The Meeting was held at GfK NOP on 28 March 2011

Present:

• John Curtice, President
• Nick Moon, GfK NOP, Secretary
• Peter Kellner, YouGov
• Simon Atkinson, Ipsos MORI
• Nick Howatt, TNS-BMRB
• Gregory Absalom, Opinium Research
• Caroline Lawes, ComRes
• Martin Boon, ICM

Apologies:

• Jonny Heald, ORB
• Anne-Marie Hill, Marketing Means
• Phil Stubington, RS Consulting
• John Poole, RG Clarity

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed

Officers’ Report:

There was one complaint made to the BPC since the last AGM. This involved surveys referred to in a press release which the member understood were not in the public domain. It was agreed that they were in fact covered under the terms of disclosure, and the member duly supplied the data to the complainant, thus closing the matter.

There have been two applications for membership since the last AGM. One, from RG Clarity, was approved and they have now become members. The other was received fairly recently and is still in progress

John Curtice reported back on the conference on opinion polling and exit polling organised jointly by BPC and the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods in November. The event was a success and was very useful for outsiders. John thanked all who took part.

Nick Moon and John Curtice have undertaken a search of member websites to measure compliance with BPC rules. None were fully compliant, but most were good. One common theme was the lack of a link to the BPC website. Individual reports will be sent to members about their own websites.

Financial Report:

The change of signatures on the account has now finally been ratified, and Nick Moon will shortly be in possession of the statements and cheque books. He will prepare a financial report and circulate this for comment. Invoices for membership for 2010 and 2011 will shortly be sent out, and members were asked to pay promptly.

Election of Officers:

John Curtice was re-elected unopposed as President

Nick Moon was re-elected unopposed as Secretary

Andrew Cooper has resigned his position as member of the Management Committee because of his new role at Number 10, and Nick moon will write to thank him for all his work on behalf of the BPC. Simon Atkinson was elected unopposed to replace him.

Elections and Referendums:

John Curtice reminded members of the resolution from the last AGM about the 18 hour disclosure rule. This will come into effect on 7 April for all polls concerning voting intention in the elections for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly, and also for the AV referendum.

Any Other Business:

There was a discussion about the BPC website. It was decided not to spend money “modernising” it at this stage, but it was agreed that it should be updated with details of new members, and of the resolutions passed at the last AGM. In the interests of transparency it was agreed that AGM minutes and financial reports should appear on the website. It was agreed that consideration be given to updating the “Journalists’ Guide to opinion Polls” on the website.

Nick Moon will communicate with the members of the Sub-Committee on Disclosure to establish if they are still prepared to serve if needed.

It was agreed that it would left to John Curtice’s discretion whether a press release was needed on the performance of the polls at the AV referendum.

It was agreed as BPC policy that the best way to measure error in final election polls is to take the average of the errors on share of the vote for Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, and “others”.

The next AGM will be held in February 2012.