President's Blog, September 2024
Posted: 30 Sep 2024 by Rachael Kelsey
Greetings from Edinburgh! This will be a shorter blog than usual (promises, promises!), but I wanted to highlight the online meetings that will take place in a fortnight- Monday 14th October 2024 - our new Committees Information Session.
There will be two meetings on the 14th, so that you should all be able to participate, I hope, without having to do it from your bed!
In my January blog I said that we had some changes coming to the Committee structure, and I’m delighted to say that we’re now ready for launch! When I took over as President I said that inclusion and participation was really central to my vision for the Academy as we grow, and I hope that these changes will allow more of you to take part, and gain value from your fellowship. You should have received an email from Annie on Friday about the information sessions, which includes the links - if you haven’t had that email, let her know and she can resend to you.
At the sessions each Committee will have five minutes to give you information about their remit and what they are committed to doing this year. All Committees are now open and you can join as many or as few as you wish, and I hope that this will give you more opportunities to be involved.
We have started with eight Committees, in subject areas where we know that many of you are already doing work - more details below. We hope that there will be other areas of interest too, and if you are interested in setting up another Committee, let us know and we can give you more information about what you would need to do. In essence, we need a draft remit, detail of the outputs that you envisage the Committee delivering until September 2025, and the names of three fellows who are prepared to Co-Chair and provide a secretariat function for the committee. We ask that careful thought be given to geographic representation, in particular, when it comes to those coordinating the work of the Committee. Those individuals will serve for a year - the term of office being from AGM to AGM. The Executive Committee need to approve the creation of any Committees, so if you are keen, work can be done to get the proposal together in good time for the Paris meeting. I would love it if we saw a real renaissance of the Committee work, and look forward to lots of exciting developments! We have already had an expression of interest to set up a Domestic Abuse/Family Violence Committee, and there is space for more, so give it some thought and let us know if you are interested and have the space to be involved.
The Committees you will hear from on the 14th are:
- Dispute Resolution
- Forced Marriage
- Issues on Gender and Sexuality
- Parentage
- Pensions
- Pro Bono
- Relocation of Children
- 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention
Hope to see many of you on the 14th, and meantime, enjoy some time at your desk before Paris!
Rachael
Ps. Picture of glorious Kusama sculpture in London, from enroute to Seattle - the sun before the showers in the beautiful Pacific Northwest!
