Pembroke College Cambridge

PCCS Committee Terms of Reference

Purpose

The purpose of the PCCS Committee is to represent the views of Pembroke alumni to the College

and to provide advice on alumni relations, including on events, publications and communications; it is

not the business of the Committee to discuss fundraising initiatives although it can hear reports of

progress on College projects. The Committee works on these matters in co-operation with resident,

representative members of the College.



Membership of the Committee

All matriculated members of the College are de facto members of the Pembroke College Cambridge

Society.



The Committee has the following officers: a Chair (elected for a period of up to ten years), the

Treasurer (the Bursar), the Honorary Secretary (who shall be a Fellow of the College, normally the

Development Director), the Dinner Secretaries, the Editor of the Gazette and a current Fellow (who

has not been a Junior Member of the College). There shall be not fewer than fifteen elected Members

of the PCCS, each elected for a three-year period. Each decade of matriculations should be

represented by three Members, elected one at a time.



The Committee may elect as many Honorary Vice-Presidents as it sees fit. They should normally have

done good service for the PCCS or for the College more generally. Honorary Vice-Presidents have a

standing invitation to attend Committee meetings.



Meetings and attendance



The Committee meets biannually, once in the spring and once in the winter, normally on the first

Friday after the end of the Lent and Michaelmas terms respectively. Significant advance notice is given

on the dates, and all Members are expected to attend both meetings. Notice of missing, or simply

missing, a third consecutive meeting will trigger a bye-election for that Member’s position, and the

successful candidate will begin a three-year term. This may mean that there could well be years when

more than one decade-representative needs to be elected.



The Committee will discuss formal business such as reports of dinners (at the Michaelmas meeting),

the accounts (at the Lent meeting), publications and other communications as standing items. The

Committee will also hear a report on College news from a Committee officer who is a resident

member of the College. A draft agenda will be circulated at least two weeks in advance of the meeting

and will invite Committee Members to suggest other items for discussion.



Committee Members are expected to attend at least one of the annual dinners so as to be able to

give good feedback and to support the Dinner Secretaries.



Committee Members will support the Honorary Secretary in finding speakers for the London Dinner.

Process of election



Members of PCCS will be notified of forthcoming elections by the end of January each year, and may

self-nominate, or nominate another, at any point in the calendar. Notice of elections can be published

in the Martlet and Gazette and in electronic communications at other times. These will point potential

candidates to a page on the College’s website, from which a nomination form can be downloaded or

completed online. The form will invite candidates to indicate which attributes they can bring to their

Membership of the Committee as well as demonstrate their commitment to participate by attending

meetings and responding to other communications from the Committee officers from time to time.



The Committee will consider completed applications at its spring meeting. The Honorary Secretary

will write immediately thereafter to successful candidates informing them that formal ratification will

take place at the Annual General Meeting, and pending the outcome of that, they will be invited to

their first meeting in the winter of the same year. Unsuccessful candidates will be informed by the

Honorary Secretary once all successful candidates have accepted the offer. They will be eligible to

apply again in subsequent years but will be encouraged to update their application where necessary or

relevant.



Previous Members of the Committee are eligible to apply for re-election so long as at least three years

have passed since they were last on the Committee.



The Chair is elected by a similar process, but must have already served a term on the Committee.

The Chair is a de facto trustee of the Valence Mary Endowment Fund.



Annual General Meeting



The Annual General Meeting is open to all members of the PCCS and is held shortly before the

London Dinner. It is regarded as a formality, whose main business is to notify all members of the PCCS

of the elections to the Committee and to confirm the outcome of those elections. There may

occasionally be AGMs where more significant business might be discussed, but this should be done

with sufficient notice so as not to have an impact on the AGM itself.

 

MRM

29 January 2020