Our Council and Committees form the decision-making structure for the Society. These groups of members ensure that the Society is supporting its members and the field of endocrinology in the best possible way. This is done by reflecting on the external challenges that you all face and considering how the Society can best support you.

DIVERSITY IS KEY

The members who belong to our Society are found in many different institutions, working different job plans, holding different experience, and from different backgrounds. All have slightly (or very!) different perspectives on how the Society can best support endocrinology. Post-pandemic, our members are facing new and different challenges that the Society needs to understand better.

This diversity and pace of change mean we need many different voices to be represented in the Society’s leadership – on Council and on our Committees. This will ensure we can evolve and adapt to support endocrinology, both now and into the future.

There’s also a lot to gain individually by taking on one of these roles. Members get the chance to expand their own professional network and have the opportunity to use skills in new ways – as well as to shape the work of the Society.

HOW WE’VE CHANGED OUR PROCESS IN 2022

Our recent governance review made it clear that the Society needs to be more transparent about the process for electing members into key positions. While examining how best to do this, we’ve made additional changes, in order to make our processes more robust and more inclusive.

The principle we are following is that governance roles within the Society should be openly advertised and recruited for based on skills and motivation.
This year our role descriptions have been updated with a more accurate description of responsibilities, together with required skills for each role. Our application forms have been updated (and renamed from ‘nomination’ forms), and streamlined to focus on motivation and evidence of skills for roles, rather than asking for biographies, as previously.

Committee Chair positions will now be applied for, rather than being decided by the Nominations Committee. These positions, in addition to Council positions, will go out to the membership for a vote if there are more applications than vacancies. Importantly, this ensures that our members have a say in who is representing them.

We’re also working harder to raise awareness of our vacancies, the process, and our need for wide representation and diversity within the Society’s governance. We hope this will encourage new faces to apply for Society roles.

Read the full review of the Society’s governance structures and processes with recommendations.

 

2023 ELECTIONS: KEY STATS

2 MEMBER VOTES were held: one for the Public Engagement Committee Chair and the other for who should fill the four Council member vacancies.

A total of 67 APPLICATIONS were received for 50 VACANCIES
(an average of 1.34 applications for each position). In previous years we have often struggled to fill vacancies.

CONGRATULATIONS!

We welcome everyone who is taking up a new position after our 2022 AGM.

Officers:

Professor Márta Korbonits President
Professor Kristien Boelaert Clinical Committee Chair
Mrs Louise Breen Nurse Committee Chair
Dr Niamh Martin Public Engagement Chair-elect
Dr Zoi Michailidou Science Committee Chair-elect

Council members:

Dr Miles Levy
Dr Onyebuchi Okosieme
Dr Michael O’Reilly
Dr Helen Simpson

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE FURTHER?

Let us know how we can make our governance processes even better. The Society’s Equality, diversity and inclusion working group is currently busy examining governance as well as other Society activities and will make recommendations to Council in 2023. If you have any suggestions, contact [email protected].