MSL Association (MSLA)

Annual General Meeting Minutes, 26th March 2019

Hilton Metropole Birmingham

Attendees:

MSLA Committee Members: Roger Berry, Nirmal Dhir, Zulfi Malik, Sarah Goffin, Mark MacDonald, Christine Mackay.

MSLA Members x 33

Objectives of the AGM

- Annual meeting to set strategy, report on the year’s events, shape the committee and vote in new members

- To ensure transparency of MSLA Committee activities for all MSLA members

Apologies for absence (only committee)

- No committee absences

Welcome to delegates and an explanation of the AGM process was given by the Chairman (Roger Berry)

Office Bearer Reports:

Chairman’s report (attached below)

Highlights of the past year

Great 2018 Conference with positive feedback outlined.

2 ‘How to’ sessions delivered: Code and Ethics, Statistics for MSLs.

MSLA Journal launch successful. Articles requested from MSLA members.

Website ready for additional content to be submitted.

MSLA free networking session and speaker after the AGM – publication on the way.

Excellent feedback from Webinars presented by Mark MacDonald

Plan to supplement webinars with further virtual engagement.

Active membership increased by 19 from last year. 249 subscribed members currently

Introduction of 2 new committee members who have been significant contributors over the past year: Sarah

Goffin and Mark MacDonald

Roger then tendered his resignation as Chair following his report, and nominated himself to be Chair for next year.

Zulfi then took the Chair for introduction of Officer reports.

Chair, Secretary and Treasurer Reports for 2018-19:

Secretary Report – Nirmal Dhir (see below)

Key Points

114 delegates for conference compared to 122 last year. Positive number though has cost implications.

Sufficient in accounts to manage this currently.

Our work as a committee has been all virtual this year. This has worked well and is more efficient use of

time with no compromise on quality and outputs.

12 month membership remained at £40, conference and courses are £50 cheaper for members so realised a

saving for members joining before registration.

2 How Tos – sold out quickly.

Nirmal formally tendered his resignation as secretary following his report in accordance with the constitution.

Treasurer Report – Zulfi Malik (see below)

Key points

£52,811.92 total cash in 2019, a 1.25% increase from 2018 (£52, 157.39) (pre-expenses)

We are a not for profit (Committee members do MSLA activities in our spare time)

MSLs are professionals so need professional organisation. MSLA reached point where it needs to employ

support services/staff member

362 members on database, 40 companies at conference today

Zulfi commended the accounts to be accepted for 2018/19 financial year for the MSLA

o This was seconded by Christine Mackay and unanimously accepted

In his role as Journal editor, Zulfi requested MSLA members submit articles for publication in the MSLA Journal, and

for content for the website.

Zulfi then resigned from the Treasurer’s role in accordance with the MSLA constitution.

There had been no nominations received for the role of treasurer prior to the AGM, and Zulfi self-nominated to

serve a further term. This was seconded by Mark MacDonald and carried unanimously.

Election of Officers

Zulfi Malik called for Chair’s vote. One nominee. Roger Berry. Seconded by Christine Mackay. Carried

unanimously.

Secretary: Roger Berry proposed and Wahib Saeed seconded unopposed nominee Sarah Goffin. Carried

unanimously.

Madi Choudhury-Iqbal proposed by Roger Berry as new committee member. She introduced herself from the

floor. Seconded by Jag Pridalyi. Carried unanimously

All thanked very much for their support and contributions

AOB

AGM Process: MSLA members would like further information about the purpose and process of AGM. Many are

unfamiliar with the concept of an AGM, and this is a barrier to engagement.

Personal E-mail addresses: In order to maintain contact with members following a job move, MSLA request the use

of personal email addresses

Support the MSLA: Members can take on a supporting role or lead a work stream, without committing to be a

Committee member. Please contact us for further discussion

Corporate & Social Responsibility - CSR:

Only one request received for CSR support, and Christine Mackay encouraged MSLA members to submit applications

for the 2020 AGM. Charity cannot be Pharma, religion or politics linked. Preference is for education related projects

and charities, as the MSLA educates members at our conferences etc.

One request received from the Burundi Lumiere Pour Tous health centre as recipient of £500 for the purchase of a

microscope. After discussion and comments from the floor, it was agreed that a donation of £750 be given to include

maintenance costs. Proposed by Christine Mackay, Seconded by Zulfi Malik, carried unanimously.

Webinars: MSLA will discuss proposals for recording webinars without inclusion of the interactive element. This

would satisfy the need to have ongoing access to the resource, as well as allay concerns that contributors may be

recorded ‘for ever’ thus discouraging them from engaging with the content. Mark was praised for his personal

service for attendees following the webinars.

Questions and comments:

Member/MSL role marketing: How should we advertise to appeal to various audiences and make MSLA more

attractive to existing MSLs? Some suggestions in comments below:

Value of MSLA to organisation: How can MSLs demonstrate the value of the MSLA? Possible synopsis of conference

or training session, and publication of a pro forma on the website proposed. Roger’s conference report will be on

AGM within a month.

ABPI Career Booklet: Roger will liaise with ABPI to request inclusion of MSL role.

Who do we want to attract? Discussion about influencing fresh graduates, and should we engage with universities?

Career days, road trips etc? We do not have the manpower to do this at present.

Advisory Board: MSLA plan to research and publish survey style information on evolution of the role, how does it

change/vary, what are current ‘hot topics’ for MSLs. To capture these data and Ad Board was proposed.

What is the difference between the MSLA and MSLS? The MSLS is a business run by and employing Sam Dyer and

other staff in the US. MSLA is a not for profit run by volunteers in the UK and Ireland. As the compliance

environment in particular is very different in the UK & I, the MSLA offers unique value for MSLs based here. Though

we would like to grow as an organisation, we will not aim to join forces with the MSLS for these and other reasons.

Guidance for MSLs: The MSLA will continue to create discussion frameworks but will not provide guidelines or rule

books.

Journal: Please support with articles for publication as well as artwork for the front cover. Prize of attendance at

either the next AGM or a How to for artwork used on the cover

Number of MSLs in the UK: Uncertain but thought to be approximately 1000, of whom a third are MSLA members

Membership at Conference question: 14 of attendees approx. are aspiring MSLs.

Aspiring MSLs: What boxes can we tick to become an MSL? Publication potential to respond to this?

Please promote the MSLA to your companies and volunteer your services as work stream lead, contributor,

author, or innovator.

Roger Berry formally closed the AGM at 7pm

2019 MSLA Annual General Meeting: Chairman report (Roger Berry)

2018/19 was a very productive year for the MSLA.

2018 Annual Conference:

We started with a very successful 2018 annual conference (21st and 22nd March) attended by 122 delegates. A great

example of the enduring strength and depth of MSLA awareness and the perceived value of our Annual Conference.

To continually improve the MSLA offering to our membership, we asked delegates to complete feedback forms and

pleasingly 62% did so (75 of 121). 100% of delegates rated the overall organisation of the annual conference as very

good (34%) or excellent (66%). Furthermore 96% rated the overall educational experience as very good (33%) or

excellent (67%).

We had recording breaking attendance at the networking evening (71), which included a workshop led by Helen

Kane of Pivot MSL focusing on demonstrating value of the MSL role. 90% of delegates rating it either 4 (very good) or

5 (excellent) out of 5 in terms of quality and 89% in terms of relevance and usefulness to the MSL role.

2018 AGM:

The AGM attendance was disappointing with only 20 people attending so great to see more this year.

2018 How To’s:

In 2018/19 the MSLA also delivered 2 sold out ‘How’ To courses

Code & Ethics - Nick Broughton (London)

Stats - Allan Hackshaw (Birmingham)

A third How To: critical appraisal in Liverpool had to be cancelled at late notice due to the University Hospital

Liverpool research educational team disbanding. We quickly contacted all registered delegates and managed this

challenging situation well.

Looking ahead to 2019/2020 – we are yet to define our How To educational programme. We would encourage you

all to make suggestions both on topics, propose vendors that you might have had good experience with, and put

yourself forward to support delivery (on bahalf of the MSLA) of these events. Please e-mail info@msla.org.uk with

your suggestions.

MSLA Journal:

The 2018 Annual Conference saw the launch of the MSLA Journal, and through Zulfi’s sheer hard work and

dedication we have successfully delivered 3 journal issues through 2018, with ~30 articles. In order for the MSLAJ to

be sustainable and continue to add value to our members we need a constant stream of high quality and relevant

articles for the MSL community. Again, you will see tomorrow on your feedback form, we are asking you all to step

up and support the journal by writing articles, proposing authors/topics, supporting the search for high quality

articles. We need your help.

2018 MSLA Webinars:

A further innovation through 2018 came in the form of MSLA Webinars. This was pioneered by Mark MacDonald,

new MSLA committee member (voted in to position this time last year). Mark developed content for 3 webinars

(Acting with integrity and building trust; MSL field craft; the aspiring MSL) with ~10 delegates per session who rated

them consistently over 4 out of 5 in terms of quality and with NPS likelihood to recommend above 70, with one

scoring an incredible 100.

Mark will be working hard to continue this offering through 2019, and again if you feel you can support, please let us

know/speak to Mark directly.

MSLA Membership update:

From a membership perspective, the picture is similarly positive – with 349 total live members, 121 increase since

2018, and we estimate ~35% coverage of the full MSL UK and IRE population. 56 unique Pharma companies are

represented by our membership, again increasing by 4 vs. 2018. As always, we would ask you to spread the word

about the MSLA – particularly through your leadership who are often decision makers about conference/education

event attendance.

2018 overview & MSLA priorities:

So in summary 2018 was a strong year, with 2 new and successful innovations. Our immediate priorities remain

simple and achievable - to continue to deliver the high quality offerings and engage the membership and external

experts to bring in new ideas, expertise and energy.

The Secretary’s report

9th MSLA conference, 114 delegates, and of-course this would not be possible without all your support. My 4th year

in post, we have achieved a lot:

2 How To’s, which were all sold out, excellent feedback.

3 Webinars, all highly rated and recommended

The MSLA Journal, 3 successful issues and 30 articles.. Zulfi will update

Conference Planning is all done in our spare time. We will start planning the next conference (2020) during July

2019, sourcing out speakers, venue etc.

Our Admin process is better, any issues please don’t talk to the secretary…

Update on our website, more on that from our treasurer/webmaster later

Reminder that the membership is valid for 12 months ensures you renew as £40.00 fee hasn’t changed from the

onset. You get discounted rate on Conference and all the How To’s and much more

We have planned xx How To’s for 2017/2018

And on a final note we take Your feedback very seriously, both +ve and -ve and implement the requests.

2019 MSLA Annual General Meeting: Treasurer Report – Zulfi Malik