The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7351 p661
28 May 2005

Society summary

AGM calls for the establishment of three new Society committees

Motions calling on the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to establish three new committees were carried at the annual general meeting on 24 May.

The calls for all three proposed committees were prompted by concerns among members that they do not know enough about the Society’s business.

John Gentle, who has been elected to serve on the new Council, proposed the creation of a committee to ensure that all communications, both within and without the profession, are better able to influence events and to improve communications between the Society and its members.

Mr Gentle described the Society’s current communications as being “good in parts, but with some of it not being very good at all”.

Supporting Mr Gentle, Bruce Rhodes said that members would carp from the sidelines if they didn’t know what was going on. “We should know more about what our professional body is doing on our behalf,” he said.

The meeting went on to accept a motion in the name of Andrew McCoig, also a member of the new Council, calling for a membership committee to be created to ensure that Society branches, regions and members receive necessary support and resources.

The proposer of the motion said that the Society needed a mechanism to engage its membership. The committee would be concerned only with professional, non-regulatory issues.

The President, Nicholas Wood, suggested that the motion should be left to lie on the table until the Society’s devolution working party reported because its plans for membership boards for England, Scotland and Wales might deal satisfactorily with professional and membership issues.

The motion was carried after the meeting indicated that it wished to vote on the proposal.

Also carried was a proposal from John Balmford and Ian Caldwell, both Past-Presidents of the Society. They suggested that a small group of Society members be elected to a committee to scrutinise the Society’s activities and produce an annual report to the members.

The meeting rejected a motion proposed by Christine Glover calling for information on how the Save Our Society group is constituted and funded. Mrs Glover also wanted to know what the group’s aims and objectives were. She said that members of the profession had the right to know what agenda was to be pursued by SOS supporters on Council.