International Committee

Business conduct guiding principles rtf

Introduction
The International Committee's primary function is to encourage, develop and facilitate appropriate UK involvement in the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) affairs, though it also has interests in a number of international areas.  The International Committee ("the committee") represents all the radiation protection areas of work in the UK. In order to do this, the committee comprises International Members nominated by the Society, which is the UK's IRPA Associate Society, and International Members nominated by Partner Societies.

Membership
The Chairperson and Secretary of the committee each serve for up to two 2-year periods and other members serve for between 3 and 6 years. The positions of Chairperson and Secretary alternate between the Society and one of the Partner Societies. The number of members nominated by Partner Societies is decided by the proportion of International Members they have and matches the number nominated by the Society. Currently (1 April 2008), a UK colleague who is a member of the IRPA Executive attends committee meetings. The composition of the committee as at 1 April 2008 is:

Association of University Radiation Protection Officers (AURPO) -1 member
British Institute of Radiology (BIR) -1 member
British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS) - 1 member
College of Radiographers (COR) - 1 member
Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) - 2 members
Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) - 1 member
The Society for Radiological Protection (SRP) - 9 members
Plus co-opted IRPA Council member

Activities
The committee's primary role is to encourage, develop and facilitate appropriate UK involvement in IRPA affairs.  In particular, it selects (for the Council's approval), the UK delegates to the 4-yearly IRPA Congress.

•  The committee plays a supportive role in regional IRPA events and in particular, where it is possible, the committee seeks to provide support to emergent, new radiation protection societies.
•  The committee provides a mechanism through which forthcoming changes in international recommendations and regulations can be promulgated and, as appropriate, consultations can be undertaken.  These include, for example, consultations on the Draft ICRP Recommendations of June 2006 in liaison with the Legislations and Standards Topic Group. The committee drafted the response to the draft recommendations.
•  The committee also provides a means by which information on forthcoming international and national scientific meetings, symposia and conferences can be publicised.  Links are maintained with the Events Committee.  Of note is that the Society has decided to bid to host IRPA 13 in Glasgow in 2012, following the unsuccessful bid to host IRPA 12 in 2008.
•  A further role of the committee is to promulgate information on international initiatives in radiation protection training and competency, in liaison with the Qualifications and Professional Standards Committee.
•  The committee normally meets twice a year.
•  Each year, the committee makes a summary report of its activities to the Council which is included in the Society's annual report.

The International Committee shall be appointed by the Council to undertake all matters relating to IRPA. Every two years the Committee will elect a Chairman and a Secretary from within its members. At least one of these positions will normally be held by a member of the Council. The detailed terms of reference are given in Regulations 111 and 112 and Byelaws 9.1 to 9.3.