Play your part in history!
This year’s election to the Council will go down in the annals of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as a historic one, if only because it sees the first major change to the constitution of the Council since three Privy Council nominees were introduced in 1934. That was when the Society took on the responsibility for compulsory registration of pharmacists, paving the way for regulation of the profession as it is understood today.
The significance of the 2005 election is further highlighted if one considers
that the changes of 1934 were the first since the Charter of 1843 incorporated
the Society. So the responsibilities of the candidates and the electorate
in 2005 are enormous. The style of the reformed Council will be judged
for many years to come as laying the foundations for the future success
of the profession. Therefore, as members of the Society read the candidates’ election
statements, they should consider a number of issues before taking their
pick.
A third of the new Council will be appointed lay members. Of these 10,
at least seven will be unfamiliar with the inner working of the Society,
the personalities and the politics. They will learn fast, no doubt, but
in so doing they will be informed and influenced by the newly elected
members of Council, the established Privy Council nominee members, if
reselected, and the Society’s executive. In addition, the two pharmacy
technician members will be new to the Council.
Under what sort of influence does the pharmacy electorate wish the reformed
Council to be? Voters may believe that with so many new faces about to
appear, it is important for the most experienced Council members to be
elected again. Without that continuity, it could be argued, the real
influence in the first year or so of the reformed Council is more likely
to be held by the executive than the Council at large. Alternatively,
they may believe that it is more important for the Society and its future
health if there is a clean sweep, that the incumbents have had their
turn and it is time for new pharmacy faces and ideas to be seen and heard.
Maybe the best Council will be drawn from the old and the new which will
ensure some experience and gravitas will be preserved but also give an
opportunity for a fresh view to be taken. Is it important to ensure that
all sectors of the profession are on board, in addition to the three
Council members who will represent the home countries by right? If yes,
that will mean voting to select people from all sectors of pharmacy practice,
people who are sympathetic to what the Council has had to achieve in
the past five years, as well as people who are less than happy with recent
events. With such an open field, the decision of each and every voting
pharmacist should not be taken lightly and responsible ones will not
only select their favourites.
Whoever is successful, The Journal hopes that the new Council will be
balanced and cohesive and will focus on the future.
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