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Welcome to IAgSA (Institute of Agricultural Secretaries & Administrators)
Who are we?
IAgSA (Institute of Agricultural Secretaries and Administrators) was incorporated in 1967 and
What is our mission?
- To provide professional support to farm administrators and bookkeepers working in the UK rural economy.
- To support career development in rural business administration.
- To promote a high standard of professional conduct with farm and rural business administration.
What does IAgSA do?
- Maintains a membership database of all IAgSA members, which includes farm administrators, bookkeepers, rural business administrators, farm secretaries, accountants, land agents, estate administrators
and others. - Provides our members with relevant information and knowledge to assist them with their ongoing and Continuing Professional Development.
- Arranges training to help new entrants coming into the sector.
- Supports members to improve their technical knowledge and to meet other members and industry representatives through IAgSA Regional Training Days and our National Conference.
- Works to support local IAgSA Branches who provide local networks for IAgSA members across the UK.
- Engages with a wide audience via our
industry-recognised monthly technical bulletin. - Liaises and works with industry stakeholders, the government and others on farming issues that affect our members and their clients.
How do we manage ourselves?
- We follow a Constitution and Code of Conduct to provide our council and members with a framework in which to operate.
- Our Secretariat looks after the day-to-day activities of IAgSA, under the guidance of our council.
- Our Membership Panel approves all applications for membership.
- Our Disciplinary Committee ensures the good governance of membership in relation to the Code of Conduct and ethical matters.
What do we expect of our members?
- To abide by the Code of Conduct.
- To maintain and enhance their professional standards.
- To hold an Anti Money Laundering Supervisory Licence if required.
- To hold Professional Indemnity Insurance if required.
- To demonstrate continuing professional development and submit to IAgSA.
- To further the aims and objectives of IAgSA.
If you have any questions about IAgSA, please contact us.
IAgSA Council Members
Council Members help IAgSA to provide a high-quality service to our membership, giving their time and expertise, commitment and enthusiasm. Many of our Council Members work as farm administrators or bookkeepers and so have a working appreciation of the day-to-day issues within our profession.
Emma Powell – Chairman and Branches Representative
Emma lives near the Hampshire/Wiltshire border and her role is to liaise between the Council and our branches. After being made redundant from a part-time bookkeeping role for Farms and Estates, Emma decided to become a self-employed farm secretary and has been in the role for more than 10 years. She has been on the committee of the Thames and Test Branch for a number of years, serving recently as Chairman for the last few. Emma has a Level 3 Certificate in Rural Business Administration and regularly attends training courses and workshops.
Lynn Briggs – Vice Chairman & Continuing Professional Development & Membership Panel Representative
Lynn is the council member responsible for CPD and reporting to the CPD Assessor. Raised as a farmer’s daughter, she has worked within the agricultural industry all her life. With over 25 years’ experience, she has provided mobile farm secretarial services including
Rebecca Hill – Treasurer
Rebecca has held the Council post of Treasurer since July 2012, having previously served on Council from 2004-2011. As Treasurer, Rebecca is responsible for IAgSA’s finances, budgeting, monitoring bank movements, approving and paying bills and expenses claims, and reporting to Council. Brought up on a dairy farm in Gloucestershire, Rebecca obtained secretarial and accounting qualifications prior to completing her NCFS at Staffordshire Agricultural College. She began her farm secretarial career working for the Farmers Secretarial Service, based in Devizes, Wiltshire before becoming self-employed, looking after the administration on about a dozen farms. The businesses range from large contract farming operations, needing
Billie Johnson – Government Liaison Representative
Billie is a co-opted Council Member responsible for liaising with
Hannah Stevenson
Louise Templeton
Amanda Runciman
Amanda lives in the Scottish Borders but originally comes from Angus, north of Dundee. She grew up on a mixed farm and now lives with her husband and two children on a livestock farm. She enjoyed helping her Mum and Dad with their farm paperwork so it is no surprise she became a farm secretary. Her move to the Scottish Borders was to work for FBR, Kelso as a farm secretary and after having her family, Amanda became a self-employed farm secretary and has been doing this since 2007. Amanda has been a member of IAgSA since 2009 and was elected Secretary for Scottish Borders Branch in 2016 and has helped to grow the Scottish Borders Branch in the past 5 years. Amanda runs a weekly Highland Dancing Class for children from the age of 4 in the local village. In her spare time she enjoys walking and socialising with friends.
The highlight of Amanda’s IAgSA career so far would be organising the 2020 IAgSA Conference in Peebles Hydro with the other Scottish Borders Branch committee members.
Lesley Morden
Lesley grew up on a mixed family farm in Shropshire and now lives in Hereford, with spells in Mid Wales and Hampshire in between. She qualified as a farm secretary at Rodbaston, Staffordshire in 1981 and completed AAT Technician Level in 2002. She has worked in the full range of farm secretarial settings, as well as other industries such as construction and estate agency and managed the finances for her husband’s company until he recently retired. She is currently employed as Farm Accountant on a traditional mixed farming estate with separate soft-fruit company producing cherries, raspberries and apples for the past 8 years, responsible for all aspects of business accountancy and monthly cashflow, budget comparisons and forecasting, for which she has a particular passion. She has been Branch Secretary of Herefordshire Branch for the past 5 years and is currently also Deputy Chairman. Lesley is delighted to have been recently elected to Council and looks forward to supporting the Institute in the coming years.
Elin Jones
My name is Elin Jones and I have been living on a farm just outside Corwen in Denbighshire, North Wales for the past 34 years. I was brought up on a sheep and beef farm in Anglesey. When I met my husband, I moved to Denbighshire. We were given the opportunity to buy the farm we continue to live in now- this was the beginning of our farming business together and we were farming sheep and beef for many years.
We have two sons and two daughters who are all adults by now; luckily they all live locally and we are busy grandparents to nine grandchildren! After both our sons studied agriculture at College and University, they both came home to become partners in the business with different experience, knowledge and ideas to expand and improve the business. We changed direction of the business and build a Free Range Poultry Unit beginning with 16K and have increased to 32K.
Myself and my husband are in charge of the poultry unit. Our sons have recently moved direction again and now run a rotary dairy unit. Due to the demand of the poultry unit and the new dairy; we decided to stop farming sheep and beef to concentrate on both these enterprises. For 25 years; I ran my own farm secretarial business. I was a farm secretary for a number of farms around North Wales and had great pleasure out of my work. However, three years ago I decided that I needed to priorities my work on our own business. It was nice to hand over my work to local ladies who had a keen interest in the work. I have been a member of IAgSA for a number of years and have gained a lot of knowledge, inspiration from my fellow member by attending annual meetings and conferences around the United Kingdom. I was pleased to welcome the conference to North Wales in 2018- when it was held in the beautiful setting of Nant Gwrtheyrn. I am currently a chairperson of our own North Wales Branch.
In my spare time I like walking the country side of North Wales with my friends. My proudest achievement was to walk the Offa’s Dyke which runs from Chepstow in South Wales up to Prestatyn North Wales.
Useful Weblinks
IAgSA members often need to liaise with a wide range of
Industry Links
HMRC – www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs Rural Payments Agency (RPA) – www.gov.uk/government/organisations/rural-payments-agency Environment Agency – www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency DEFRA – www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs Health & Safety Executive – www.hse.gov.uk Government Gateway – www.gateway.gov.uk (Registration is required to access government online services) British Cattle Movements Service (BCMS) – www.gov.uk/cattle-tracing-online Farming Advice Service (FAS) – https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/farming-advice-service Scotland – http://www.gov.scot/Topics/farmingrural/Agriculture Wales – http://gov.wales/topics/environmentcountryside/farmingandcountryside/?lang=en
Farming Charities
Farming Community Network 03000 111 999 http://www.fcn.org.uk/ RABI 0808 2819490 http://www.rabi.org.uk/ RSABI/Gatepost 0300 111 4166 http://www.rsabi.org.uk/viewItem.php You Are Not Alone (YANA) 0300 323 0400 http://www.yanahelp.org/ Farming Help 0845 367 9990 http://www.farminghelp.org.uk/ Addington Fund 01926 620 135 http://www.addingtonfund.org.uk/ Counselling Directory 0844 8030 240 www.counselling-directory.org.uk Rural Support Wales 01686 629480 http://www.ruralsupportwales.org.uk/
Farm Software Companies
Agridata www.agridata.co.uk