Nominations are sought for the newly created seat on the England Council for a SAS member.

In order that the voice of the Society's SAS members may be better heard, the England Council have created a new seat on their Council, specifically for an SAS member. This initiative will provide a good platform for SAS members to have their views considered at a very high level within the Society.

SAS members who may be interested in being considered need to follow established democratic paths. What happens on these occasions is that the respective Regions within England promote one or more candidates for the post and then England Council members decide via a ballot which member is to be elected.

If you wish to be considered then please contact your respective regional secretary direct. It will be for the regions to gather names of interested candidates and decide regionally who they wish to put forward. Once the regions have nominated their preferred candidates then a ballot can take place.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Within each Region members submit names to their Regional Secretary
2. Members present at a Regional meeting choose the Region's SAS candidate(s) for office from amongst the names submitted
3. Regional nominations are sent to the Society office
4. A ballot is held amongst the members of the England Council which determines the appointment

It is the responsibility of the Regional Secretaries to ensure that:

(i) a notice calling for nominations from SAS members is sent to all Regional members (please allow adequate time to enable members to submit names)
(ii) A Regional meeting is called to select Regional nominations. These should be forwarded to the BGS office no later than 31 March 2005
(iii) assuming a ballot is required, the BGS office will contact the nominees offering them the opportunity to supply a supporting statement which will go to the members of the England Council with the ballot. The closing date for submission of statements will be 29 April 2005. The ballot will take place in early May 2005 with the result announced towards the end of May 2005.

Regional Secretaries, please note:

Regional Secretaries are requested to actively seek the views of SAS doctors in their region on their preferred candidate.

In the event that a Region is not planning a meeting before 31 March, Regional Secretaries should feel free to use the flexibility of email in circulating details of interested parties and determining the Region’s choice.

In the event of any queries, please contact Alex Mair at the BGS office.