Our Views
This section of our website is reserved for:
- the Society's responses to Government Parliamentary and other consultations;
- policies adopted and position statements issued on various geoscientific topics of public concern, or on matters relating to the geoscience community;
- online debates between geoscientists, and
- letters to the Society (selections of which are occasionally published in the Society magazine, Geoscientist).
Speaking out: the Society’s public statements
Ted Nield explains the processes whereby the Society approves its public statements for release.
As the Rt. Hon. John Selwyn Gummer MP told the Society at the 1997 Sir Peter Kent lecture, if you want to be heard it is first necessary to speak. The Geological Society needs to inform the public and policy makers, to enhance public and political awareness of geoscience, and to build influence to benefit the standing of our science and the Society’s members. The Society needs be both reactive and proactive in making public statements- often at short notice- about issues affecting geoscience and geoscientists.
This article is about Society policy documents, briefings documents, responses to consultations, and news releases. It describes how those documents are created, and how the Society sanctions their release.
The writing and approval process for these documents differs according to their significance, and the time available for their production. The aim in each case is to allow as much consultation as is appropriate, and can be fitted into the time available.
Responses to Consultations
Most consultation documents are issued by Departments of State. Those of greatest interest to the Society are issued by DEFRA, DIUS, DCSF and DCLG. Others come from other government bodies, executive agencies, and various committees of Parliament.
Responses to such consultations have strict deadlines. There is no rule about how long the response time can be, but it is never very long and can vary from less than a month to about two months. On receipt of a consultation to which the Society might respond (and has the time and resources to do so), we will establish a panel of experts- in consultation with Council, the External Affairs Committee and the chairs of any Specialist Groups or Joint Associations directly concerned with the field in question. Members of the panel will receive a full copy of the consultation document and a deadline by which to respond. If time permits we will see that this website and Geoscientist report the work in hand, and, subject to their permission, the names of those consulted within the society.
Consultees will, naturally, be free to respond (or not) as best suits them. It may be a personal response, or one made in consultation with one or two colleagues, or with the Specialist Group as a whole. The timetable of the consultation, and that of the group being consulted , will influence the route taken. The deadline for consultees will be set to allow a feasible interval during which to write a draft response, based upon the views expressed. This will reflect the balance of opinion among the expert consultees.
The draft response will, whenever time permits, be sent back to the consultees before going for final approval (see below). We may contact other experts to fill in scientific gaps. The president will be called upon to resolve any outstanding disputes and may be called upon to arbitrate.
News releases
News releases, unlike the above documents, are intended for a very small audience of professional journalists who probably receive several hundreds per day.
In a non-governmental organization like the Society, news releases are nearly always promotional in intent, and therefore of generally little ideological importance. News Releases vary in content and purpose, and approval will differ in each case. The rules for approval of different kinds are laid out below. However for some types of press release, special rules may also apply.
All persons names or quoted in a News Release must be given the opportunity to approve the content of the release. The quoted person must approve all quotations written for them.
News releases will be written by the member of staff responsible for communications with the press, in collaboration with the lead person in the subject area of the release – e.g., the author of the paper, the convener of a conference, the chair of a Board of Committee (e.g., Professional, Science), etc. This lead person (or persons) will always approve the final text.
Levels of approval
The level at which documents are approved for final public release must be appropriate to the time available. The three types of document have been described in order of decreasing available time and, generally speaking, decreasing long-term significance.
The levels of approval theoretically possible are:
- by Council at its meetings
- by Council by electronic correspondence, with a deadline for response
- by the External Relations Committee as its meetings
- by the External Relations Committee through correspondence, with a deadline for response
- by the HSFEA, or the President if away, or failing that one other Honorary Officer, and in all cases the Executive Secretary.
- Briefing documents and policy statements and position papers will always be approved at level 1.
- Responses to consultations should be approved at level 2 if time allows, otherwise approval will be sought at level 3 or 4. If the response is left to be controversial approval will always be sought at level 2 if time permits.
- News Releases will be approved at level 5. Where a response to consultation is to be the subject of the news release, the draft release will, time permitting, be sent out for approval at the same time as the draft response.
These processes, agreed by Council, are aimed at allowing the Fellowship the maximum opportunity for scrutiny without jeopardising the ultimate objective - the production of statements that are both effective and timely. It places responsibility for the content of public statements squarely with the Fellowship, through the Specialist Groups, the External Affairs Committee, and Council.
*This article is based on papers discussed and approved by the External Affairs Committee on 25 September, 20 November, and by Council on 3 December 1997 and 14 January 1998.