Autumn 2005 Newsletter : Branch Annual General Meeting

The Annual Meeting and AGM are important events in the life of the Branch. Past experience suggests that, providing a superb mixture of scientific, social and business activities, next spring’s events should not be missed. Once again we return to the modern, familiar and convenient campus of The University of York where we will meet, as usual, alongside BSAS.

Programme

Following a similar pattern to last year, the meeting will commence at coffee time on Tuesday 28 March. The afternoon session will include a joint WPSA/BSAS Mini-Symposium entitled “Sustainable energy use in intensive livestock production”. At 5pm will be the Robert Fraser Gordon Memorial Lecture, given this year by Prof Tom Humphrey of the University of Bristol, whose title will be Are happy chickens, safer chickens? Poultry welfare and disease susceptibility. This will be followed as usual by the Gordon Reception.

Following the very evident popularity of last year’s venue, the Branch Annual Dinner will again take place in the lovely surroundings of St William’s College at York Minster.
Wednesday morning will see the Branch AGM, followed by sessions of short original communications and poster discussions. In addition it is intended to have a guest speaker to update us on the threat posed by Avian Influenza.
Full details will be included in the Programme and Application Form, which will be sent to all members early next year.

Papers and Posters

Members are now invited to submit papers and/or posters for consideration by the Programme Committee. These may be on any topic relating to poultry science. Details for submission of papers and posters and the preparation of abstracts appear on the following pages of this Newsletter. These are shown in full on the Branch web sitewww.wpsa-uk.com, where there is also an example paper.

WPSA UK Branch Annual General Meeting

The Branch AGM will be held at 8.45am on Wednesday 29 March 2006 (full details to be sent to all members with their Spring 2006 Newsletter).
We would encourage all members to come along and contribute to the way in which the Branch is run. Following the changes to the Branch Constitution, which were approved at the 2005 AGM and detailed in the last Branch Newsletter, we need to elect two new senior office holders and also to elect or re-elect two Councilors Prof Sally Solomon retires on completion of four years as President and four years as Immediate Past President. Dr Paul Hocking has offered to stand down from his automatic succession from President to Immediate Past President to allow the new constitutional changes to be implemented. We therefore need to elect a new President and a new Vice President, both offices of great importance to the future of the Branch. Dr Tom Acamovic and Dr James Bentley have each served on Council for four years and both offer themselves for re-election for a further four year term. Details of the existing Council and the procedure for elections is set out below.