Private: Publications

PESGB December 2003

Mon 01 December 2003

Category: Magazines

President’s Page- Alan Booth

As this will be my final Presidents page, it is only right and proper that I thank all those at the Society who actually do the things that make it all work. Firstly the girls in the office without whom absolutely nothing would happen, secondly the active members of Council who make sure that we are managing the Society appropriately. In particular special thanks must go to Doug Fenwick, Doug has been a stalwart in ensuring we develop the necessary processes for risk mitigation and financial security as the Society moves forward.
My thanks also go to those Council members who will be retiring this year, although some of them have already found ways to continue helping the Society, for example Steve Pickering has agreed to be technical chair for Petex 2004. As he said, ” its just like organising 5 years worth of monthly evening lectures over the space of a couple of days, easy peasy” of course I paraphrase.
Those of you that read Doug’s editorial last month will have noticed that getting membership involvement in the Society is notoriously difficult, and I too would urge those of you who have not yet been involved to consider standing for future elections or helping organize events. One of the ways we are looking to ensure we are using the Societies finances appropriately is by President’s Page establishing a Sub committee for Investments and Disbursements, a.k.a. SCID (we’ve already heard all the jokes!). The three areas we target for funding are Education, Special Interest Groups and Data/Information, one is owned by The President, one by The President Elect and one by the Past President.
We will be providing funding to certain Universities and I expect much of this to begin next year, Steve Boldy is the owner of this, in addition we will be helping some of the Special Interest Groups with additional resources and anyone with ideas about the establishment of new groups should contact Chris Bulley or next year Jim Munns (Assuming he gets elected I), the third area is
Data/Information and this is an area I will continue to take care of as Past President. I am hopeful that we will be able to make available to all members a CD copy of the Millennium Atlas. This is a monumental piece of work and we need to ensure that as many people as possible benefit from it whilst it is still relatively up to date. Wishing you all the best for the New Year … Over to you Steve.