At what proved a spirited AGM, members made plain their dissatisfaction with the brevity of the consultation period, having received just three weeks' notice before being called upon to adopt the new scheme at the December AGM.  

Nor were the proposals universally popular. According to Bill Wood QC there was a sense that board members and individual members, "have not engaged sufficiently in the past with the CMC" and therefore "we only have ourselves to blame if we don't like the proposals." Busy independent mediators, he observed, "may well be more scrupulous in their attendance at CMC meetings in future."

In urging CMC members to attend the EGM in March, mediator David Cornes added his voice to those who believe that there are "very serious and fundamental issues to be addressed in relation to the CMC proposals.”

Ballot papers for the election of the new board will be sent out as soon as nominations close on 16 January . Mediators wishing to vote are required to join the CMC and will need to do so without delay.

The deadline for submission of responses to the CMC on the five scheme documents and whether or not they should go ahead is 31 January. A  feedback form can be downloaded and completed here.           

Between 1 February and 11 February Karl Mackie will chair an ad-hoc independent committee considering responses to the consultation.

The New Board will first meet on 26 February by which time the revised proposals will be effectively finalized.

They will be published on 2 March and will be voted on at an EGM to be held at 1630 in Lecture Room 202 at the LSE in the Aldwych on 30 March .