Welcome to the RAS Governance website,

and thank you for being interested.

In 2024, the RAS carried out a review of its governance, led by an external governance professional. As a result of the review, Council decided to start the process of making some changes to how the RAS is governed. Some of these are minor internal tweaks, and some require changes to the governing documents - the Bye-laws and Charter.

Consulting you, the Fellows, will be a hugely important part of enacting these changes. This is for two reasons.

First, consulting you is simply the right thing to do. Fellows are at the heart of the Society.

Second - there can be no changes to the governing document without your approval.

This website is intended to be an easy-to-use source of all the information you need about possible changes to the Society's governance. In particular, it sets out all the proposed changes to the Society's governing documents that you will be asked to approve at the AGM in May this year (2025).

It covers:

1. Background - what is a charity? what are the trustees' legal duties?
2. The Society's governance review
3. Proposed changes to the Bye-laws
4. Proposed changes to the Charter
5. Resources - including the review report itself

There are opportunities to give feedback on every page. Council warmly welcomes your questions, comments and suggestions. All your feedback will be considered, and everyone who sends something in will receive a personal response.

You can click on the purple buttons below to go straight to an area of particular interest, or you can scroll further down to find out more about the timeline, and about how you can get involved.