The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7180 p37-42
5/12 January 2002

Society summary

How to get yourself elected to Council

Serving on the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is not something to be undertaken lightly, as Linda Stone explains here. Anyone thinking of seeking election can find out more about what being a Council member entails by asking the office of the Secretary and Registrar for an election nomination form, which arrives accompanied by a package of information.

Among the enclosures is a document about the functions and responsibilities of the Council and its committees, the obligations and responsibilities of individual Council members, and the relationship between the Council and the Society's staff. An appendix sets out the code of conduct to which Council members are expected to adhere. A further document offers a generic role profile for Council members, in the form of a checklist of "ideal" attributes under the headings of "accountabilities", "skills and knowledge" and "personal qualities".

It should be clear from Linda Stone's article and these documents that you cannot meet the responsibilities of being a Council member if your place of residence makes it impossible to attend regular meetings in London. For that reason, the Society's Byelaws require that Council members must be normally resident in Britain, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. A temporary sojourn abroad need not be a problem, however: the Council recently decided that a Council member who was to spend 10 months pursuing research overseas was nevertheless still "normally resident" in Britain and able to attend some meetings. No other restrictions affect the eligibility of members of the Society to serve on the Council.

Election timetable

So, if you have something to offer, if you fit the profile, if you are not fazed by the responsibilities, how do you go about getting yourself elected? The election timetable begins immediately after the February Council meeting, when an Official Notice in The Journal (this year on 9 February) names the seven Council members who will retire in May, having completed a three-year term of service. A separate notice calls for nominations to fill the seven vacancies for the next three years. This notice is repeated weekly until just before the closing date for nominations, which is 18 March every year.

Once you have obtained a nomination form, the next stage is to persuade other pharmacists to sign it. Your nomination must be supported by at least 10 members of the Society, of whom five or more are from your own branch. The credentials of your nominators will be checked before the Society accepts your nomination form, and it may be worth collecting one or two extra names in case any of them presents a problem. Nominators' names are not published.

Gaining nominations from within your branch should not be difficult if the branch is an active one and you regularly attend its meetings, but it may present a problem if the branch is moribund. If you do not personally know enough potential supporters, you may have to grit your teeth and stride into a selection of local hospital and community pharmacies with your nomination form in your hand and an outline of your policies in your head. But remember that pharmacists who work in the branch area are not necessarily members of the branch.

When you have enough nominations from your own branch, you can seek further support either locally or from colleagues elsewhere. You could even obtain nominations from members of the Society who live overseas, because there is no British residency requirement for nominators.

Canvassing

There is nothing to prevent you collecting nominations before publication of the call for nominations in February, but do not forget that the restrictions on canvassing set out in the Council election procedure document (which is also sent out with the nomination form) apply "from the date that an individual knows he or she is to be a candidate".

The rules on canvassing can more or less be boiled down to the single word "Don't!" The Council's long-standing opinion is that canvassing is not appropriate in elections for membership of the governing body of a profession. The Council expects candidates both to refrain from personal canvassing and to dissuade others from canvassing on their behalf. It also expects that candidates will not seek to have their views published on the letters pages of pharmacy periodicals during the election period.

Having found your 10 or more supporters, you should return your nomination form to the Secretary and Registrar, signed also by yourself to confirm that you accept nomination. Two other documents from the bundle you receive with your nomination form will also need signing. One is a declaration that you will comply with the Council election procedures and do everything possible to ensure that other people do not, on your behalf, act in conflict with the policy. The other is a statement of undertaking that, if elected, you will support and seek to further the purpose, objects and responsibilities of the Society and comply with the code of conduct for Council members.

The returned nomination form should also be accompanied by biographical details, a declaration of positions or companies from which you benefit financially and a black and white photograph. The biographical details and the financial statement should be presented in the standard formats specified in the Council election procedure. The photograph should be a good quality, studio photograph, taken within the previous six months and carrying on the reverse a signed declaration to that effect. A monochrome photograph is specified because the election booklet that accompanies the voting papers is printed in black and white only and the quality of reproduction from colour photographs cannot be guaranteed.

Election booklet

In addition, you should submit a statement of policy by 31 March at the latest — if you do not meet this deadline it cannot be included in the election booklet. The biographical details, the financial declaration and the policy statement should together total no more than 630 words, which is the maximum that can be accommodated on a single page of the booklet. How you divide your words between biography, financial declaration and policy statement is entirely up to you. Do not try to get away with more than 630 words: it will not work.

The names of the candidates are reported to the Council at its April meeting (9 and 10 April this year), and shortly afterwards members should receive the voting papers and election booklet. The Journal of 13 April will include the candidates' biographical details, financial declarations and photographs, but not their statements of policy. Restricting the statements to the election booklet, which goes only to members, gives candidates greater freedom of expression than if the statements were to appear in The Journal, with its much wider readership.

Once the list of candidates is public, be prepared for approaches from editors of various publications, organisers of hustings events, etc. But do not contribute to any publication or event unless you are sure that the Council election procedure is being followed. If any breach of the protocol should occur, you will be summoned to explain yourself to the President and the Council.

The closing date for voting this year is 17 May. About five days later candidates should learn whether or not they have been elected. The rest of the world will learn about it when they read The Journal of 25 May.

One last piece of advice: if you are confident of election, keep your diary free on Wednesday 29 May, which has been set aside for an induction meeting for new Council members.