Dear Members,
Just wanted to update everyone on what is happening with the Society. As you know at the AGM in May, the members voted unanimously to proceed further with the process of adopting charity status. This is still ongoing but getting closer to finalising the details so that members can vote at an EGM.
We are also making changes to the membership fees and making this much simpler. For existing, life members there will be no changes, for annual paying members we will be abolishing this due to the administration costs of retrieving the fees and so we are suggesting that those members have a one-off donation of between £10 and £100. For new members there will be a one-off fee of £100 and all members of The James Hutton staff will become members unless they opt out. This will grow our members, but it also means that the Society will become more visible as an independent and dedicated member led organisation championing Scotland’s world leading crop research.
The website is being updated and over the next few months we will feature some of the recently funded projects and also some of the events that are supported by SSCR, as well as interesting meetings and talk. If you would like to advertise an event that members would be interested in attending just send me an email and we will get that posted and tweet.
Lastly, I would like to thank Bill MacFarlane Smith for his dedication to the society and the support he has and continues to provide as we enter a new era for the Society. Looking through the photograph archives of the Institute I found this photo of Bill in the field and just to highlight that although times change and technologies leap forward, the field is still the place to be (in case you don’t recognise the stopped figure that’s me hand harvesting barley on Orkney).
Best wishes
Joanne Russell
