A the AGM held on 9 May 2002, the ACCA president tried the usual routine. The AGMs are usually packed by 36 council members and ACCA members working for the Association. There are hardly more than a dozen other members in attendance. The leadership does not want any debate and finds the whole event very inconvenient. So it just tries to push through any business.

ACCA president told the audience that the minutes of the meeting were published in the magazine in June 2001 and should be taken as read. Needless, to say, the Deputy President seconded such a motion (good training for the future!). But one brave man was not having any of this.

David Gordon, a practitioner from south-east England, objected and said that the minutes were misleading. Last year, and in earlier years, he has raised questions about the absence of a library and the lack of ‘Any Other Business’ (AOB) on the agenda. But all these and many other items always magically disappear from the minutes.

Whilst the President struggled for an answer, chief executive Anthea Rose explained that the minutes are only meant to record the decisions made by the AGM. Yes, you guessed it, there is no room for recording anything that the members say. And the ACCA leadership, always keen to avoid accountability, is opposed to AOB on the agenda. But the leadership did not explain how something can count as ‘minutes’ when it does not record members’ concerns.

Expect the usual Stalinist censorship again.