Annual General Meeting of the 197th Session (2017-2018)

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting

Stuart Brown

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the 197th Session held at 7.00pm on Monday 4th June 2018 in the Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. EH1 1EL.

The Meeting was chaired by The President, Dr Alison Morrison-Low

The Number of Fellows present was 41

1. Apologies for absence:
   Ms Sheila Cove, Ms Louise Dalziel, Monty d’Inverno, Dr Valerie Inglis, Ms Caroline Macpherson, Mr Stuart Morgan-Ayrs, Ms Lynn Murphy, Dr Tayce Phillipson, Dr Allen Simpson, Professor Peter Tasker.
2. Minutes of the AGM held on Monday 5th June 2017
   The minutes were presented and adopted as a correct record of the proceedings.
   Proposed by Professor Stuart Monro, seconded by Dr Richard Kimberlin.
3. Annual Report of the Council for the year ended 30th September 2017
   The Draft Report was presented by Mr Graham Rule, Treasurer, who advised that the Report was still to be submitted to the Independent Examiner, Mr Tom Murray. The final version of the Report, which would be submitted to OSCR, would shortly be available on the Society’s website.
4. President’s Report
   In reporting on the activities of the 197th Session, the President referred to the three successful and informative visits during the summer of 2017 and the eight lectures delivered between September 2017 and April 2018.These had been on a wide range of topical subjects by first class speakers. In addition the Society’s silver medal had been awarded to Professor Stuart Monro and Dr Jane Patrick-Ridder for their significant contribution to the Society over a large number of years. Bronze medals, and book tokens to the value of £100 were awarded to the students with the highest marks in Higher Engineering Science, on this occasion achieved by four students from different parts of Scotland. The medals were presented by Shirley-Anne Somerville, MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education, and Science at the Science and The Parliament event held in November at Our Dynamic Earth.
   Concluding her report, The President wished to thank all the Society’s Council Members and Office Bearers for their work ensuring the successful operation of the Society, and to Peter Stewart and those who had provided the tea and coffee at the beginning of each meeting, which was always much appreciated by those present.
5. Election of Office Bearers
   It was noted that as all Office Bearers and Council Members were midway through their terms of office it was not necessary to hold any elections this year.
6. A.O.R.B
   The Treasurer indicated that at present the financial year commenced on 1st October each year whereas the sessional year commenced on 1st September. Council had agreed that it would be more appropriate for both to start on 1st September. On behalf of the Council the Treasurer proposed that Law 29 be changed to replace "30th September" with "31st August" and Law 30 changed to replace "Ordinary Meetings of the Society shall be held once a month from October to May each year" with "Ordinary Meetings of the Society shall be held between September and April each year". A show of hands indicated unanimous support.

In concluding the AGM at 7.20pm, the President indicated that there would be a short talk by Stuart Brown, member of Council, and Zero Carbon Options Development Manager, University of Edinburgh on, “Climate goals and first steps to becoming a net Zero Carbon University by 2040”.

The talk was followed by a buffet reception for Fellows and their guests.

Peter Jones, Secretary
secretary@rssa.org.uk