The Governing Board is meeting on Wednesday 6 December 2023. Items on the agenda include:
1. The 2024-2027 strategy
The Governing Board will be asked to approve the new strategy which has been developed over the last year. A Strategy Working Group has been meeting regularly and facilitated discussions with CET staff, the Methods Group, Cochrane Council, Cochrane community, Consumer Executive, Geographic Groups, ‘Critical friends’, senior global health figures and attendees at the Colloquium in September have all contributed to the latest iteration of the mission, vision, goals and objectives.
The next stage of the process is to agree how we are going to implement the new strategy and measure how well we are doing that using an Objectives and Key Results Framework.
2. The plan and budget for 2024
Karen Kelly (the Treasurer) and Casey Early (the Director of Finance and Corporate Services) will present the budget and plan for 2024 which has been developed with input from a Budget Committee. The Governing Board will be asked to approve the budget and plan which set out how we are going to manage our finances and deliver our work in 2024.
3. Report from the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
The Committee reviewed the budget and operational plan for 2024 at a meeting on 16 November and will recommend that the Board approve both. They also discussed risk management.
4. Report from the Remuneration Committee
The Committee reviewed the Cost of Living Allowance for staff who are employed by Cochrane at a meeting held on 16 November and will make a recommendation to the Board.
5. Report from the Governance and Nominations Committee
The Committee met in late October and reviewed an updated Governing Board skills audit, a role description and process for recruiting a Governing Board Chair and the list of recommendations following on from the governance review. The Committee will update the Board on progress with all of these things.
6. Report from the Future of Evidence Synthesis Oversight Committee
The Committee met on 16 November and reviewed quarterly reports on progress with the priority projects that are included in this large programme of work (prospective author journey, review development pipeline, central editorial service, optimizing production workflow and new review format). Committee members also discussed Evidence Synthesis Units and Thematic Groups. The Committee will update the Board.
7. Report from the Fundraising Committee
The Board will receive an update from the Fundraising Committee which met on 13 November.
The Governing Board will meet again on 9 January 2024, the main item on the agenda for that meeting is going to be open access. Trustees will discuss how to forge ahead with our commitment to achieving universal open access to Cochrane systematic reviews without placing the financial burden on review authors and without risking the financial sustainability of the Charity.