The start of the year was very intense but enjoyable.  Suddenly being appointed President and having to host the Annual Dinner and then chair the second day of our scientific meeting the next morning was a challenge.  The AGM was an excellent event once again this year.  It was extremely densely packed with tasks for the President and others – introductions, speeches, quiz, announcements, raffle, socialising etc.  Having consulted some members on their views of the event, I am drafting some thoughts on how we can make it even better than last time for our President Elect, John Broughton.

 

Council agendas are very long and a challenge to manage.  Rick Hallard started to do more on an exception basis when he was President and Richard Wilkins was also good at this.  But it is difficult to sustain and still give Council proper time to debate.  But the good humour of Council always seems to get us through.  I am not sure if John Broughton has yet caught the train he planned though – I seem to make him miss his train every time.

 

Website – I am concerned about the number of people who don't use the website.  We have spent a huge amount of time and money on developing our new website, and it is very good. But the Google Stats show that we get only about 3000 hits a month. That is 1.5 per member, per month. I have www.srp-uk.org as one of my home pages, which are fired up at least once per day.  So 1 per cent of these hits are just Chris Englefield. How can we encourage others to make use of this growing resource – a tangible benefit to members but also a resource for the use of the public in most respects?

Events – in my opinion this is the most challenging committee I have yet attended. Not that the people are challenging – but the task certainly is.  The scope of EComm stretches out to 4 years ahead.  The committee is one of the pillars of our Society.   Other committees may well have ownership of a particular meeting, but EComm strives to balance our programme and manage the risk that events management inevitably includes.  We are fortunate to be able to replace John Broughton as secretary to this group with Richard Wilkins. 

Communications - It has taken me this long to appreciate that there are some poor communications routes to and from different parts of the Society.  Committee Chairs only have the chance to get together once a year (the AGM) when the incoming President is still reeling in the bright lights of the new role and the retired Past-President is likely to be stunned with fatigue or over exposure to alcohol.  I feel that we should try to communicate more effectively to and with Committee Chairs and Secretaries. It would be good to improve communications routes somehow.  To be honest I am not sure how we can do this, but I welcome suggestions.

 

I made a nuisance of myself as President-Elect banging on about budgeting and I continue to do so.  I strongly feel that each part of the Society needs to set itself a schedule of planned expenditure and then assess its performance against that schedule over the year.  We cannot simply spend money and not be concerned about our future needs.  So I will continue to encourage committees to budget, as well as the Society as a whole.

This has been astonishing and probably the most rewarding aspect of being engaged with SRP's business.  The goodwill that an SRP President is blessed with on taking office is wonderful.  And the amount of effort that so many members contribute to SRP is astounding! There is a superb team spirit in our Society and memories of this will be one of the lasting outcomes of my year as President.

 

We have positioned ourselves as a campaigning organisation.  This is something that I feel strongly we should do.  It all started with the ICRP's revised Eye Dose Limit.  I won't rehearse all the things that the Society has done in campaigning about this – this has been described elsewhere – but it has been a huge effort from a wide range of members. Council have approved the idea of us taking campaigning positions always based on a foundation in sound science.

We have organised ten events this calendar year.  Evaluation forms from our events uniformly show a high level of approval and appreciation for the work of the Society in enabling professional development.

 

Well, some success, but not totally so.  I am struggling with the sponsored slim - too much stress and tiredness for a comfort eater like me to shed quickly all I have aspired to.  I have lost a stone, but there are still 12 pounds to go - so I have extended my deadline to the AGM and hope my sponsors will be supportive!  We should be able to credit the SRP Benevolent Fund with about £2000 from all efforts.

For this incredible opportunity – I am enjoying it immensely.

 

Chris Englefield

President