Have your say at our Annual General Meeting (AGM)
The College will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) between 6-8pm, on 11 July, at its International Congress, in Liverpool.
At the AGM, the College Officers, led by President Dr Adrian James, will be putting forward three proposed changes to the College constitution – including a proposal to extend voting rights to Affiliates.
To be carried, all of the proposals will need the support of at least two-thirds of members voting at the AGM.
Following a vote of members at a Special Meeting of the College last November, the forthcoming AGM, and all subsequent AGMs, will be held online, as well as in person, meaning that members will be able to log in and attend wherever they are in the world.
The voting platform for all members – both those attending in-person and online – will be provided by CIVICA Election Services (formerly Electoral Reform Services).
To ensure consistency of member experience, votes will not be counted by a show of hands of those at the conference centre – with all members being asked to cast their votes online.
The suggested changes to the College constitution have been backed by the RCPsych Council and Trustee Board. The precise wording of the resolutions, to be put before the membership, will be signed off by the Trustee Board on 15 June.
If the proposal to extend voting rights is carried, the people given the vote in College elections would be those who are qualified medical practitioners who:
- are working as psychiatrists in the UK
- do not hold the MRCPsych qualification
- do not hold specialist registration
- have met the criteria for appointment to their post, as set out from time to time by the Department of Health in the UK
- have worked as a psychiatrist for at least three years.
As of last July, the College had 1,519 Affiliates, of whom 1,153 were SAS doctors.
The total College membership is currently 20,436.
The total number of SAS doctors in the College was, as of last July, 2,641 – with 1,175 SAS doctors being full members.
SAS doctors (otherwise known as specialty doctors and specialist grade doctors) make up around a quarter of the psychiatric workforce in the UK and are a growing part of the medical workforce across all specialties.
The Officers believe that if we want to grow the psychiatric workforce, as is needed to deliver excellent patient care, we need to be as welcoming as possible to all SAS doctors, as a College.
As well as the proposal to extend voting rights to Affiliates, the Officers will be putting forward proposals to enable the Chairs of our International Divisions to become full members of Council, and for the formal name of Council to be changed from ‘UK Council’ to ‘Council of the College’, to reflect that we’re an international organisation – with nearly a fifth of our members being based outside the UK.
Each of the proposed changes will be voted on separately.
We will be providing further information about how to sign up to attend the AGM in-person or remotely, and how to vote in due course.