The Society's Charter and Bye Laws set out our Royal Charter, objective, constitution and categories of membership.
The Bye Laws were last amended on 3 October 2022 after a vote of the Fellowship agreed to a series of changes proposed by Council. The main changes to the Bye Laws were:
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A reduction in the total number of Council members to 12 elected Trustees and upto four co-optees.
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The removal of Honorary Secretaries (three roles), Immediate Past President, Regions Representative, Chair of Annual Conference, and Postgraduate Representative (the latter two will remain as roles on the Research and Higher Education Committee but not as members of Council).
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A reduction in the number of Councillors drawn from the areas of Education, Research and Higher Education, and Expeditions and Fieldwork from three to one per area.
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The introduction of four new roles to ensure representation from across the Society’s breadth of work. The new roles are: a Vice President and a Councillor for both Membership and for Professional Practice.
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An increase in the term of office to four years to ensure the Society does not prematurely lose expertise and our institutional memory is robust.
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More frequent meetings so that Council meets four times per year, roughly quarterly.
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The discontinuation of the Executive Committee.
As our Charter also specifies the make-up of Council, the Society will now petition the Privy Council for a Supplemental Charter, which will include the new make-up of Council.
Previous changes agreed by the Fellowship in September 2021 included:
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Inclusion of the ability to hold online AGMs and SGMs and enable digital voting.
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Introduction of a new sub-category of Fellowship called Associate Fellow for geographers studying at postgraduate level and for early career geographers.
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Renaming of Young Geographers as Student Members.
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Renaming of Ordinary Members as Members.
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Removal of administrative processes to a separate document that can be more easily updated as the processes develop.