meeting papers for each meeting are circulated a week in advance. This gives the Trustees time to prepare and identify issues they wish to discuss.

As well as including standard reports, the meeting pack includes papers relating to new issues like data protection and any one-off issues the Trustees need to consider – for example any emerging legal issues. The full meeting pack is a large document, typically including twenty or so separate papers with over 200 pages to read.

Representatives from each participating employer attend most meetings and provide an update on their finances and business plans. However, the employer representatives are not part of the Trustee body – they only attend part of each meeting and are not involved in the decisions.

Meetings are chaired by our Independent Chair of Trustees and all decisions are based on the majority view of all Trustees. Full minutes are taken at each meeting to record the issues discussed and any decisions taken.