CUKPA COMMITTEE MEETING
WEDNESDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2025
VIA ZOOM
MINUTES OF MEETING
1.SAFETY MOMENT – DAH opened the meeting at 10.30am with the Safety Moment. NJ raised the subject of extra care needed when driving around areas of road works and inattention of other drivers to direction signage. DAH mentioned the need for special care when walking in wintry, slippery conditions.
2.PRESENT/APOLOGIES –
Andrew Nisbet (AN) Chris Simes (CS) Steve Wilson (SW)
Alan Higgins (DAH) Peter Young (PY) Neil Jones (NJ)
Grace Shacklady (GS) Alan Dennison (AD) Steve Ladle (SL)
Full attendance. No Apologies
3.WELCOME – DAH welcomed members to the meeting, particularly Steve Ladle as a new member and therefore as observer for this meeting. He asked Steve to prepare a short biography for the next Insight newsletter. Grace stated she would only be able to attend for a short period. DAH expressed the committee’s sincere condolences for the recent passing of her husband Nick and extended very best wishes.
4.MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING – held on 25 July 2024 at the Mercure Hotel, Paddington in London. Proposed AD, Seconded SW. The minutes were approved as a true record of the meeting .
5.MATTERS ARISING –
Action items from the 25 July 2024 meeting were noted, most of which would be subject of further discussion during this meeting.
CUKPA Constitution. The proposed changes to the Constitution relating to online attendance and voting at General Meetings had been presented and approved at the 2024 AGM.
ACTION – DAH to forward the reference file to NJ for modification and update to the website by AGN.
Post meeting, this matter has been concluded.
Caltex Association Members. DAH stated that he had continued conversations with Mr Ashley Sanders (AS) and Ms. Harriet Wu concerning contact with Caltex pensioners. This will be an ongoing activity.
6.CHEVRON MATTERS – DAH discussed the meetings held between CUKPA and the Company since the last committee meeting. These have included a number of online Teams meetings with Ashley Sanders (AS), one of which Ms. Harriet Wu also attended. Two face meetings were also held, one with AS, the other with AS and Mr. Simon Owens, Chairman of the Trustee board. It is understood this is the first time such a meeting has been held with the Trustee Chairman.
The Association had written to Chairman and CEO Mr. Mike Wirth and to the Chairman of the Trustees, principally concerning the fund surplus and it’s equitable distribution of benefit to stakeholders, or lack thereof. Meetings with the company focussed on this matter, noting that the Company and Active members had received a benefit. Pensioners had not, despite a recommendation being made for a modest increase to pre ’97 payments. The fund remains in healthy surplus.
All meetings were professional and cordial. Business conditions and performance being quoted as the reason for Company resistance to pensions increases.
Other matters discussed during this meeting included Linkedin articles about pre-’97 payments and comparative increases to other oil company pensions schemes.
ACTION – Further online meetings scheduled with the Company.
7. INSIGHT REVIEW – DAH noted that the format of the Insight newsletter had largely remained unchanged since its introduction. He proposed that a team be set up to review the structure and make recommendations. The team will be comprised of: AD, CS, SL, NJ.
AN suggested that the design includes elements that can be reflected on the website eg Logo, type style
ACTION – NJ to contact team members to arrange an initial online meeting.
8.ASSOCIATION MATTERS –
TREASURER’S REPORT – Treasurer PY presented interim accounts up to 31 January 2025 with comments as follows:
- Subscriptions remain stable. Income almost identical with that for the same period last year.
- Counter credits increased. This due to members ‘catching up’ with unpaid prior year subscriptions.
- Travel expenses have increased over recent years and are at pre-covid levels. Hotel and transport costs have increased as has the frequency of meetings with the Company.
- Insight postage costs now exceed printing charges.
- Currently running a deficit for the year of c. £1,500.
- Overall healthy balance of funds c. £9,600.
PY reported that the local auditor he had hoped to use for the Association’s accounts was no longer available. AD and CS agreed to review and verify the accounts as they have done in the past.
No current issues with account holders Barclays Bank.
ACTION – AD, CS to review accounts when appropriate.
COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP – The committee unanimously endorsed Mr. Steve Ladle as a new member. His membership will be ratified at the 2025 AGM.
MEMBERSHIP STATUS – AD had issued an interim membership report prior to the meeting. The Association database shows 822 current members. AD noted a number of new members from Aberdeen following DAH and NJ attending a Texaco retirees lunch meeting in Aberdeen in November 2024 where the work of the Association was discussed. All new members have elected to take Insight electronically.
The need for continued focus on new members was discussed.
ACTION – DAH to attend Chevron retirees lunch in Aberdeen and promote Association business.
CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS – Discussed above under Matters Arising. No further action required.
RISK REGISTER – The risk register was discussed and the reason for its introduction. It was confirmed that the register is an important tool to help manage committee responsibilities.
The register needs to be reviewed and updated. AD agreed to take the lead on future register reviews.
Outstanding items relating to the website regarding renewal of the domain name, hosting and maintenance to be addressed by AN with other committee members.
ACTION – AD to issue current register to committee members as a first step. If not before, register to be reviewed at the mid year committee meeting.
Post meeting: AD has issued current risk register to committee members.
9.ANY OTHER BUSINESS –
WEBSITE – AGN gave a full update of website activities. A team review had taken place October 2024 with a number of actions outstanding.
- Risk Register items as above
- A review of website content was commenced in October to ensure it was up to date and relevant. Suggestions from team members to be collated and presented for review by DH and NJ in conjunction with the website strategy and page usage statistics
- Membership includes 48 members who are Suspended as contact details are out of date, meaning either or both surface and email addresses are invalid. A campaign to contact as many as possible by the provided phone number might elicit some updates to restore service to these members
- The proposal to automate subs payment updates from the electronic bank statements has some technical issues that need to be addressed before it can commence. AN is working on a solution.
- With the loss of Dave Poulter data about deceased members previously loaded into the OBITS database stopped. It was agreed in the website review that OBITS was likely in breach of GDPR rules and it has been removed from the website. However, the data is useful for updating the membership system. This data is now available again from BW and AN will forward the spreadsheets to Membership Sec and Treasurer.
- Retiree News is now distributed electronically via the BW website. AN will explore possibility to download this for publication on our website as before.
NEXT INSIGHT – The next Insight issue is scheduled for April this year.
ACTION – Articles to AD by 3rd week March please.
AGM POST MEETING ITEM – During the meeting the date for the 2025 AGM was not discussed. This should have been set for mention in the next newsletter. Following this meeting the date of Wednesday 8 October has been proposed.
No objections received. AGM will be held on 8 October 2025.
ACTION: Venue to be agreed and booked.
DAVE POULTER – DAH asked that the next newsletter contain individual memories of Dave, who made a huge contribution to pensions matters over many years.
ACTION – Those that have known Dave well and worked closely with him to submit brief recollections/memories for the newsletter.
10. NEXT MEETING – To be an attended meeting in London, 11.00am Thursday 15 July 2025.
ACTION – AD agreed to propose suitable venues for the meeting. This has been done and a venue needs to be selected.
The meeting closed at 12.20 hours.