Geoscientist Online

Election results

The ballot for Council and President-designate closed on 31 March. 

President-designate

A total of 935 valid votes were cast in the electronic and postal consultative ballot for President-designate and the result was:

Malcolm Brown            589 (63.0%)

Bruce Levell                346 (37.0%)

Malcolm Brown will go forward to the Annual General Meeting on 3 June 2015 for election as President-designate.

Council

A total of 982 valid votes were cast for the seven remaining vacancies on Council.  There were 20 invalid votes.  The results were as follows:

The seven candidates receiving the most votes will go forward to the Annual General Meeting on 3 June 2015 for election as Council members.

Notification of Officers for 2015/2016

At the AGM Fellows will be asked to elect the following members of Council as Officers for 2015/16:

President:                  Prof David Manning

Vice-Presidents:          Mr Chris Eccles

                                 Mr David Jones

Secretaries:                 Mrs Natalyn Ala

                                  Dr Marie Edmonds

                                  Dr Colin North

Secretary, Foreign &

External Affairs:          Mr Michael Young

Treasurer:                   Mr Graham Goffey

President’s Day

President’s Day at Burlington House on 3 June will begin with the Annual General Meeting at 11.00 followed by a buffet lunch with the award winners (members with ticket only – £27.50 per head). As in previous years, the recipients of major medals have been invited to give a short talk on their subject, and the Awards Ceremony will be followed by presentations by the Lyell, Murchison, William Smith and Wollaston medallists (details below). The timetable for President’s Day and the agenda for the AGM are below.

To obtain luncheon tickets please send cheques (made payable to the Geological Society) to Stephanie Jones at Burlington House or email [email protected].  Please also contact Stephanie if you wish to attend the afternoon events for which there is no charge.

Timetable

11.00               Annual General Meeting (members only)

12.30               Lunch with the Award winners (members with tickets only)

14.00               Awards Ceremony

15.15               Talks by Lyell, Murchison and William Smith medallists

16.30               Tea

17.00               Talk by Wollaston Medallist

17.30               President’s closing remarks

17.40 – 19.30    Drinks reception

AGM Agenda

• Apologies
• Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 4 June 2014
• Appointment of Scrutineers for the ballots for Council and Officers
• Ballot for Council
• Annual Report and Accounts for 2014
• President’s Report
• Secretaries’ Reports
• Treasurer’s Report
• Comments from Fellows
• Formal acceptance of the Annual Report and Accounts for 2014 and approval of the Budget for 2015
• Annual Fellowship subscriptions for 2016
• Deaths
• Report of Scrutineers on the ballot for Council
• Ballot for Officers
• Appointment of Auditors
• Report of Scrutineers on the ballot for Officers
• Election of new Fellows
• Any other business
• Provisional date of next Annual General Meeting

Talks by Lyell, Murchison and William Smith medallists

• Colin Ballantyne (Lyell Medal), Professor, School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St Andrews: Catastrophic landslides in Scotland and Ireland: timing, causes and implications

• Geoffrey Wadge (Murchison Medal), Professorial Research Fellow, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading: Volcanoes and Radars

• Anthony Doré OBE (William Smith Medal), Senior Adviser to Exploration Management at Statoil: The Arctic, and the dark art of regional geology

Talk by Wollaston medallist

James Jackson, Head of Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge: Probing the continents: how deep structure affects surface geology

Annual Fellowship subscriptions for 2016

The Finance & Planning Committee (FPC) was asked by Council to consider how Fellowship fees might more fairly reflect changes in the membership profile of the Society, sensitivities over fee rises, and the underlying principle that fees should cover the costs of services provided.  FPC recommended to Council a model which addresses a current disparity in fee bands, defers a general rate rise for one year, and establishes a transparent mechanism for future fee increases.   At its meeting on 8 April Council agreed to recommend to the Fellowship for approval at the Annual General Meeting the subscription rates for 2016 shown below. 

New discounted fee band for 60 – 64 age range

The original purpose of fee bands was to reflect ability to pay at different stages in Fellows’ careers with discounts provided to those in education, those at the start of their careers as well as to those who have reached retirement.  But there are changes in working practices and retirement laws and increasingly Fellows are either continuing to work in senior positions beyond the age of 60 and/or are taking on consultancy-type roles.  It is recommended that a new fee band be introduced from 1 January 2016 for Fellows in the 60 – 64 age range.  Those moving into this range will pay a reduced fee of 66% (£130) of the total instead of the 50% rate (£99) as would have previously been paid.  Those already in the band will continue to pay the lower rate. 

One-year freeze on general fee increases and mechanism for future fee increases

To link future fee increases to Consumer Price Index (CPI) in February of the preceding year as the default measure.  Consequently fees for 2016 will rise by 0.0% unless FPC advises Council that there is reason to doubt it provides a reasonable basis for the coming year’s fee increase. 

As previously reported, Chartership validation and annual registration fees no longer cover the full cost of providing those services and it was agreed at the Annual General Meeting in 2013 to raise the validation fee incrementally over a three year period to £85 (2014), £95 (2015) and £100 (2016) and the annual registration fee to £35 (2014), £42 (2015) and £48 (2016).

FUTURE MEETING DATES

OGMs: 2015: 17 June, 22 September, 25 November. 2016: 3 February, 6 April

Council: 17 June, 22 and 23 September (residential), 25 November.  2016: 3 February, 6 April.

President’s Awards 2015

The President’s Awards for 2015 are made to Dr Samantha Engwell (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Pisa) and Dr Steve Hollis (CSIRO, Perth, Western Australia).  Congratulations to both.