Guild members to vote on union changes
Members of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists are to be balloted on planned changes to the way the guild is organised.
The changes have been proposed by the guild council to bring it in line
with requirements imposed by Amicus, the guild’s parent union.
The proposals are the outcome of six months of negotiations between the
guild and Amicus to arrive at a solution that both could accept.
Anthony Oxley, vice president of the guild, said: “We were not
happy with the original Amicus proposal, which would not have allowed
the guild to provide the services it previously did.” He said that
the new proposals, which were agreed at a guild council meeting on 22
September, mean that the guild will continue to be able to provide a
good service to its members and will enhance the way the guild council
works. Under the new proposals, the guild annual general meeting will
be discontinued, but general meetings will still be possible to discuss
particular topics.
The guild council will be replaced by a national professional committee
(NPC), with each health group in Amicus having its own NPC. The guild
NPC will have one elected member from each of 12 guild groups, which
will be realigned with Amicus’s 12 regions. A further 10 members
will be elected nationally or co-opted to chair the various guild committees
or represent special interest groups. Terms of office will be two years,
starting on 1 January, with all seats coming up for election together.
The realigned regional groups will be able to write their own byelaws,
provided they accord with the Amicus rule book.
The guild section fund will become a ring-fenced budget that rolls forward
from one year to the next and is renamed the Guild Development and Research
Fund. The annual guild conference will continue, with any profits accruing
to this fund.
Production of the guild magazine Healthcare Pharmacy has been discontinued
by Amicus on cost grounds — the journal was losing a substantial
amount of money. A replacement electronic newsletter is to be produced
instead.
Guild members will be balloted on the proposed changes at the end of
October. |
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