CENTRAL VETERINARY SOCIETY Established 1870 A Division of the British Veterinary Association

Minutes of a meeting of Council held on Tuesday 11th May 2004 at the Athenaeum Club, 107 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5ER.

Present:  the President Mr. A. Muckle, Prof. J. Bleby, Mr. H. Hellig, Dr. M. Kerr, Prof. A. R. Michell, Mr. J. Oliver, Mr. A. Porter, Mr. G. Tribe.  (Mr C. Boyde and Mr. L. Gibson arrived at 5.50 pm, and Mr. Hoskin also arrived towards the end of the meeting.)

Apologies for Absence:  Mr. R. Ewbank, Mr. C. R. Herbert, Mr. M. Nelson, Mr. H. Robinson, Lord Soulsby.

Minutes of the previous meeting on 2nd March had been circulated and were approved, subject to the correction of two contributions which had been misattributed, and the attendance record which should have recorded Mr. Hellig as being present, not Mr. Meldrum.

Matters arising from the minutes not covered elsewhere:  Mr. Muckle announced an extra General Meeting on 15th June at Mansfield Street, with a buffet supper, in order for Mr. Greet to address the Society and answer questions about the future rôle of the BVA.

No comment had been received regarding any of the proposed rule changes to be put to the AGM.

It was clarified that the recipient of the McCunn Memorial Prize would become an honorary Fellow of the Society until one year after graduating.  Dr. Kerr undertook to obtain a list of past winners of the Anatomy and Dissection Prizes for the Society's records.

Council and Office-bearers for 2004-05:  Council approved the following, and agreed to propose these names to the Annual General Meeting.

There was some discussion about the difficulty of identifying a suitable candidate for the post of Junior Vice-president, which seemed likely to recur in future years.  Mr. Muckle suggested that the serving JVP might be made responsible for identifying a successor.

There was some discussion about the effectiveness of the Society, and the way in which BVA Council business is dealt with (or not dealt with).  Mr. Hellig proposed that rather than simply falling on the same day as General meetings, Council meetings should be timed to allow discussion of the BVA Council agenda.  Some concern was expressed about availability of Council papers for all members to have access, but it was pointed out that these are posted on the BVA web site and therefore should be accessible to all.  It was proposed to canvass the opinion of all CVS Council members, and discuss the matter at the September meeting.

Prof. Michell suggested having an annual meeting at the RVC and involving the students in this, especially as Prof. McKellar was a more political Principal than some of his predecessors.  He suggested that such a meeting would help cement a closer relationship between the BVA and the RVC, which was something which needed to be built up.

Correspondence:  The usual email list of consultation documents and news reports, which had been circulated.  A letter from BVA regarding identification of individuals with particular expertise in specific areas for consultation, which arrived just after the previous Council meeting and had been dealt with by the President.  Mr. Meldrum and Mr. Porter's names were put forward.  A letter from Dr. D. Wishart expressing his regret that he had to cancel his attendance at the last minute due to injury, and asking for a specific question regarding the Benevolent Fund to be put to Miss Hern.  Forms relating to Divisional insurance had been sent out via the BVA, and this matter had been dealt with.

President's report:  Nothing further to report.

Secretary's report:  Nothing further to report.

Treasurer's report:  The treasurer circulated a written report detailing £1,526.45 in the current account and £5,028.58 in the Capital Reserve Account, total assets £6555.03, also the audited accounts to be presented to the AGM.

Membership:  Dr. Kerr reported that Mr. Rupert Holmes would be bringing his membership application to tonight's meeting, which would bring membership up to 94.  Prof. Bleby reported that Dr. Ian Mason and Mrs. Karen Mason had also intimated their intention to join.  Dr. Mason is the new President of the BSAVA.

Any other business:  Mr. Porter reported that an Extraordinary General Meeting had been called at the RCVS to decide on their approach to the matter of the proposed new VSA.  This seemed to be a very late development, and it was very unclear what it was proposed to do about the Royal Charter, or what was to be done about the problem of the registration fee being assumed to be available only for statutory purposes (even though this is in fact a false assumption).  Mr. Porter also expressed concern about the thinking within BVA and DEFRA.  He had a number of questions for Miss Hern.

Dr. Kerr enquired as to who should be regarded as ex officio Fellows of the Society.  The reply was the Presidents of the RCVS and the BVA during their years in office, also of course the President and recent past-Presidents of the RVC Student Union, as discussed under the new terms of the McCunn Memorial Prize.

Prof. Bleby reported that the next meeting of BVA Council had been called for Wednesday 7th July.  If there was to be a meeting of CVS Council beforehand, some thought should be given to the location, as a room hire fee should not be incurred.

Date, time and place of next meeting:  To be arranged.  (Mr. Hoskin subsequently announced at the end of the General Meeting that the next Council meeting would be at Mansfield Street on Monday 5th July 2004, to fit in with BVA Council.)

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