The future of the Society (is in your hands)

The UK Systems Society is around 50 years old. It is a company limited by guarantee and registered as an educational charity. Our articles of association require us to hold regular management committee meetings at which we plan and set the strategy for the year(s) ahead and ensure compliance with our legal obligations.

Over the years we have organised conferences (biennial until 2001), we hold workshops and support a wide range of systems-related activities. The Society has been sustained throughout its history by volunteers—mainly academics and, at times, practitioners (though fewer practitioners volunteer than we would wish). Their contribution cannot be overstated. We manage the Society’s accounts, administer funds on its behalf and fulfil all legal requirements. We must maintain sufficient funds to cover typical expenditure for the coming year and our liabilities for organising an annual conference. This requires careful financial planning, ranging from estimating venue costs through to catering and other expenses, before we can proceed.

We deliver a range of events and publications for our members. Systemist, our open-access journal, publishes refereed papers on systems research and practice at no cost to authors. Each copy of Systemist in its printed and electronic form is registered at the British Library. We also produce conference proceedings and workshop reports. Our membership fee of £50 p.a. represents good value for money, specially as the 2026 conference registration and participation is free to UKSS members.

Restoration of members general meetings and elections

Annual General Meetings (AGM’s), required by our constitution, has been aligned, with members consent to the conference cycle and is now once per year and called members general meetings. In 2021 members meetings and elections were suspended due to the restrictions associated with COVID-19. One undesirable outcome of the restrictions was a shift to virtual conference and workshop participation making our election process difficult. With the agreement of the membership, elections have remained on hold since that time pending a return to normal operating conditions. Since suspending in person conferences means that we have not been able to hold ‘proper’ committee elections for several years. Presently, we have a board of directors and management committee consisting of 2 trustees (directors) and 7 co-opted members. I would like to return to a committee of formally elected members, but this can only take place if we have a healthy level of membership and this is related to the ability to hold face to face (F2F) conferences.

The tasks undertaken by our managing committee

For those members considering volunteering, and we encourage you to do so, this is a brief outline of responsibilities. (i) Attendance at regular (minuted) management meetings (presently on-line) (ii) Help/organise events such as workshops and conferences (iii) give support and assist with editing Systemist, (iv) maintain a membership database, (v) compose and circulate newsletters, (vi) membership secretary- to keep in contact with members (vii) monitor and control our finances (Our finances are presented to members annually at each members meeting). (viii) maintain our web presence. Additionally, each year we ask for a volunteer to take on responsibilities of conference chair, who working with the management team—and, where possible, the wider membership—agrees a conference theme, produces promotional materials, advertises events and monitor registrations. I think you will agree these activities require a significant commitment from each of our volunteers.

Conferences and the election of our management committee

An important source for membership recruitment comes from conference attendance. Holding a general meeting at conference provides a representative gathering of members to endorse (or not) the candidates standing for election. The 2025 conference held at the University of Portsmouth showed that the return to F2F conferences was popular and gave us confidence that we could consider elections at this year’s conference, but that means starting the process now. It is my wish, as President, to return to this process as soon as we are able to hold ‘in person (F2F)’ members meetings. To start this process and in keeping with our election process, I will invite 1/3 of the coopted members from the existing management committee to stand down – that is 3 from the existing members. These colleagues can also stand for the vacancies. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Society’s development and governance may wish to consult Systemist, Vol. 23, No. 2 (November 2001), which records the Society’s processes at that time (see ref to the BL above should you not have a personal copy). It provides a blueprint for future governance. You might say this is a lot of bother for such a small Society, but these are the ‘rules’ that we have, and they are still in place. The size of the membership of the Society does not preclude this process, we suspended it, not cancelled it (if we did we would have to change what the Society is, so if members want the UKSS to continue then this is the process we currently follow).

Briefly, the election process is as follows. Colleagues interested in standing for election send to the secretary a short paragraph (max 150 words) in which they state what their contribution to the Society could be. Each nomination should be seconded by a member of the Society. The UKSS secretary will confirm each candidate’s validity and that of their seconder which is then printed in Systemist (and/or our newsletter). Members are invited to cast their votes before the conference; the vote is then checked by the UKSS secretary and the candidate with the greatest support is elected and ratified by the members at the general meeting (usually at the conference).

What’s next?

Clearly, without volunteers who are prepared to stand for election and take on formal roles and responsibilities, such as those outlined above, the Society cannot function. Despite trying for several years to implement a succession plan this has not materialized. Often those who have expressed a wish to become more involved with the society, upon discovering it is more than a ‘ceremonial’ role, they find that they are too busy or reluctant to take on its responsibilities. Without volunteers and de facto membership, the Society as constituted will cease. While other ‘systems’ groups exist there are few UK based groups that have the credibility that our distinguished gold medalists give to the UK Systems Society. However, it is possible for those interested in continuing with a Systems society, e.g. call it UoP O/R and Systems society? They could form a new committee and a new financial structure, with less of the formal responsibilities such as those required by our role as an educational Charity and satisfying the requirements of Companies House. The level of interest here at Portsmouth suggest this would be a popular development but note the new group could not use the title ‘UK Systems Society’ as this is owned by the UKSS and will remain so. Systemist is also owned by the UKSS but could offer publishing refereed papers and conference proceedings, but this could not be offered at no cost as is presently the case. The cost of providing this service would need to be negotiated.

Conclusion

I realise that this editorial is not what some of you want to read, but it would be remiss of me not to raise this challenge while there is still time to stop the decline in fully paid-up membership. While we have a healthy number of members on our database few pay full membership fees. It is ironic that while ‘system thinking and practice’ is at such a premium the Society has an insufficient numbers of fully paid-up membership to sustain it. I began this editorial by reminding you that the future of the Society is in your hands, well it is time to turn that belief into reality. We can either increase membership and begin the process of annual elections making it possible to transfer roles and responsibilities or we can put the Society on a backburner and create a new systems society. What we cannot do is maintain the status quo.

Sincerely
Frank