Council, the Trustees of the Society, met for the first time in 2019 on 20 March in what was a very productive session.
The meeting was Deborah Ashby’s first Council meeting as President and she praised the work of the staff and the fellowship, especially in influencing public policy.
Rachel Smith from the RSS Journal publishers, Wiley, gave a presentation about the financial implications of open access publishing for the Society. Council discussed this matter in detail, and noted that the Society is working to diversify its income streams.
Council was pleased to appoint Jon Forster as Vice President for Academic Affairs from next year, and to appoint Paul Simpson as the new chair of the RSS ISO18404 Oversight Committee. Council also approved the creation of a new Special Interest Group on Teaching Statistics.
There was an in-depth discussion on the issue of diversity and inclusion, and what could be done to increase the representation of various groups in the membership and leadership of the Society. The new RSS Diversity and Inclusion policy was approved by Council.
Amaka Nwagbara and Rosie Sweeney from the Society’s membership team spoke to Council about plans to further grow the RSS membership. Council congratulated the team on what had already been achieved, and discussed various ideas about how to take this work forward.
Council decided not to renew our license to issue the title of Chartered Scientist (CSci) in 2019 and will no longer be accepting new applications for the CSci title.
Last, but by no means least, Council agreed that Professor Sylvia Richardson would be their nominee for President for 2021-22. This will go to the membership for election.