President

The responsibilities of the Society’s President are as follows:

• Remaining in post for two years, they should attend as many of the Society’s meetings as possible.
• Cooperating with the Honorary Secretary to set the meeting agendas.
• Chairing Council Meetings and the Annual General Meeting.
• Giving the main display at the annual Conference.
• Providing the President’s Prize at the Conference Banquet.
• Encouraging members to show their collections at meetings.
• Being a focal point for the Society, being available for all the members of the Society, supported by the Council as appropriate.
• Acting as a “sounding board” for proposed ideas to sustain and grow the Society for the benefit of members and the wider collecting community.
• Putting forward the name of their successor.

Immediate Past President

The responsibilities of the Society’s Immediate Past President are as follows:

• Remaining in post for 1 year, they should attend as many of the Society’s meetings as possible.
• Chairing the Annual General Meeting if the President is absent.
• Advising the President in putting forward the name of the President’s successor.
• Assisting with the selection of the winner of the Steve Ellis Medal.

Secretary

The responsibilities of the Society’s Honorary Secretary are as follows:

• Drawing up the agenda for the Council’s meetings and the Annual General Meeting in cooperation with the chairman.
• Writing minutes for the Council’s meetings and the AGM and distributing them to members.
• Keeping a record of minutes from previous AGMs and Council meetings on file.
• Dealing with Society correspondence by email and letter if necessary and keeping a record of the correspondence on file.
• Organising Society events in conjunction with other Council members.
• Maintaining a copy of the constitution.
• Organising exhibitors for the monthly Zoom meetings, sending out invitations to all members and running the meetings.
• Supporting other Council members to suggest ideas to sustain and grow the Society for the benefit of members and the wider collecting community.

Publicity Officer

The Publicity Officer is responsible for the following activities:

• Publicising Society events through various media channels, including the ABPS, the Society’s Website, the Society’s Journal, and the Society’s Facebook group.
• Publicising the Society using advertisements/articles in show brochures and philatelic magazines.

Membership Secretary

The role of the Membership Secretary is to perform the following:

• Field enquiries about membership of the Society.
• Send out membership application forms and payment options if required.
• Circulate new member applications to the Council.
• Communicate with new members regarding their application.
• Upload new member details onto the Membership Database on the Society’s website.
• Upload any membership changes to the Membership Database, including all subscriptions received.
• Liaise with the Webmaster for subscription reminders.
• Liaise with the Treasurer for payment updates and for supplying a year end summary.
• Liaise with the Journal Editor for membership updates.

Treasurer

The role of the Treasurer is to perform the following:

• To hold and manage the Society’s bank, building society and online payment accounts as first named account holder and contact.
• To collect and bank as necessary payments to the Society made to other members of Council in their various roles.
• To arrange the payment of debts incurred by the Society.
• To pay Council members’ appropriate expenses incurred through their duties.
• To invoice and collect payments from advertisers in the Society’s journal Postal History.
• To keep sufficient accounting records to allow an annual set of accounts to be prepared.
• To use the accounting records to prepare an annual set of accounts comprising a Balance Sheet and an Income and Expenditure Account for submission to an Independent Examiner.
• To present the prepared accounts to Council as soon after the year end as practicable and subsequently, with an accompanying Treasurer’s Report, to the membership for approval at the AGM.
• To report to Council as required on the current financial state of the Society and its financial prospects moving forward.

Webmaster

The Webmaster serves as the primary contact for all aspects of the Society’s website, handling a range of responsibilities that may include web design and development, routine site and content maintenance, and various updates to ensure the site aligns with the goals and objectives of the Society.

Thus, the Webmaster is responsible for maintaining and managing the website and server to meet the Society’s needs. They ensure the functionality, security, and efficiency of the web infrastructure, seeking to optimize loading speeds, fixing issues, and updating website content. The Webmaster also addresses user complaints, collaborates with Council members, and delivers a functional and user-friendly website.

The Webmaster often hosts the Society’s Zoom meetings, and produces a video recording, including editing the video to ensure it is in a user-friendly format. In connection with this, the Webmaster maintains a YouTube channel where the videos of the Society’s Zoom meetings are stored that can be linked from the website. The Webmaster also acts as one of the Administrators on the Society’s FaceBook group, including posting the meeting videos for viewing by the members of the group.

Journal Editor

The Editor’s role is to produce the Society’s journal Postal History four times a year, in March, June, September and December. For this, knowledge of a publishing software such as Indesign is essential. The key activities undertaken are as follows:

• Liaise with advertisers to try to maintain enough advertising to pay for printing, and prompt for advertisements for each issue.
• Persuade members to write articles and liaise with the articles’ authors.
• Prompt for other elements of the journal, specifically:
  • President’s musings
  • Details of new members
  • Website updates
  • Library notes
  • Book reviews
  • Auction information.
• Produce flyers for meetings.
• Produce flyers for new publications.
• Liaise with the printer, check proofs, make any alterations and resend to the printer, recheck the proofs and approve the final version.
• Promptly respond to members’ requests that have been emailed.
• Send an electronic copy of the journal to the Webmaster once the Journal has gone to press.
• Send back numbers of the Journal to new members joining during the year.

The Journal Editor also acts as one of the Administrators on the Society’s FaceBook group.

Librarian

The Librarian is responsible for the following activities:

• To house the Society’s library, currently on moveable shelving owned by the Society amounting to 66 x 3ft. shelves.
• To keep a record of books borrowed by members and to chase up returns within six months.
• To post out books requested by email – postage both ways paid by the member borrowing the book(s). If a book is valuable or rare, then special delivery is used.
• To take new titles and any books requested by members to meetings and conference.
• To receive new books donated and to write, or arrange to be written, a review for the journal.
• To purchase new titles as appropriate that are relevant to significant topics of postal history.
• To list all new arrivals on the website catalogue.
• To list articles in reciprocal journals that might interest members and to store new journals for upto one year.
• To arrange for the Society’s journal to be bound every four years.

Auction Manager

The role of the Auction Manager is to manage and operate the Society’s auction on behalf of Council for the benefit of the members, within the framework of the published Auction Rules. The key activities undertaken are as follows:

• Collate and advertise the auction.
• Oversee collection and dispersal of material for the auction.
• Produce an auction list and liaise with the Journal Editor on its publication in the Society’s journal prior to the annual conference.
• Liaise with the Society’s Treasurer on all financial matters including auction expenses, payments to vendors and from successful bidders.
• Produce the necessary paperwork to enable correlation between bidders and vendors.
• Aid relatives of deceased members in formulating a disposal plan for collections and report outcomes to Council.

Assistant Webmaster

The Council may appoint a member to act as the assistant to the Webmaster.

The Assistant Webmaster works closely with the Webmaster on all aspects of the Society’s website, handling a range of responsibilities that may include web design and development, routine site and content maintenance, and various updates to ensure the site aligns with the goals and objectives of the Society.

Thus, the Assistant Webmaster shares the responsibility for maintaining and managing the website and server to meet the Society’s needs. They help ensure the functionality, security, and efficiency of the web infrastructure, seeking to optimize loading speeds, fixing issues, and updating website content. Assisting the Webmaster they also address user complaints, collaborate with Council members, and deliver a functional and user-friendly website.