Good morning from the 296th SRP Council meeting in London.  It’s my first face-to-face meeting in a while so it was good to arrive last night and meet up with several other Council members also staying overnight in London for a meal.  I suggested we go to a Spanish restaurant nearby and was slightly worried that it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, however the great thing about tapas is that there’s plenty of little plates so there’s usually something for everyone and I’m glad to report that even the most sceptical left with full happy bellies (even those that don’t like cheese, cured ham, or “things with sauce”). 

I have to admit that this month I was struggling with what to write about for my blog, and leaving it to the last minute, as always.  Luckily this very timely Council meeting gave me the chance to chat to some of my fellow Trustees about why they decided to put themselves forward for the role. 

One of the re-occurring themes was that people wanted to have a say in how the Society is run and wanted to be involved in order to have a voice and an input into the policies that are agreed upon. 

One Council member who is relatively new to SRP said that they had volunteered as they weren't sure how much commitment a Committee would entail and thought that joining Council, with its fixed number of meetings a year, gave a more tangible estimation of time required.  This is because they are still on the graduate scheme and didn’t want to be taking lots of time out of work.

This is the exact opposite to my route into Council, where I started out in the Rising Generations Group and then slowly joined more and more Committees until it felt like natural progression to join Council and then later to become the Director of Engagement.

Other quotes, that I’m paraphrasing and will keep anonymous(!) were:
“I hated one of the policies, so I joined so I can challenge them”
“I was on holiday and got a text strongly suggesting I should do it!”
“I was on Council as an observer and finally got sick of not having a vote so joined!”.

It was great to see such a wide variety of routes, and that makes for a much more diverse group covering a wide variety of sectors and demographics. It is good to see high female representation on Council with a female President, Honorary Secretary and two Directors.  Currently sat around in the room in front of me there are 8 females to 10 males which I think is a pretty good ratio.

Well, better get going as the meeting is about to start and we have a packed agenda today.  Lots to discuss.  The summary minutes of the last Council meeting (in May) will be released shortly (they get approved at today’s meeting) so if you’re interested in the kind of things we chat about then you can have a read, and, if you fancy being part of Council yourself you need to look out for a call for nominations in November.  It would be great to see you at a future meeting!

As always, if you have any questions or comments or would like to chat about what being on Council actually entails then get in touch on the usual.

engagement@srp-uk.org
Twitter: @chai_khaneh
Instagram: @Saragol