Society for the History of Natural History SGM Tuesday 23 March 2021 at 3.30 (GMT)

Society for the History of Natural History

Special General Meeting 2021, 23 March 2021, 3.30pm (GMT)

Special General Meeting

The Society for the History of Natural History invites its members to an on-line Special General Meeting to consider changes to our Byelaws and learn about the results of our recent Membership Survey.

You will be aware from the Society’s Newsletter that Council has been working over the last three years to review the Society’s activities, membership and governance. We have addressed our mission, purpose and aims, assessed our strengths and weaknesses, explored key challenges and opportunities, and formulated a list of priorities for action. These options were considered at Council on 22 September 2020 when several important decisions were made. The most important of these were to revise our current Governing Document (Byelaws) to reflect the ways the Society now operates, to revise the guidelines for all our awards,  and to implement several practical changes to make the Society more resilient, more active and serve our membership better.

A Council working group developed a revision of our Byelaws; this draft document was shared with three former Society Presidents and several long-term members of the Society for comment. Their valuable feedback was incorporated into a revised document which was presented to Council on 26 January 2021 for review. Council unanimously agreed that, after some minor amendments, the draft of the Byelaws were ready to be taken to a Special General Meeting for approval by the membership.  This meeting is now set to take place on Tuesday 23 March 2021 at 3.30 (UK time) by Zoom.

In parallel with our strategy discussions, we carried out a membership survey between August and November 2020 which yielded a 42% response.  The results will help to guide the Society further in developing its strategies for the future. A summary of the findings of the survey will be presented at the Special General Meeting.

Members were sent an invitation by the President to join the meeting on 8 March 2021 with a link to the Eventbrite site for registration. The meeting will take place using Zoom, an online conference app that allows video communication. To join us, please register using the same email address your SHNH membership is linked to. All those who register will be sent an email with the link and password to join the SGM securely via Zoom. The revised Byelaws, an explanation of the changes being recommended, and two draft Schedules are available online.

If you are using Zoom for the first time, it’s relatively simple. When you click on the invitation link, you will be prompted to download an app and follow some short instructions. (Read more at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting). You can use Zoom from your mobile phone, but for a better experience – and to see more people in the meeting – we recommend using your laptop or desktop computer. You can test the link we send you beforehand; if you have any difficulty, or have any further queries about the Special General Meeting please email meetings@shnh.org.uk.

If you would like to attend the SGM, please register before 11pm, Monday 16 March (UK time). We look forward to seeing you there.