Nominations are now open for BERA Council – there are 4 vacancies on our Council as well as the position of Vice-President.

Nominations for the general positions and Vice-President will close on Thursday 4th March 2016 at 17:00pm.

The election will open on 17th March and close on 12th April 2016 at 17:00pm.

BERA Council

BERA Council is the governing body of the Association and the members of the Council are, de facto, the Trustees of the Association as a registered Charity and Directors under Companies House regulations. The charitable objective, as defined in BERA’s constitution is “to encourage the pursuit of educational research and its application for both the improvement of educational practice and for the public benefit.” Trustees are legally obliged to operate in the best interest of the entire charity at all times and are not elected to cover specific interests or causes.

For further information on this, the Charity Commission’s guidance on being a Trustee is probably a good source of information:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-essential-trustee-what-you-need-to-know-cc3

The Council is the governing body of the Association and has ultimate authority and decision-making over all business including policy, planning and resources. BERA is a company limited by guarantee with registered company number 08284220 and regulated charity number 1150237.  As such, any individual elected to BERA Council will be required to sign a declaration to confirm that they are not disqualified from acting as a charity trustee. A copy of the current Articles of Association is available upon request and on the BERA website.   Council meets 3 times a year with one of those meetings being a residential Awayday.  In addition to these meetings, Council members are expected to serve on a BERA committee which will meet up to 3 times a year.  These committees are:

• Membership and Engagement Committee
• Academic Publications Committee
• Conference Committee

Council wishes to see its membership reflective of the field as a whole and therefore encourages under-represented groups to stand for Council.

A guide to how BERA operates and the role of Council members can be accessed on the BERA website once you have logged in as a member:

https://www.bera.ac.uk/about/bera-handbook

Governance Year and AGM

BERA’s Governance year runs from 1st September. This represents the start of BERA’s governance year. Those members elected to Council will therefore formally begin their term of office from this date.

The Vice-President will take office from the BERA AGM to be held on Monday 12th September 2016.

Successful candidates will be invited to the BERA Council Strategic Awayday as observers. This takes place at Gleneagles on 9th-11th May. Candidates are strongly encouraged to keep these dates free as attendance will be an important part of their induction.

BERA Vice President

The Vice-President is elected for a period of up to 4 years, (September 2016- September 2017 as President-Elect, September 2017 – September 2019 as President, September 2019- September 2020 as Vice-President).

Therefore, this election is for the next BERA President. As such, this role includes:

Helping set the strategic direction of BERA through their leadership of Council;

• Ensuring this strategic direction is consistent across the main governance institutions of the association;
• Being the primary external voice and representative for BERA;
• Chairing Council, GPC and Officers meetings;
• Overseeing the BERA Office through the Executive Director;

You will serve as a BERA Officer alongside the President/ Vice-President and the Treasurer and therefore are expected to attend all Council, GPC and Officers’ meetings although you will not sit on any of the other committees. You will also need to have regular meetings with the Executive Director. You will need to represent BERA externally – this includes having a prominent role at our Annual Conference and also representing us at other conferences and events in the UK and internationally.

This is a significant commitment and involves also being the Chair of Trustees. The time commitment during the period of the Presidency is about 1 day per week. This is reduced during the Vice-Presidential years although will normally be at around 25 days per year.

Council General Positions

Council members are expected to attend 3 Council meetings and 3 committee meetings as appropriate. BERA Council members are expected to join one of the three main standing committees (Academic Publications, Membership & Engagement or Conference) during their term, they may wish to allude to their preference of standing committee in their nomination.

Council members may also be asked to lead on specific areas of responsibility and contribute by participating in ad-hoc working groups; nominees are asked to highlight their specific skill sets and or specialisms in their nomination. Council members will also be expected to be available to take on specific roles around the Annual Conference (including reviewing abstracts and chairing sessions) and act as ambassadors for the organisation within their own institution and networks.

While we understand that other commitments and circumstances might prevent attendance at all meetings, members of Council should be able to make a commitment of a minimum of 10-12 days per year to BERA activities. The term of office for Council membership is three years.

If successfully elected, BERA Council members are expected to carry out their duties as Trustees of the Association, and Company Directors by declaring any known conflicts of interests, and registering their professional interests with the BERA Office.

Eligibility

To be eligible to stand, candidates must be must be fully paid up members of BERA at the time of the nominations process opening. Their proposers must also be fully paid up members of BERA at the time of the nominations process opening.

Candidates must not be ineligible to stand according to the rules set out by the Charity Commission or Companies House.

If you want any further information or want to talk to us before standing, please contact Nick Johnson, Executive Director at n.johnson@bera.ac.uk