Notes of the Council meeting held on Sunday 11 September 2005 at the Hilton Hotel, Newcastle.
Work to revamp the current site is still ongoing. One or two additions to the website have already been made and many of the pages are more up to date. The Society Newsletter is now available in pdf form. The next step will be a complete redesign of the site complete with a new homepage, examples of which were circulated to Council. Further meetings with the web designer have been arranged to achieve this.
Mr Williams also reported that we are currently working together with the IBMS to consolidate our membership database, which needs to be linked to that held by the webmaster to allow rapid and efficient communication with the membership.
Despite a reduction in the price earlier in the year, sales remain low. It is hoped that sales may pick up once the update on the website is complete. The National Office will be approached to see if an advertisement for the video could be included on the NHSCSP website. The National Office will be approached to see if an advertisement for the video could be included on the NHSCSP website.
Dr Desai confirmed that she had held discussions with the HTA and the call for proposals on assessment of LBC adequacy had now been advertised. Dr Desai has already received some suggestions and would co-ordinate a combined response on behalf of the BSCC.
Dr Denton has been in discussion with the BSCCP and had arranged to meet with the Julietta Patnick on 14 September in the hope of achieving mutual agreement on a way forward.
Dr Chandra advised that this was now ready to circulate to Council and the membership for comment. Information from the IBMS and RCPath was included and input from the Royal College of Radiologists had also been received. It was a very detailed document that included clinical data. It was suggested that there is potential for a joint publication with the RCPath.
Dr Chandra paid thanks to all those who had forwarded comments on this section. This is almost ready for publication on the website.
As discussed previously this section had been put on hold. Dr Chandra was uncertain as to who was leading this section but Council felt it would help with continuity if he took on responsibility but was supported by members of the sub-group.
It had been agreed at previous meetings to look to reduce the number of Council meetings to three instead of four per year. This would require a change to the statutes and a ballot of the membership so it would mean that for 2006 we would retain four meetings. Dr Smith asked the Council to confirm the agreement to reduce the meetings three, which would be held Jan/Feb, May, and September (ASM).
Dr Smith reported that the BSCC was now a recognised specialist society able to support applications by consultant members for Clinical Excellence Awards. It was proposed to establish a small sub-committee of Award holders and non-Award holders to rank applications by members seeking the support of the Society. All consultant members of the Society would be circulated once the details of the wider ACCEA process for 2006 were known in October.
Correspondence received from Julietta Patnick may be seen in the current Newsletter. It was acknowledged that any provision by the independent sector would still have to comply with current NHSCSP QA standards.
It has now been agreed that candidates applying for membership should be able to become full members once their application had been ratified at the subsequent Council meeting rather than waiting for the AGM. This process will require a change to the current statutes and therefore a ballot of membership. In the interim the temporary membership system would continue to be used.
This issue had been raised at the previous Council meeting and led to a wider discussion. Council agreed that there were many benefits to having a more open membership structure and felt that there should be only one type of membership. This would require a change to the statutes and therefore a ballot of the membership. There was some concern regarding the percentage of medical representation on Council. It was suggested that it could be written in the statues that no more than 50% non-medical members could sit on Council. Dr Smith would raise this issue at the AGM and use the forum facility on the website to seek the wider views of the membership.
Dr Anderson circulated the financial statements for the year ending March 2005 and highlighted a loss of �11,203. This was largely because there was a huge drop in royalty income from 2004-2005. However this was because in 2004 this figure was counted twice in error. The profit from the tutorials and the ASM in 2004 had helped to offset the costs of the move to the IBMS.
A recommendation to increase the full membership subscriptions to �120.00 and appoint Minshall accountants for 2005/2006 was made. Council agreed to these proposals, which would have to be ratified at the AGM.
Dr Desai advised the Council that this had been a fruitful year. Excellent feedback had been received following both tutorials and each had made a profit.
The dates for next year's tutorials have been confirmed and the venues booked. These are: -
24th March 2006 in Belfast. Host Dr N Anderson
31st March 2006 in London. Host Dr A Chandra
Details of these are posted in the meetings section.
The 2007 ASM is in Cardiff and the venue has been booked.
As previously discussed, from 2008 onwards the venues and domestic arrangements for the ASM will be arranged through a professional conference organiser. The scientific programme would continue to be organised by the programme committee in consultation with the local hosts. The Programme Committee have invited four professional organisers for interview at the next meeting on 13 October 2005.
Dr Levine reported that a working party had been established to look at the City & Guilds assessment of the NHSCSP certificate.
Work is on going for the LBC Training Atlas. It is hoped that this will be completed and distributed next year.
Council had become a little concerned that some of the affiliated societies were not as strong as they used to be. The regional representatives and secretaries have been invited to meet with a few members of Council on Sunday 11th September to discuss ways of moving this forward. The general view of the Council is to continue to support the regional societies.
Miss E Whelan circulated a copy of the publishers report to Council. 2004 has been a good year with increased accessibility through online libraries. 2005 is equally expected to be a good year.
All the new applications for membership had been approved by the Credentials Committee and would go forward for approval at the AGM.
Mr Williams reported that he had received a number of communications from APs who were having problems with banding. Subject to receipt of reliable data, Dr Smith stated that he would happy to raise this issue with RCPath.
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