Election Guidance Notes

Pact Council is the body that oversees all the work of the Pact Executive. Council approves operational budgets and financial plans, it also debates and agrees all Pact policies, campaigns, terms of trade and collective agreements. 

Council usually meets on the second Wednesday of each month (excluding August) as a hybrid meeting, in person and via Zoom. Meetings start at 9:00am and usually last two hours. Expenses are available for Council members who have to travel from outside London (including overnight accommodation, if required).  

Everything that Pact aims to achieve on behalf of its members is informed and directed by the membership, via Pact Council and various working groups. Council’s collective intellectual and commercial ‘muscle’ ensures that the executive is mandated to further members’ interests. 

Pact Council is a stimulating business environment. To help inform Council debate, non-Council members - including Chief Executives from across the media sector - are regularly invited to attend and share their views, ideas and policies for discussion and consideration by Council.

If you want to stand for election you need to complete the self-nomination process on our dedicated election website, hosted by independent election service company, Mi-Voice. 

All members elected or co-opted to Pact Council will serve for a period of two years (January 2025 to December 2026) and will become full legal directors of the company.

Results will be announced at the Pact AGM on Wednesday 11th December 2024.

The newly elected Council members will take up their posts from 1st January 2025 until 31st December 2026.

There are 12 Pact Council seats up for election:

Chair (x1) – vote available to all Full members 

Council Members (x8) – vote available to all Full members 

Wales National Representative (x1) – vote available to Welsh Full members* only 

Scotland National Representative (x1) – vote available to Scottish Full members* only 

Northern Ireland (NI) National Representative (x1) – vote available to NI Full members* only

*A Welsh, Scottish or NI Full member is a member whose principal place of business is in the relevant nation. For the avoidance of doubt a vote is only given to the parent company of a group and therefore a subsidiary company whose principal place of business is in Wales, Scotland or NI will not be able to vote for a national representative (unless the parent company’s principal place of business is also in the same nation). A group can however nominate a representative from a subsidiary company whose principal place of business is in Wales, Scotland or NI to be a National Representative, they just won’t be able to vote for them.

The ability to vote or put forward a candidate for election (who must be employed by them) is given to those companies that are deemed Full Members of the Association, as per the Memorandum and Articles of Association of Pact.

The membership types that qualify as a Full member are:

• Full Producer members
• Film members

Companies that hold Affiliate, Facilitator, Broadcaster* and Film Facilitator membership are not eligible to be Full members and therefore cannot put forward a candidate for election and are not eligible to vote.

In order to stand for the National Representative positions, the candidate must also be an employee of a member company whose principal place of business is in the relevant nation. For the avoidance of doubt, this can be a subsidiary company of a group whose parent company does not have their principal place of business in the relevant nation.

A candidate can stand for multiple positions (i.e. a candidate from a qualifying member company could nominate themselves for Chair, National Representative and a Council seat) and is able to assign priority to each nomination in the event that they are elected to all three positions.

Only one candidate per member company or group of companies can stand for election.

After nominations close, the Voting Contact of every company that is a Full member will receive a unique code that will allow them to cast one vote on the Mi-Voice secure website. The Voting Contact of each member company eligible to vote will be notified several weeks before the voting deadline, giving them plenty of time to consider their options before casting a vote. Once a vote has been cast, it is final. 

Please note that only the parent company within a group gets to vote. Subsidiary companies do not unless they pay a separate membership fee.
 

*A Broadcaster member is a company that is a UK Public Service Broadcaster, or is majority owned by one.

When the new Council is elected it must consider whether it has a sufficient balance of experience. If Council judges there to be a lack of representation (e.g. film, digital, English regions, children’s, diversity, distribution) then it has a duty to co-opt other individuals to ensure a balanced and experienced Council.

To ensure that each section of the Pact membership has a voice and promote a dynamic and effective board, Pact Council will take into account the skills and experience of the elected Council members and agree who else should be co-opted.This means that in some circumstances, unsuccessful election candidates can be co-opted. 

Please contact Pact Company Secretary, Rebecca Carey ([email protected]) if you wish to be considered for co-option. 

All members elected or co-opted to Pact Council will serve for a period of two years and will become full legal directors of the company.