The Senate, which meets four times a year, is made up of the current Officers, Working Group Leaders and elected representatives of the AGS. The duties of the Senate are to represent the entire membership of the AGS throughout the wider industry and to ensure that the AGS fulfils its purpose, including its legal and financial obligations. The Senate arranges the appointment of AGS representatives and approves various items of business (such as the Business Plan and proposed expenditure).

The Senate meeting held on 28th June 2018 in London followed a standard format to deal with AGS business and Neil Parry, the AGS Chair has provided an update on the items discussed. A significant number of items are discussed in Senate. During this meeting the topics included:

• The success of Members’ Day and the decision to hold next year’s meeting at the same venue.
• The planning of this year’s Ground Risk Conference on 12th September.
• The sending of a joint letter with the BDS to the President of the ICE regarding the shortage of Reservoir Panel Engineers.

Each of the Working Groups presented their reports to the Senate Members for comment. This ensures each of the groups can work together on various issues and prevents duplication. It is important that the groups provide a useful service to the AGS membership and their output is subject to the correct level of scrutiny.

Other items covered in the Senate meeting, which are usually on the agenda, included the Chairman’s Report, Financial Review, Membership, Meetings Programme, Strategy, forthcoming/new AGS Guides (such as the recently published AGS Guide to The Selection of Geotechnical Soil Laboratory Testing), representation on BSI and working together with other organisations.

Election to the AGS Senate, in addition to the Officers and Working Group Leaders is open to Practitioners, Affiliates, Graduate Members and Student Members. Voting is held for a number of these posts each year at the Annual General Meeting.

This article was featured in the July/August 2018 issue of the AGS Magazine which can be viewed here.