Please respond to Shuna Marr (Institute of Education)  s.a.marr@stir.ac.uk

PhD Society

At the SGRS Induction day, Wilma Ellis invited people to contact her if they wished to be involved with the PhD Society. I was seemingly the only one who contacted her - but I'm sure that I wasn't the only one who wanted to see a PhD Society in the University.

Having a PhD society would be a good thing, I think, for many of the university's research students, both as a support network and as a means of socialising.

I would be willing to organise this society, but I can't do it on my own.

However, I think that people don't like to put their name forward in case they end up with lots of extra work. So, I thought I'd specify what involvement might be expected. I envisage 4 levels of commitment:

1. STEERING COMMITTEE:

There would need to be at least 3-5 people on a small steering committee to make decisions about what was happening and when.

The commitment from you would likely be a meeting once a month. Whether this changed or not would depend on the committee itself and how much we agreed we would be prepared to give of our time. We are all busy people.

2. ASSOCIATE MEMBER:

However, 3-5 people is probably too small to actually run larger events so another 5-7 associate members would be needed to draw upon for specific events.

The commitment from you would be very small. You would be asked to turn up for specific events to help out on the day - probably 1 or 2 times per year.

3. SOCIETY MEMBERS:

There would also need to be a large body of research students who would be willing to turn up to support events that were organised.

The commitment from you at this stage is your e-mail address so I can keep you up to date with what happens. Later on we would ask you to support the events.

4. WEBSITE EDITOR:

We would also need someone with some computer ability to be willing to tend the society website and put events on the notice board.

Do you see yourself as a 1, 2, 3 or 4?

Please contact me by e-mail and advise me if you want to be on the steering committee, an associate member, society member or would be willing to help with the website. Let's hope this gets off the ground.

I'll keep you posted with the response.

Cheers

Shuna Marr

s.a.marr@stir.ac.uk

Wilma Ellis

Research Services Officer

Planning and Research Office

University of Stirling

Stirling

FK9 4LA

Tel: 01786 466691

Fax: 01786466688