The RPS is urging pharmacists to “renew their membership – if it is due – by February 28 2025, or to join by that date, to be eligible to take part in the upcoming Special Resolution Vote (SRV)”, it announced last week (February 21).
The vote, set to take place next month, will see RPS members decide on proposals to change the society to become The Royal College of Pharmacy and a registered charity.
The RPS last week said that “those eligible to vote are pharmacists who are currently or ever have been registered with the pharmacy regulator – either the GPhC, or RPSGB when it was the regulator – and who are a member (entitled to use MRPharmS) or fellow (entitled to use FRPharmS) of RPS”.
Read more: RPS planning to vote on ‘Royal College’ status in March
This means associate members, pharmaceutical scientists, unless they are either MRPharms or FRPharmS, and student members are not eligible to vote,” it added.
“Eligibility to vote is not dependent on the country a member lives in, or whether they are retired or not currently working, as long as the above criteria are met,” it said.
12-day vote
It said that the vote will open at 9am on Thursday March 13 and close at 5pm Monday March 24.
“Two-thirds of those members who vote must vote in support of the assembly resolution for it to pass,” it added.
“I urge you to renew your membership, if it’s due, by February 28,” RPS chief executive Paul Bennett said.
Read more: RPS announces bid to become ‘Royal College of Pharmacy’
“If it lapses or you are not a member by then, you won’t be able to participate in this historic vote on the society’s proposed transition to royal college status,” he added.
He stressed that the changes will allow the body to “build the stronger, louder voice that pharmacy deserves”.
Meanwhile in May, the RPS’s annual report revealed that membership declined again in 2023.
Read more: RPS obscures declining membership numbers in latest annual report
The society now has 37,474 “total members”, down 2% from 2022, according to the report which was published with little fanfare.
And in the same month, RPS president Professor Claire Anderson was re-elected to her post as the society revealed a 10% turnout for the English pharmacy board ballot.
