The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7347 p529
30 April 2005

Society summary

AGM motions seek new committees and information on Save Our Society

Four motions have been submitted for debate at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s 2005 annual general meeting. Two call for the establishment of a communications committee and a membership committee, a third asks for information about the constitution, funding and objectives of Save Our Society and the fourth seeks the formation of a new group of members to audit the Society’s activities (Official Notice, p501).

In the first motion, John Gentle, who has been elected to serve on the new Council, asks for a committee to ensure that all communications are better able to influence events and to improve communications between the Society and the members”.

The second motion, by Andrew McCoig, who will also serve on the new Council, calls for a committee “to ensure that the branches, the regions and the wider membership receive the necessary support and resources to meet their needs both now and for the future”.

The third motion is by Christine Glover, a current Council member who did not seek election to the new Council. Mrs Glover is concerned at the dominance of the new Council by pharmacists affiliated to Save Our Society. She wants to know how SOS is constituted, how it is funded and what agenda the SOS Council members intend to pursue.

The fourth motion is from John E. Balmford and Ian M. Caldwell, who were honorary auditors of the Society until the Council decided last year that the demands of modern corporate governance role made the role obsolete. Their motion urges the new Council to establish, preferably by election, “a small group of members to consider the activities of the Society and to publish an annual report thereon”.

The AGM takes place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 24 May in the assembly hall at the Society’s London headquarters. It will be preceded by a ceremony at 6pm for the presentation of fellowship certificates and Charter medals, followed at 7pm by a informal forum at which members will have an opportunity to raise issues they wish to discuss.