https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.112.7a

The purpose of these short updates is to keep you informed about the work of our Committees. The following summaries detail the meetings of the past few months.

Council

Following a presentation by the Honorary Treasurer, the Trustees approved the 2017 Annual Report & Accounts. The Chief Executive noted that the Impact Report 2017 (formerly Annual Review) would focus on the voice of the Members and the impacts of The Society to ensure ‘Physiology is flourishing.’

The Chief Executive reported that following on from March Council an International Working Group (IWG) Chaired by Trustee Stefan Trapp had been set up and a discussion paper circulated for its first meeting.

The Chair of the IWG would report back recommendations to Council in October. The Chief Executive presented both the implementation plans and roadmap for the approved 2018–2022 strategy. It was agreed that progress against the strategy would be reported to Council on a regular basis to highlight what had been achieved, in terms of outcomes and impacts.

Council considered and approved the proposal to join The Academy of Medical Sciences FORUM (AM Forum), a body which provides an independent, neutral platform to take forward discussions across sectors to facilitate constructive debate and drive collaboration on different science policy topics. It was noted that opportunities to participate would be communicated to Members as a benefit of membership of The Society.

Council approved the recruitment of a fixed-term History and Archives Project Manager. It was agreed that if The Society was to make more of its rich heritage and strengthen its position as a credible information source that the media, public and education providers could trust then an additional member of staff would be required to make the history of The Society and physiology more accessible and engaging.

A paper on diversity and inclusion which included Society data was presented to Council. This formed the basis of a discussion on how The Society could improve gender balance across all its activities.

Trustees approved the formation of an Equality & Diversity working group. The working group will research and advise on improving inclusion across all Society activities to encompass other under-represented groups such as members of the LBGTQ+ community.

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee discussed The Society’s reserves and considered whether a new reserves policy should be formulated to better manage the two principal competing demands on The Society’s financial resources: spending them to meet objectives today, versus investing them in order to meet charitable purposes in the future. This was recommended for Trustees to discuss further at the next Council meeting.

The Committee agreed to an accounting reclassification of Hodgkin Huxley House to reflect the investment property aspect. The stated charitable activities in the financial statements will be restated to align more closely with the strands given in the 2018–2021 Strategic Plan.

The Committee reviewed an internal controls self-assessment checklist, produced by the Charity Commission, and an updated expenses policy was discussed and approved. To ensure due diligence in monitoring risk, the Committee approved a proposal to carry out additional audit work on the publishing income side. There was an update on the property project and two other key risk areas.