Hi Charles,

I hope the following information will be helpful.

The organising group occupied itself with doing what was necessary to get a CP Section approved by the BPS not what the Section would do. In brief this included: 

- writing a fairly full proposal for a new Section according to Society protocol; 

- persuading twenty Fellow, Associate Fellows and Chartered Psychologists to write in support of the proposal meeting Rule 45 (a) of the Society Charter Statutes & Rules; 

- seeking approval by the Board of Trustee; 

- giving notice (in the form of a letter) to Society Members inviting their interest to become a Member of the Section if formed, (Rule 45 (b);

- persuading more than 1% of the total BPS membership expressing a desire to become a Member of the proposed Section (Rule 45 (c ) including not less than ten Fellows or Associate Fellows; 

-  the proposal to form the Section being put to a vote at a General Meeting of the Society called for that purpose with a majority in favour.

We did all the above successfully. We specifically did not make decisions about issues to do with the running of the new Section (other than those implied by the proposal which we could not avoid) because we believed these should be made in a participative way by those committed to developing community psychology in the UK

These decisions to be made will include: 

setting up a mechanism for members joining the Section;

establishing a fee.

forming an interim committee by holding an Inaugural meeting 

appointing a Chair, Treasurer and Secretary plus ordinary members;

electing a representative to the Research Board;

establishing a date (or month) in which to holds the Section's AGM;

agreeing a Constitution (the BPS ominously said "we can help with this as we have a standardised framework within which all Member networks can function").

arranging an AGM of the Section where members will be officially elected by notifying all members with Notice of the AGM and calling for nominations;

To repeat: the above seem mostly substantive matters which require full participatory discussion and decision making

Wendy Franks kindly posted a summary of most of this on this list on 5th August basing her message largely on notes taken by Lisa Thorne at the meeting of those of us who discussed the Section at the Plymouth CP Conference 

There are in other words lots of - if not hurdles - big issues to settle before the Section will be up and running. We need participatory decision making about these issues as well as about fees 

What would one be joining at the moment? As said above what the Section should be a matter to be decided through participatory processes by the members. I hope one would be joining a Section devoted to contesting reactionary individualistic psychologies and their organisations and promoting radical critical community psychological alternatives. 

David

________________________________________
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marley Charles (NHS Forth Valley) [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 16 August 2010 19:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Recent posts

Maybe someone can help me out by answering some questions for me:

If we quickly agree (or allow the BPS to set) a fee structure, does this then allow individuals to join the BPS CP section or are there further hurdles to dealt with before individuals can join?

If agreeing a fee structure does allow individuals to join the BPS CP section, what would we actually be joining?  i.e. is there a BPS CP committee, local branch committee, sub-committee or working party, do those joining gain entitlement to a specialist term (such as chartered)?

What would be the benefits of agreeing a fee structure now and then joining the BPS CP section at this time?

Thanks in advance,

Charles



-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Erica Brostoff
Sent: 16 August 2010 09:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Recent posts

Dear All,
I have read the recent posts sent late last night (UK Time) and this
morning.
What seems to me clear is that, as I suspected, there is no agreed
arrangement about who is responsible for taking the Section forward,
which I find extraordinary if this has been worked on for 6 years, or
even for one year.   It is therefore not surprising  that there is no
agreement about what the aims of the Section should be, nor its fee
structure.

The posting earnestly requesting me not to approach the BPS has come
in at the very last moment putting ME in a very difficult position.
I feel that I am speaking for members of the BPS and probably some
others newly interested in Community Psychology who voted for the
Section who will be disenfranchised for the coming year.   The BPS
clearly regard it as normal to have an agreed fee at this stage so
that the Section can be registered.   Why approach the BPS for a
Section, if you do not intend to follow the BPS procedures.?

The Community Psychology group who have worked together informally
wouldnot be disenfranchised, they would simply have to consider the
wishes of others who voted for the Section.   It seems to me that the
discussion list is not functioning as a community, but as a
collection of individuals.  The idea of a "collective" is far from
clear, as one correspondent has expressed well, how do you make
decisions on this basis?

The decision to set up a Community Psychology Section does not
"belong" to the members of the present list, it belongs to the people
who voted for it, and to the organisation hosting it, which is the
BPS.   Any other functions which the present list feel cannot be
accommodated by the BPS Section can be considered by a parallel
organisation, which I have said I support in principle.
I will try to find some senior member of the BPS from whom I can take
advice on this before acting, but as I said in an earlier mail, I
feel I have been pushed into this by the lack of any attempt to meet
the deadline for the decision on fees.   The effect is for the
current members to be thinking entirely of themselves and not the
wishes of ALL those who voted for the Section.

The personal note that has crept in is due principally to the
personal criticisms to which my original posting of research carried
out at Tybalds was subject, and to the fact that the community list
IS a collection of individuals, individually trying to act, rather
than organised in any way, and having no clear objectives.
Erica

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The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at:
http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/
There is a threaded discussion forum:
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There is a twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK
To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below.
David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
___________________________________
The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at:
http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/
There is a threaded discussion forum:
http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi
There is a twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK
To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below.
David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK