The BIRAs Committee


Please note, only brief details of the committee are give below. Full contact details are only available to the full committee by clicking on the following link: Contact details for Committee.

If you wish to contact any of the committee please do this through the Web Site Editor: Dr Neville Punchard

Officers 

Chairman:
(to December 2003)
(Also IAIS representative) 

Dr Ian Adcock,
Dept. Thoracic Medicine,
Imperial College, London.

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Web Site Editor & Vice-Chair :
(to December 2003) (Also Institute of Biology representative)  		Dr Neville A. Punchard
Faculty of Human Sciences,
University of Luton.

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Membership Secretary:
(to December 2003)		 Dr Paul Kirkham,
Novartis,
West Sussex.
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Treasurer:
(to December 2003)		 Dr Anne Graham,
Department of Biomedical Science, 
University of Bradford.
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Meetings Secretary:
(to December 2003)		 Dr Graham Wallace,
Academic Unit of Ophthalmology
Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre
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Inflammation Research,
UK Editor:
(to December 2003)
Dr Nigel Boughton-Smith,
AstraZeneca R&D Charnwood Discovery Bioscience,
Loughborough, Leics.
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Other Members: 

Dr Chris Bolton,
Solupharm Limited,
Wilts. 		Kevin Bottomley
Inpharmatica Ltd,
London
Prof. Susan Brain,
King's College,
London

Dr M Finnen,
Yamanouchi Research Institute (UK),
Oxford.

Dr I Chapman,
Quintiles Scotland Ltd.,
Edinburgh.

 Dr Iain Kilty,
Pfizer Ltd.,

Dr Duncan Haworth,
AstraZeneca,
Cheshire.

Dr John Taylor,
Pfizer Ltd.

Dr Adriano G Rossi
University of Edinburgh Medical School
Edinburgh.

Dr Mike Yeadon, 
Pfizer Ltd.
Dr Cliff J. Whelan,
University of Hertfordshire.
  
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Responsibilities of Officers:

Chair
  1. Chair all BIRAs Committee meetings.
  2. Have a casting vote on all issues and elections (apart from that for Chair).
  3. Acts as Executive Officer, i.e. responsible for signing contracts, agreements, etc.
  4. Delegate responsibilities & tasks.
  5. Responsible for issuing minutes of meetings.
  6. Organise, and ensure advertising of, an AGM. 
    7.
 
Vice-Chair
  1. Attend all Commmitee meetings.
  2. Act as Chair in Chairs absence.
  3. Assume responsibilities of Chair if there is no current chair appointed.
    4.
General Secretary
  1. Attend all Commmitee meetings.
  2. Facilitate the smooth running of the Association.
  3. Take responsibility for the maintenance and accuracy of the Association's web site.
  4. Responsible for general advertising of association, act as archivist and other tasks not allocated to other Officers.
    5.
Treasurer
  1. Attend all Committee meetings.
  2. Maintain all accounts in as accurate and current state as possible. 
  3. Advise on costings for meetings. 
  4. Receive all monies due to the association and pay them into the bank.
  5. Liaise with the Membership Secretary to ensure that the central list held by the Membership Secretary regarding paid-up subscriptions is accurate and current.
  6. Deal with sponsorship inquiries 
  7. Liaise with other Officers and meeting organisers with regards sponsorship, advertising, company stands at meetings, etc.
  8. In the short term ensure that all standing orders are converted to direct debit payments and that all other payments cease.
    9.
Meeting Secretary
  1. Attend all Committee meetings.
  2. Act as a point of contact for those outside the
  3. committee who are organising meetings on the behalf of BIRAs.
  4. Report progress of forthcoming meetings to the committee.
  5. Provide organisers with (or inform them of where they can be obtained, e.g. web site) BIRAs paperwork, including: headed notepaper; examples and templates of posters; registration document; signs, etc. 
  6. Maintain (either themselves or through the web site) an accurate set of BIRAS paperwork (as in 3 above) for meetings.
  7. Maintain (either themselves or through the web site) an accurate list of journals, web sites, etc. where BIRAs meetings can be organised.
  8. Provide organisers with (or direct them to) such a list (as in 5 above) so that they may advertise the meetings.
  9. Advertise, or ensure organisers advertise, all meetings in plenty of time and as widely as possible.
  10. Ensure the production and publication of meeting reports.
  11. Generally facilitate the smooth running of meetings.
    12.
Membership Secretary
  1. Attend all Committee meetings.
  2. Maintain accurate records of the membership, listing details such as: current status of member; paid subscriptions (by working with the Treasurer); MSc/PhD subscriptions and status, and address details, including emails, of all members.
  3. Maintain accurate mailing lists for distribution of information by email, fax or post. 
  4. Inform members of changes in society subscriptions, processes, etc.
  5. Liaise with the treasurer to ensure subscriptions records are accurate and current.
  6. Ensure all members are informed of forthcoming meetings, etc.
  7. Actively recruit new members through: advertising BIRAs at BIRAs and other meetings; mail-shots, posters, etc.
    8.
IR, UK editor
  1. Attend all Committee meetings.
  2. Act as a point of contact, and coordinate their activities, with Inflammation Research (IR).
  3. To maintain an accurate record of all correspondence, manuscripts, etc. 
  4. To receive submissions within the UK for publication in IR.
  5. To arrange suitable reviews of such submissions.
  6. To forward acceptable publications to IR for publication.
  7. To maintain a list of acceptable, and appropriate, UK reviewers, listing their relevant areas of interest.
  8. To report to the committee matters of interest concerning IR, e.g. numbers of papers submitted/ accepted, rejection rates, citation index, changes in processes, etc.
    9.
IOB rep.
  1. Attend all Committee meetings.
  2. Act as a point of contact with the Institute of Biology
  3. Represent BIRAs at IOB meetings.
  4. Inform BIRAs of IOB activities where relevant.
  5. Report back to committee from IOB meetings.
    6.

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Election of Committee Members 

These details form part of BIRAs' Articles of Association.
  1. The Association's meetings programme and general organization is run by a Committee of no more than fifteen research scientists, drawn from both the pharmaceutical industry and from academia. The elected Committee has the authority to co-opt members to maintain a fair and balanced representation of the interests of the Association's members, within the spirit of these Guidelines. The committee should consist of approximately equal numbers of scientists from academia and industry.
  2. The Committee will choose from its membership the: Chairman; General Secretary/Vice-Chairman; Treasurer; Membership Secretary; Meetings Secretary, UK Editor for Inflammation Research and other posts as deemed necessary by the committee. 
  3. Each year, the Officers of Committee retire and the positions are up for re-election at the Annual General Meeting. Officers are selected from members of the committee only, and should have been a member of the committee for at least one year. Retiring Committee members are eligible to stand again, with no limit to the number of successive terms in office. For all posts (excepting the post of Chairman), where there is more than one candidate for a post the committee, excepting the Chairman and the individuals under consideration, shall take a vote. In situations where there is a tie, the Chairman shall have a casting vote. For the post of Chairman, the next senior officer of the committee (or where there is none, the next committee member who is not standing for the post, in ascending alphabetical order) will abstain and have a casting vote. Any unsuccessful applicant(s) has the right to appeal. In the cases of an appeal there will be a postal ballot of all members of BIRAs for the vacant seat(s). Any member of the committee, as members of BIRAs, has the right to cast a vote in such an election. The AGM, and the vacant posts, will be advertised to all members at least 8 weeks in advance. Members of the committee, who are not able to attend the AGM, can cast their vote by post or email
  4. Nominations for members of the committee are sought from any British Inflammation Research Association member, at any time. Nominees should indicate their willingness to stand by contacting the present Chairman (see above). Proposers, seconders and nominees must all be members of the British Inflammation Research Association. Where the committee is up to maximum strength of fifteen members, a vote will be held of all the present committee.
  5. If there are more candidates nominated than there are places (15 in total) on the Committee, election of additional members will be put to a vote of all the committee, conducted by email or post. In addition, or alternatively, where there are several candidates to choose from an election, involving only the Committee Members, will be held by post or email.
  6. In the event of a Committee member having to relinquish their post during his/her term of office, the candidate receiving the next greatest number of votes at that election will take the vacated place, with the term of office running for the remainder of the term of the original Committee member.
  7. Other duties will be distributed on an ad hoc basis.
  8. All committee members should make every attempt to attend the majority of committee meetings. It is essential that Officers should attend all (or if not possible then the majority of) committee meetings.
  9. The Committee will endeavour to ensure a fair distribution of all Committee posts and the work of the committee.

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