CGS Structure

CGS Organisational structure

Officers:

President: Dr Alan Fryer
Vice-President: Dr Frances Flinter
Secretary General: Dr Helen Kingston
Treasurer: Dr Trevor Cole
Conference Organiser: Dr Sahar Mansour

Click here to download a full list of members of the CGS Council.

The CGS Constitution can be downloaded here

Click here to go to information about CGS Working Groups & Subcommittees.

Minutes of the CGS AGM:

12th March 2008

The minutes of the previous AGM held on March 15^th 2007 were approved.

President‘s report

The president summarised some of the main activities of the Society over the last 12 months, many of which have been reported in the CGS section of the BSHG newsletter.

Liaison with other organisations: Throughout the year CGS Council has submitted reports/responses and contributed to the activities of various organisations – notably BSHG and the RCP and have provided support for research and service development bids. BSHG plans to appoint a Chief Executive, which will benefit CGS as well as the umbrella organisation.
Revalidation sub-committee: This new sub-committee met again in November 2007 and a report has been published in the newsletter. Work on revalidation is ongoing with the RCP, London.
Clinical Governance sub-committee: This sub-committee has produced a report on “Guidelines for guidelines”, which will appear shortly on the website. The sub-committee plans to circulate a questionnaire to the membership about the genetic management of haemochromatosis.
CGS Working Party: The Prenatal Genetics working party chaired by Peter Turnpenny, with membership from CGS, British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society and RCOG, has produced a report which has been ratified by Council. Once approved by the other bodies, the report will be added to the website and a summary will appear in the newsletter.
Lead Clinicians Group: This group continues to meet and particular thanks go to Carol Gardiner as the current convenor of the group and Michael Wright as CGS GENCAG representative. An away day funded by CGS was held in November 2007 and a detailed account of that meeting has been published in the recent newsletter. Another meeting is planned for April 2008, to review progress and consider a number of other pressing issues, including the 18 week target and possible national tariff for PbR. Helen Stewart was thanked for liaising about PbR on our behalf.
International activities update:
- At BSHG council last May, Rob Elles described a visit to India with the intention of championing what UK Genetics has to offer. This was largely a commercial venture. A BSHG International interest group has been established. Many CGS members already have a lot of contacts overseas.
- A CGS initiative has been to develop an international scholarship which allows a geneticist from a developing centre to come to the CGS Conference and spend a week in a UK centre/centres. The application procedure will be in place for next year’s meeting. The application form is on the website with a closing date of September. Members were asked to inform any of their contacts who might benefit from this. The scheme is also being publicised through other websites: RCP, RCPCH and Human Genetics Societies, notably ASHG, ESHG, African, Indian, Australasian and Latin American Societies.
Trainee issues: Trainee representatives were thanked for their input into Council business and Sue Holder was thanked for her work as manpower representative. The first “fundamentals of genetics” course, underwritten by the Society, took place in Cambridge in January 2008. This proved very successful and Helen Firth was thanked for organising this.
Knowledge based assessment: Helen Kingston represented CGS at a meeting between the Federation of Royal Colleges MRCPUK team and representatives from small medical specialty Societies at RCP London in January. The process of setting up KBA exams is complex and expensive and is currently not financially viable for small Specialties like ours. However, our specialty may be disadvantaged by not having an exit exam, when most other major specialties do so. This issue will be a major consideration for CGS and the SAC in the next 12 months.
Proposed changes to the CGS Constitution: Amendments to the constitution proposed by Council were presented and accepted. The amended Constitution will be posted on the website.
Proposal for an Academic sub-committee: The President put forward a proposal to establish a Clinical Genetics Academic sub-committee, accountable to CGS and chaired by an elected CGS Academic Vice-President. The need for such a sub-committee, its remit and membership was discussed. With the approval of the Society, this will be taken forward by Council and an election for Academic Vice-President arranged.
Thanks: On behalf of the Society, the President thanked Sue Huson for editing the CGS Newsletter, Angela Brady for her role as regional rep co-ordinator, Karen Temple as retiring vice-president, Helen Kingston as retiring General Secretary and Ruth Cole and Eileen Connop in the BSHG Office.

General Secretary’s report

The President was thanked for his report, his leadership and all the work he has done on behalf of the Society during his first year as President.
Membership of the Society stands at 452. Eleven new members were admitted during 2007-2008. Their names were presented to, and accepted by, the Society and they were welcomed as new CGS members.
Important elections to Council took place this year and congratulations were extended to all successful applicants. Frances Flinter, was elected Vice-President for 2008, to become President in 2009. Elisabeth Rosser was elected unopposed as General Secretary and accepted unanimously by the Society. Dorothy Trump, Sarah Smithson and Emma Hobson were elected as new Council members for 2008-2011. Jacqueline Eason became a new trainee representative member of Council during 2007 and was also welcomed.
Thanks were extended to retiring Council members Paul Brennan and Peter Lunt for their considerable input into Council activities during the last three years. Special thanks were given to Karen Temple on completion of her term as Vice-President, for having been an inspirational past President.
Co-opted Council members were thanked for their involvement during the year. Special thanks to Shane McKee for all his work on developing the website and to Adam Shaw for taking over the website management.
Sahar Mansour, Alice Brooks, Lyn Greenhalgh and Elizabeth Sweeney were thanked for organising such an excellent programme and venue for the Conference.
Special thanks were given to Ruth Cole, Eileen Connop and Margaret Lynock for their dedication in making the conference run smoothly and for all their greatly appreciated work on behalf of the Society during the year.

Treasurer’s report

The accounts were presented and accepted by the membership. Full accounts may be obtained from the Treasurer. Summary: The balance of funds as of April 5th 2007: £52,369. Expenditure as of end of February 2008: £39,910. Income from membership subscriptions for 2007/08: £6,375. Conference income/expenditure not yet finalised. Increased expenditure 2007/08: Lead Clinicians meeting, Council Away Day, Working Parties, Genetics Course and contribution to NOWGEN guidelines clearing house

Conference Organiser’s report

Joint Dutch/UK CGS Spring Conference 2008

This year was the inaugural joint spring Conference with the Clinical Geneticists from the Netherlands.
It was held in the beautiful, newly renovated, St George’s Hall in this year’s City of Culture – Liverpool. There was an excellent turn out with 252 people attending this two day meeting (67 from the Netherlands, 10 from other European countries). We had approx ten sponsors and overall, despite the expense of the venue, we should break even.
Next year will be a one day conference in London but we are hoping that the 2010 spring conference will be held in Amsterdam.

There were no items under Any Other Business and the meeting was closed.

The next AGM will be held during the CGS Conference in March 2009.

116 members attended the AGM.

Summaries of the minutes of CGS council meetings are archived below:

[For further information and contact information, please contact the CGS office at cgs@bshg.org.uk ]