Vacancy: Standards of Conduct Committee Members Volunteers

The Royal Economic Society (RES) is the principal learned society and membership organization for economics in the UK. It was founded in 1890 and has over 6000 members worldwide.

The Society has recently adopted a Code of Conduct and agreed a Complaints Procedure for investigating complaints in relation to the Code. It is now establishing the RES Standards of Conduct Committee, which will report to the Trustee Board. This position is voluntary and through its roles in overseeing the investigation of complaints and assisting in the development of associated processes, the Committee will help the Society to ensure that high standards of conduct are the norm across the economics profession.

Earlier this year the Society called for Expressions of Interest for membership of the Standards of Conduct Committee and is now seeking further Expressions of Interest from UK-based senior female academic economists to balance the panel. It is anticipated that the Committee will have six members, including people from outside academic economics, and it will choose its own chair. Committee members are not required to be members of the Royal Economic Society.

Responsibilities

In line with the RES Complaints Policy, members of the Standards of Conduct Committee are expected to:

• Attend the annual meeting of the full Standards of Conduct Committee;
• Contribute to the further development of processes for the review and investigation of complaints in relation to the Society’s Code of Conduct;
• Contribute to the Committee’s annual report that provides an overview of all complaints received during the year;
• Participate, as appropriate, in the review of individual complaints to determine whether these fall within the Code and warrant further investigation as Serious Complaints;
• Participate, as appropriate, as members of Complaints Committees that investigate individual Serious Complaints;
• In conjunction with other members of the Committee, make recommendations to the RES Trustee Board on changes in the Code of Conduct and/or the Complaints Policy that arise as a result of investigations or from other sources.

The Society will organize training for all members of the Committee prior to them taking up their roles. The RES office will provide administrative support to the Committee.

Application

Expressions of interest are warmly invited from UK-based academic economists for membership of the RES Standards of Conduct Committee. An expression of interest should include a summary curriculum vitae and a covering letter, with the latter setting out:

1. Your experience and qualifications (if any) relevant to the role, if these are not included in the summary curriculum vitae;
2. Your motivation(s) for wishing to be a member of the Committee;
3. What you can contribute to the Royal Economic Society towards the promotion of high standards of conduct in the economics profession.

The covering letter and summary curriculum vitae should, in total, be approximately two to three pages in length.

Expressions of interest should be sent by email to the RES Office at the address officemanager@res.org.uk by Friday 11 November 2022.

From the expressions of interest received, some people will be individually invited to participate in a discussion, lasting approximately 45 minutes, with members of the committee shortly after the closing date, in order to establish a sound mutual understanding about the Committee.