Watching the Council in action
A few representatives of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's branches are invited to attend each meeting of the Society's Council as observers. Mark
Burdon from the Sunderland branch, reports on his experiences as an observer at a recent Council meeting
Further information
Members of the Society who would like to observe
the Council at work should make their interest known to their
local branch
secretary.
Branches are invited to send observers on a rotational basis.
Information
about the local branches is available from Amanda King, membership
manager, or Emma Rodriguez, membership officer (e-mail b&ra@rpsgb.org).
The roles of the branches in career promotion and in pharmacy
public relations are discussed in the next issue of the twice-yearly
Network
News, which will be published with The Pharmaceutical
Journal next
week. it will also include a list of branch
meetings planned for
the first half of 2006. |
In October 2005 I joined four fellow branch observers for a two-day
visit to the Society’s London headquarters. My colleagues were
Mohammed Ahmed (Doncaster), Clive Goalen (Harrogate), Gerard Scott
(Isle of Wight)
and Dennis Higgins (Thames Valley). Also there as an observer was the
president of the British Pharmaceutical Students Association, Gautam
Paul.
Council meetings normally begin at 3.30pm on Tuesday afternoon, following
a meeting of the Society’s Officers in the morning. Before the
Council meeting began we met Rob Darracott, Director of Corporate and
Strategic Development, who explained the agenda for the two days.
Changes
Having been familiar with the old Council chamber I was surprised by
the changes that had occurred since my previous visit. Gone were
the plush leather seating and dark flock wallpaper; in their place were
bland office chairs and plain white walls. This arrangement is a
temporary
one arising from the increase
in the membership of the Council. Accommodation has had to be made
for several extra lay members, for two pharmacy technician members and
for
an academic pharmacist elected to represent the schools of pharmacy.
Work on new accommodation for the Council begins in 2006 as part of
plans for redevelopment of the basement meeting facilities.
I was particularly interested to see how the new Council would function,
following the changes in its structure. It was interesting to watch
the political manoeuvres that some new members made, in an attempt
to secure
their position early in the new regime. I had been sceptical of the
benefits of the lay membership but was impressed by the depth of knowledge
of
pharmacy issues held by some of them. Another satisfying aspect for
me personally was the number of Sunderland graduates on the Council,
including
the President, Hemant Patel.
The meeting proceeded slowly through the public business, which gave
the observers a chance to acclimatise. There was much debate on the
membership fee structure for 2006, and the Council considered the comments
received
from members and the letters published in The Pharmaceutical Journal.
However, the Council had difficulty in reaching decisions, particularly
on the introduction of a reduced fee for long-serving members.
AGM motions
I was particularly pleased by the volume of debate on the motions carried
at the 2005 annual general meeting. The motions concerning the formation
of a membership committee and a communications committee resulted in
a great deal of interest and discussion around the Council chamber.
It was agreed that an externally facilitated review of communications
be undertaken which will report its findings in 2006.
Observers at Council meetings are excluded from the confidential part
of the meeting, so we had a late start to day two. We joined the meeting
after the coffee break, only to be asked to leave again within minutes
as the meeting moved back to confidential business. This gave us the
opportunity to view the Society’s museum displays.
For lunch on day two each branch observer was allocated a designated
Council member as a “buddy”. I was paired with Stephen Denyer,
head of the Welsh School of Pharmacy and chairman of the Science Committee.
Professor Denyer was elected to the Council in 2005 as the academic member.
After lunch, we rejoined the Council for a presentation on the future
public health role of pharmacy. The presentation was given by Roger Walker
and James McEwen, of Pharmacy Health Link.
The two days provided a fascinating opportunity to observe how the Society
runs and I would certainly recommend it to fellow branch members. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal