For the past six months the business of the BDA Representative Body has been dominated by constitutional reform. Following legal advice and case law, it was discovered that the BDA constitution did not comply with Trade Union Legislation.

Under that legislation, the Principal Executive Committee [PEC] of any Trade Union had to be directly elected by the members of the Trade Union. The BDA had a PEC that contained members elected by the Representative Body and Directors of the company such as Peter Ward, Chief Executive and Richard Shilling Finance Director, together with some Chairs of other committees, including John Milne Chair of General Dental Practice Committee and so did not comply with the specified structure.

It would appear that a case was brought in a union representing Boiler Makers also, where a member had successfully challenged the makeup of their PEC and its legitimacy and so potentially left the BDA open to a similar challenge because their structure had similar weaknesses. It was thus decided at a Rep Body meeting to move directorship of the BDA to the Rep Body members themselves, who are directly elected by the BDA members, and so for some while I have been a director of the BDA, as the BDA made a temporary move to meet the requirements of the legislation. The Rep Body thus became the PEC.

The BDA as a company has had some financial issues in the past with a financial crisis around 2003/4 with Chief Executive, Ian Wylie standing down in late 2005. Recently there have been investments within the company such as development of the website, enhancement of member services especially in relation to HTM 01 05 and NHS contracting issues which have tested the annual budgets. There has been a massive increase in member contacts to the BDA seeking this help and this has only increased further with CQC. The running costs of the company resulted in a need for membership fee increases being ahead of inflation.

Membership fees account for approximately 55% of the money the BDA take in for the running of the business with events such as BDA Conference and revenue for advertising from the BDJ also contributing. Additional “bespoke services” such as the Good Practice scheme also bring in monies. More recently the revenue from the Journal via advertising has reduced with the austere times that we are constantly being reminded of. Without such revenue, it is clear that to run the company would result in even larger subscription rises.