CEO Report - Why is EuRA an "NFP"?

Autumn for me means conference season; both our own EuRA Global event and those of our mobility partners, CERC, IAM and WERC.  EuRA has built strong relationships with our partners in mobility and we are working closer together in the best interests of our members.  One of the areas we are looking at closer collaboration is in the training realm.  Dominic and our team of brilliant minds led by Carmelina Lawton Smith, our Strategic Consultant for Education, have been working on expanding our MIM qualification into a truly unique, free, continuing professional development programme.  This launched in November with our first online MIM+ Module led by our legal guru, Gordon Kerr.  Gordon delivered this module in person at our EuRA Global Conference 2018, held in the spectacular setting of the Taj Fort Aguada Hotel in Goa.

With all this activity and energy going into building new programmes, extending relationships and forming alliances, I felt it would be a good time to really explain how EuRA was founded and is run still, as an NFP; a not-for-profit.

EuRA is run by and for the benefit of its members.  EuRA has no owners and no shareholders.  The association was set up in the UK as a designated NFP, which means we have a significant tax advantage i.e. we don’t pay any, providing profits are spent on enhancing our member services’ portfolio.

I report directly to the Executive Group and they are elected by the full members of the association.  At the annual general meeting held during the EuRA International Relocation Congress (Munich April 30th - May 3rd) the associations’ audited accounts are available for scrutiny.  In fact, we have to publish them at least 30 days in advance of the meeting so that all members have the chance to see them.  This transparency is central to the operation of any NFP and although the Executive Group steer the projects we initiate, the AGM is your opportunity as a member to discuss projects you would like to see EuRA undertake.

I like to take a two-fold view on how EuRA is funded.  The membership subscriptions pay for EuRA to exist; they pay the wages, the rent, the utility bills and buy the equipment.  The profit on the EuRA International Relocation Congress pays for everything else.   This is why we have  a zero tolerance approach to non registered delegates at the event.  Every member benefits from the profits from the fees we charge for that event, from those taking our free training programmes to those joining us for events in other parts of the world which don’t make a profit,  to anyone looking to undertake the seal, read our research white papers and legal guides, attend our webinars or ask advice of our strategic consultants.  Without the profit from the big conference, none of these services would be possible.

Our brilliant Executive Group work for free, giving their time and expertise to make EuRA better, more relevant and more useful to the members.

I was delighted that 6 of our 9 Executive Group members were able to join the EuRA Global Conference in Goa and I would like to send them a HUGE thank you for being there.

They travelled half way across the world to meet with our members in India and Asia entirely at their own expense.  On behalf of the EuRA Members I did bring out the EuRA credit card to buy them supper by the beach (and this being Goa, it was great value!) but apart from that, they foot their own bill as part of their commitment to you, the members.

So next time it looks like my team and I are being really harsh having a  word with someone hanging around the lobby of the conference hotel to have meetings with paying delegates, without being registered themselves, bear in mind the unfairness of what they’re doing.  Everyone else is paying to support the association.  We are not spending the profits on long lunches and club class flights! Please, in Munich, if you’re approached by someone who is not listed on the App for a meeting, ask them if they’re registered.  If they’re not, tell them what EuRA being an NFP really means.