March 2025

At the March Council meeting, Council agreed three minor revisions to the proposals to change the Bye-laws.

These are:

1. To remove the term "Associate Fellow", which is no longer used
2. To use the term "Councillor" to refer to Members of Council who are not the President, President-Elect, VPs, Secretaries or Treasurer
3. To enable Council to make a shortlist of Council candidates if there are more nominations than places, based on a set of principles designed to help Council - and the Society - operate effectively

Council noted feedback from Fellows, and was grateful to Fellows for taking the time to contribute either through this website or through the online Q&A.

There were 22 separate items of feedback via the website and we have replied to everyone individually.

Of these 22 items, eight Fellows had taken the time to give positive feedback and praise the proposals and/or the process. There were two requests to explain something and two questions about fees for particular categories of Fellow. There were two points about the process itself and eight suggestions for amendments to the proposals,. We hope all of these were resolved to the satisfaction of each Fellows.

The main topic that came out of the website and the Q&A was that of representation: how do groups such as amateur astronomers or solid earth geophysicists see themselves represented on Council?

This is a perennial topic for any membership organisation: there is no way that a Board of Trustees can be both manageably sized and perfectly representative. However, there are three important things the Society could do:

1. At "nominations time" remind Fellows that everyone is welcome to apply - and at voting time, remind Fellows to look at candidate statements and see how candidates' skills match up to what is required of a Trustee
2. Consider reserving places on Council for particular cohorts of the Fellowship (although note that this can get very complex!)
3. Remind Trustees that, at Council, they must always vote in the best interests of the Society as a whole - not their sub-discipline.