SDC Communications Forum -Terms of Reference

Background: It has been recognised for some time that communication across the diverse activities and committee structure of the SDC has been inadequate. It formed a key action arising from the 2021 Members Questionnaire and whilst external communication has significantly improved, internal communication across the Society’s Board, Committees, Regions and SDC Staff is still wanting.

Ian Lewis, Chair of the Society’s Board has recognised this communication gap and has recommended the formation of an inter-SDC forum to make this very necessary improvement.

Scope and Objectives

To enable all members of Society’s Board, staff and SDC Governance, operational and regional committees to be able to share and access information relating to SDC activities, budgets and achievements through regular meetings.

This forum incorporates the Future World Group with a wider scope encompassing all SDC activities. However, a smaller Team will continue under the Future World name with the purpose of actioning ideas and suggestions coming from the Communications forum.

At present the SDC has 7 staff members working (plus Building Manager and cleaner) with the support of over 60 volunteers in wide-ranging roles, plus the staff at SDC Enterprises.

The Forum will be a discussion group whereby each group, through representatives, can convey information to all other SDC parties, thus enabling more interaction of Team members and a greater understanding of the Society’s aims and objectives.

No formal decisions will be made as this is a Forum to communicate, but as mentioned Future World will progress specific items on behalf of the Communications Forum.

The group, through its remit, will be large, with the ambition to be more efficient at galvanising the core objectives of the Society and ensuring the Board and all parties are able to have access to information in a timely manner from those on individual committees, staff members and regions. This will be a great opportunity to grow Region support and interaction with the Society.

The objective is to enable the Society’s Board to interact with all stakeholders of the Society and enable the Society to be more galvanised in its goals, giving the Society’s Board current and up to date relevant information enabling more informed decision making.

The key responsibilities of the Forum are:

  1. Enable more interaction of governing bodies of the Society
  2. To progress the Society’s Core Objectives
  3. The group shall meet a minimum of four times a year.
  4. Each meeting shall have an agenda circulated at least 7 days prior to the meeting
  5. Each meeting shall be briefed as to the activities from each committee / department since the last meeting, excluding anything deemed commercially confidential.
  6. In the case of Audit, Medals and Nominations committees the report / feedback will be a general overall view due to the groups remit. It will enable more dialogue between Nominations / Medals committees and other SDC parties, which should help them to fulfil their objectives.

Chairmanship

The forum will have an independent chair and a vice chair.

The Chair would ideally be an independent person – a past president

The vice Chair would be the current Chairman of the Society’s Board

The Forum will comprise of:

Members who are already eligible for the group through other positions held within the Society will help keep the group to a manageable size.

Should the representative for a group be unavailable to attend a meeting and their group has met since the previous meeting a written report should be submitted to the Chair of the Communications Forum prior to the meeting.

Proposed Membership

Chair John Hansford

Vice Chair Ian Lewi, Chair of the Society’s Board

All SDC Staff & Chief Executive Dr Graham Clayton

Committee Chairs

  • Audit Committee – Chair SDC Honorary Secretary Vien Cheung
  • Colour Index Pigment & Solvent Dyes Board – Chair Adrian Abel
  • Examinations, Qualifications & Accreditation Board Chair Steve Westland
  • Finance Committee – SDC Honorary Treasurer Mick Catterall
  • Medals Committee – Chair SDC Honorary Secretary Vien Cheung
  • Nominations Committee – Chair SDC Honorary Secretary Vien Cheung
  • Project Evaluation Group – SDC Vice President (Projects) Paul Hamilton
  • Publications Committee – Chair Martin Bide
  • Society’s Board – Chair Ian Lewis and other members of Board
  • Membership Committee- Chair Geoff Rudkin
  • UK Northern Region – Chair Linda Hodgson & Linda Lewis (Vice Chairs), Honorary Secretary Vanessa Yoxall-Golex.
  • UK Midlands Region – Chair Georgie Darby & Prof Jinsong Shen, Vice-Chairs, Kathy Dickinson Honorary Secretary
  • UK London & Southern Region – Chair Pat Cooke & Kathy Lewiston Vice Chairs
  • Hong Kong Region – Chair Fred Kam, Basto Wong, William Wong
  • SDC Educational Charity (India) – Chair Anjani Prasad, Vice Chair Sandeep Singh, Honorary Secretary Prof Dr Vishaka Karnad
  • SDC Bangladesh Region – Chair Prof Engr Ayub Nabi Khan, Secretary Dr Mohammad Tajul Islam & Treasurer Afsana Ferdousi

We believe the forum will enable greater interaction, understanding and insight as to how all the different parts of the SDC operate and will increase the Society’s potential in the future. Whilst this is a huge task, we believe that this group will play an important role in the next few years to enable the Society to grow and provide a greater understanding of how the SDC operates for all the team.

For greater clarity a model draft agenda has been provided.

Ian J. Lewis                                                                        John Hansford

Chair of Society’s Board                                                  Chair Future World Working Party