Friday 20 June 2008

Royal Met Soc AGM- it’s that time of year again

Watch a Youtube Video of the AGM

It was my second AGM last week since being in the job. It is always a busy time for the HQ team, close to our last Council before the summer break and the start of the new term. And it always signals change for us, with new editions to the Council team, and with this year a new President-elect, Professor Julia Slingo. Julia is based at Reading University and one of her many roles includes the National Centre for Atmospheric Science’s Director of Climate Research. We were particularly delighted to see Julia received the OBE this year in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her services to Climate Science.

One of our members said to me last week that I seemed to be “enjoying the AGM far too much”. I confessed that I did for a number of reasons. The first is that it was an opportunity to share with the broader membership our achievements in the year (which the HQ team are very proud of) and bring to a conclusion the latest phase of changes to our governance structures, which we have invested a lot of commitment in over recent times. We’ll say more about that in our Members Handbook which we will; be sending out in the Autumn.

The second is actually being able to meet and talk to the membership, to hear your thoughts on how we are doing (there is nothing like some personal feedback) and to share a common enthusiasm for what we are all trying to achieve with the Society for meteorology. We offer lots of personal benefits to membership, but it was a useful reminder that because of our members the Society is able to do much more for meteorology as a science and a profession. Myself and Liz (that’s Liz Bentley, our Head of Communications who started with us this year) have been talking recently about how we can tell members more about what the Society does for the wider community by virtue of the help and support we receive through membership.

Thirdly, we had our Annual Awards to celebrate success, which is something that (in a very British way) I believe we don’t do enough of. I know I’m biased, but sharing a drink with friends and colleagues at the end of the day at our awards reception reminded me very much of why meteorology is such a great community to work in.

No comments: