Posted 27th June 2024
Special Resolution Overwhelmingly Passed!
We are pleased to announce that following an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on Wednesday 19th June 2024, Social Value UK members have overwhelmingly voted either by proxy or in attendance to pass following Special Resolution:
“That the name of the Company be changed from Social Value Network UK to ’The Institute for Social Value’ with immediate effect (subject to approval by Companies House).”
You can read more background and information here:
In terms of next steps, we have submitted an application to implement the above Special Resolution.
The process is complicated and the outcome is by no means guaranteed. There is the very real possibility that other organisations or groups of organisations may have submitted or be about to submit similar applications, which, if successful, would discount ours.
If you would like to assist with this process by sending in a letter of support that we can add to our application, please contact us at [email protected] or 0151 703 9229 to find out how you can go about doing this.
In the meantime, please see below for a message from the Co-Chair of the SVUK Board, Fran Boorman, that was shared at the start of the EGM. It neatly summarises the sentiments of all of those involved in getting us to this exciting phase of our journey of growth and increasing influence. We echo her sentiments – a huge ‘Thankyou’ to those of you who have supported and encouraged us along the way.
Dear Members
I send the deepest apologies for not being able to join you today for this important and exciting EGM. As many of you will know I am the co-chair of SVUK along with Penny Anderson. We have been working alongside Isabelle and the rest of the board in recent months bringing together Penny’s extensive experience as a practitioner alongside my experience of creating high growth organisations.
We are all here as members of SVUK because we believe in the importance of social value. We share the vision that the measurement and understanding of, as well as the response to the creation of social value is fundamental to creating a better world for all. I would like to thank each and every one of you for being such an important part of this community and helping us lead the way for so many others to follow. Some of you have been pioneers of these methods for decades and it is your hard work and tenacity that is seeing more and more people realise the importance of reporting and acting on social value data.
I found SVUK several years ago when my own business wanted to properly understand the impact we were making. When we started researching the world of social value, we were very confused. There were so many different organisations promising a range of tools and methods. I was attracted to SVUK because they appeared to be the only truly independent and non-commercial organisation. Whilst others in this space were evidently profiteering, SVUK appeared to be a community of genuine change makers, wanting to come together for the greater good. This secured my membership and loyalty.
In recent years I have watched more and more organisations come to the table wanting to decode and claim their part of the Social Value arena. On the one hand, this is hugely exciting as it shows the growing professional and public interest in our field. On the other hand, this well intended enthusiasm creates further confusion for those outside looking in at our space.
This crowding of our market has created the need for one organisation to step forward and take the lead. As the only truly independent organisation, I feel that it needs to be us who takes that charge. We bring together the most well-established practitioners in the field and Principles that create a gold standard.
Today presents a unique opportunity. Whilst we are simply applying for a resolution to update our name, this one simple act opens up the opportunity for us to come together in the future, harnessing the huge expertise of our membership base, and consider how we can lead the growing interest in our marketplace.
Our CEO, Isabelle has been working incredibly hard, uniting stakeholders from across the entire sector, from one end of the spectrum to the other, all keen for us to take the lead. I hope that today you choose not only in favour of voting for this motion but also to coming on the journey with us in the future as we identify how we can grow our movement.
Thank you so much,
Fran