PCDS newsletter: Renewed call – submit your applications for PCDS committee membership

Renewed call: Submit your applications for PCDS committee membership
Since its creation in 2004, the PCDS has built a large membership of healthcare professionals working in diabetes in primary care. We have held three very successful conferences and members receive our ‘house journal’ Diabetes & Primary Care, which has increased its frequency of publication, from quarterly to six issues a year) as a result of the society’s success.

The PCDS was also the lead group in the development of the Diabetes Commissioning Toolkit which is being used by a number of diabetes networks and commissioning groups.

As well as these activities, committee members have been and continue to be involved in liaison with other professional groups and in lobbying the Government and politicians. Examples include our involvement with the all-party Diabetes Working Group at the House of Commons, and the Affiliation of Primary Care Specialist Societies at the Royal College of GPs.

When the existing committee was first elected at our 2005 conference our intention was to start a re-election process 3 years later, and we are rapidly approaching that time. A few existing committee members have changed roles and commitments, creating vacancies, and we also hope that there are PCDS members who wish to take a more active role in the society through membership of the committee. I would emphasise that this is a ‘working committee’ – members generously give their own time. We hold 3–4 committee meetings each year, on Saturdays in Birmingham, sometimes with preparatory meetings on the preceding Friday evening. Much of the work is done by email between meetings. 

There are currently 17 committee members and approximately a third of those places will now be electable each year, starting from this year. In order to plan that election we are inviting nominations NOW for up to 6 places so that we can hold elections prior to announcing the new committee members at the November 2008 conference (see pages 9–12 for details of the conference).

If you are interested in standing, please see the information box below.

How to stand for election to the PCDS committee

• Please submit a resumé of up to 150 words which will be used as an ‘election address’ along with a recent photograph.
• These will be published on the PCDS website and in a forthcoming issue of our journal Diabetes & Primary Care.
• You are eligible to stand if you are a current member of the PCDS and are involved in the professional care of people with diabetes in a primary care setting.
• Your proposal needs to be supported by one other PCDS committee member.
• Deadline for submitting your resumé is Friday 5 September (05.09.2008).

The committee constitution seeks to ensure a balance between clinicians from medicine, nursing and allied professions and also some geographical balance. So far, this has been achieved by co-opting extra committee members where appropriate and on this occasion the composition of the new committee does not need to be specified.