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