Appointments Panel

The Appointments Panel considers applications for all appointed positions across the governance structure. It is usually Chaired by the General Secretary or a relevant member of Advisory Council, save for certain circumstances when it is more appropriate for another member to do so, for example, when the General Secretary holds a conflict of interest.

The Appointments Panel is convened in different configurations dependent on the unique expertise required to appoint to each governance body. In all cases, the Panel composition must be approved by the General Secretary and is appointed to reflect the diversity of the membership, particularly in relation to:

      a. Gender balance, and insofar as possible, other legal protected characteristics

      b. Spread of disciplinary expertise

      c. Inclusion of both appointed and elected members of Advisory Council

      d. Inclusion of both members who have served on a panel before and those who have not.

      e. Insofar as possible, balance of geographic spread of panel members, particularly in relation to the balance between members from the UK and Ireland. Where appropriate, it may add additional members to ensure geographic representation.

Appointments Panel Structure

There are four general structures that the Appointments Panel may take in order to ensure that members with appropriate expertise are included in decision-making:

Appointment of Committee co-Chairs

• The General Secretary (Chair)
• Three members of Advisory Council

Appointment of Division Chairs

• The Chair and Chair-elect of Scientific Conferences Panel
• An independent member of the Board of Trustees
• The Chair and Chair-elect of the recruiting Division
• A member of the Scientific Conferences Panel who sits as an editor of a Society journal

Appointment to the Members Panel

• A co-Chair of the Members Panel, outgoing if possible (Chair)
• The General Secretary
• At least one additional member of the Members Panel, outgoing if possible

Appointment of Deputy Editors-in-Chief and appraisals of Editors-in-Chief

• The co-Chair of the Building Communities Committee who is also the Chair of the Publishing Panel
• The Editor-in-Chief or Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the recruiting journal
• A member of the Publishing Panel
• A member of the Board of Trustees

Appointments Process

The Appointments Panel will follow the same process regardless of the configuration.

1. Vacancies requiring appointment are identified at the Advisory Council and Trustee Board meetings in December.
2. Applications are sought from the microbiology community early in the following year.
3. The General Secretary reviews the applications received and convenes the required Appointments Panel, carefully selecting participants to mitigate conflicts of interest.
4. Each member of the Appointments Panel reviews anonymised versions of the applications independently and submits their ranking to the General Secretary.
5. The General Secretary compiles the rankings, which the Panel then uses as the basis for its discussion during its final review of the nominations.
6. The General Secretary submits the Panel’s recommendation to the Board of Trustees and Advisory Council in July. The Board of Trustees then makes the final decision to appoint following recommendations from the Advisory Council.
7. All candidates are informed of the outcome of their application, and the onboarding process for the newly appointed candidates begins.

Exceptions

There are two cases where exceptions to the above process apply:

• When appointing an Executive Officer to the Board of Trustees, additional steps are included in the process to allow for a more detailed review of applications. For example, the submission of additional information or interviews with senior staff and members of the appointments panel.
• When appraising the promotion of a Deputy Editor-in-Chief to Editor-in-Chief, the Panel will review an assessment of the candidate's performance as Deputy Editor-in-Chief rather than an anonymised application.