| Description | Minutes, correspondence and agenda papers of the British Psychological Society BPS Information Committee and Information Group. For a year it was decided to have smaller and more frequent Information Group meetings bimonthly and then to review whether this was a more effective structure.
25 April 1995 Information Committee Minutes and Papers includes draft annual report, review of the Information Committee, writing workshops, campaign for statutory registration for psychologists; campaign for psychometrics; reports from responsibility holder for qualifications and recruitment;
19 July 1995 Information Group Minutes and Papers includes parliamentary workload, proposed new responsibility holder in programme news (radio and tv);
4 October 1995 Information Group Minutes and Papers includes approach to media companies, European Psychologists Day, centenary, parliamentary workload, SET 1996;
20 December 1995 Information Group Minutes and Papers includes developing the Society website, TV contacts, copy of Wolfendale report 'Committee to review the Contribution of Scientists and Engineers to the Public Understanding of Science, Engineering and Technology';
9 February 1996 Information Group Papers and correspondence includes copy of centenary working party minutes of 19 December 1995; Information Committee annual report; working party on the Development of Psychology as a Profession update for subsystems; future of Information Group; donation of BPS press cuttings archive 1987-?1995 to Science Museum Media Monitor archive;
12 April 1996 Information Group Minutes and Papers includes results of Membership survey, centenary; relations between the BPS and IDP [Institute of Personnel and Development later CIPD]; proposed 'think tank';
25 April 1996 Information Committee Minutes and Papers includes review of Information Group experiment; strategic plan; terms of reference of responsibility holders; annual reports of responsibility holders parliament, press, qualifications, membership; proposed 'think tank';
17 June 1996 Information Committee Minutes and Papers includes comments on strategic plan; The Psychologist Readership and Membership Survey; proposal to set up an independent production company to take advantage of increasing opportunities in broadcast media;
12 August 1996 Information Group Minutes and Papers includes review of Information Committee; training in PR and communications skills; comments on Working Party on the Development of Psychology as a Profession and strategic plan; MORI poll of school children, Edinburgh Science Festival; national honours for psychologists;
9 October 1996 Information Committee Minutes and Papers includes Committee and SCPEO [Standing Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities] response to 'Setting Directions for the British Psychological Society; nominations for national honours; improvements to Society website; SET 1997 [National Science Week]; Wellcome funding for public lectures; Nolan committee [standards in public life];
Correspondence and reports on the future of the Information Committee 1996-1997 including proposals to establish a Communications Committee/Board.
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| AdminHistory | The British Psychological Society BPS Information Committee was founded in October 1990 to replace the Standing Committee on Communications and the Standing Press Committee with aim of being the managing and co-ordinating body for the Society's public relations and communications activities.
Individual activities were to be undertaken by a network of responsibility holders - Honorary Officers who presented their action plans to the committee. The aim was to have a flexible structure for short and long term projects as well as reactive to external events or subsystems needs. It was not envisaged that this network would be responsible for all communications activity but provide training, advice, support and action plans. Initially there were initially four responsibility holders:
Mike Burton (Press and Media) , from 1993 Margaret Mitchell
John Sheppard (Parliament)
James Thompson (TV) - became subsumed into Press and Media role in 1993
Ann Colley (Charter Promotion - taking over from the Charter Promotion Group).
Then two additional posts were created:
Richard Kwiatkowski (Membership Qualifications - appointment October 1991)
John Cooper (Recruitment - appointment January 1992)
Members of the Committee included the responsibility holders, the President, Honorary Treasurer, Honorary General Secretary, representatives from the Boards, The Psychologist Editorial Committee and the Books and Special Projects Group.
The Committee was firstly chaired by Anne Colley but Ray Bull became chair on 1 November 1991, in 1993 Mike Burton became chair. From June 1996 John Groeger took over as chair.
In 1995 the Committee was replaced by a smaller experimental Information Group which met bimonthly for a year. At the end of this period it was felt that a Board should be established to bring together all of the information and communication functions within the Society.
In 1997 John Groeger wrote a paper for Council proposing that the Information Committee be replaced by a Communications Committee. The first meeting of the new Communications Board was December 1998. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of the History of Psychology Centre and Archives and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material |