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EphMRA Announcement – new Organisational Structure – April 2010

Dear Members

Over the past few months EphMRA has been reviewing how it can be more effectively organised internally to move the Association forward, to support members in their jobs and to deliver added value services. The revised structure of EphMRA would be designed to facilitate the smooth running of the Association and putting processes in place to manage the professionals now undertaking specific roles for the Association.

The EphMRA General Secretary (Bernadette Rogers) has been given higher levels of responsibility and new management tasks.

All those working in member support functions eg Committee Support, PR, Engagement Officer, PRM&T, Conference Organisers, Code of Conduct, will be centrally co-ordinated by the General Secretary who will manage and co-ordinate the activities.  This is now called the Operating Team.

This is illustrated in the pdf document here.

The essence of this new organisation is as follows:

EphMRA Executive Board

The EphMRA Board will still comprise of the following Full Members:

the current President

the Past President

the Vice President

5 members elected by the Members’ Meeting

All Board members are elected by the members and are voting members.

The remit of the Executive Board is to, working with the EphMRA President, set the strategic agenda for the Association and to advise and make decisions on how the Association should move forward to fulfil and exceed members expectations.  EphMRA remains an Association driven by members for members.

Board Members – Associate Members

Associate Members to be appointed by the Executive Board to advise on strategic issues and to provide fresh ideas and innovative thinking.  These Associate members do not represent the Associate Members Board but participate fully in Board discussions on Association issues.  The Associate Members Board will continue to provide input to the Board on member issues.

EphMRA Treasurer [non voting member of Executive Board]

Responsible for financial welfare of the Association, budgeting and planning for income and expenditure.Liaison with the Association's bankers, UBS in Switzerland and Accountants in Basel. 

General Secretary - Responsible for running the Operations Team and implementing the strategy as defined and outlined by the Board.  Liaises with EphMRA Board, manages external suppliers, conference organiser, External Consultant(s) and the Operating Team and Assistant, as shown on the organisational structure.

Committee Chairs - Members have fed back to the Board that the important work of the Committees should be better showcased and the Committee deliverables made more visible and so to support this regular telecons will be held with Committee Chairs.

External Consultant - EphMRA is seeking to appoint an external Consultant to assist the Association in understanding the challenges facing Members - this includes both pharma (Full) and Associate (agency).  The Association feels that greater and more regular input is needed by Members to the Executive Board so that the strategic direction of the Association can be effectively tailored to meet Members needs.

The person appointed needs to be experienced in the pharmaceutical MR, with sufficient recent pharma (ideally both industry and agency) experience to enable effective running of Member Advisory Boards/depth interviews and feedback with recommendations on the way forward and steps to support implementation of ideas generated, for the Board to consider. 

More details on the Operating Team

Caroline Snowdon – Conference support and general Committee Support - Works with all the speakers and sessions chairs, manages the paper reviews and web exes, supports speakers getting their presentations ready, supports PRMT with masterclass organisation, attends the conference and manages the speakers onsite.  Also gives general support to any other Committee on an ad hoc basis.

Catherine Ayland – Code of Conduct - Developed the new Code of Conduct and works in conjunction with the Steering Group and Ethics Group.  Answers questions via the Enquiry service, will assess suggested revisions to the Code and incorporates any amendments. 

Fiona Lake – Engagement Officer - Recently appointed to facilitate Full Member feedback and provide an independent link between members and the Board.  Contacts FMs and discusses their views towards EphMRA and its initiatives.

Sandra McAuliffe - PRM&T Chair - Chairs the training committee which covers face to face and online delivery as well as the Conference masterclasses.  Runs the Committee which comprises Full and Associate Members, committee members convene the courses and define the content.

Jo Butcher - PR - A freelance PR consultant, Jo has developed the Full Members slide set with EphMRA – this is a short Powerpoint deck which conveys the benefits to a company of being involved with EphMRA.  PR is a new initiative for EphMRA with the aim being to tie a communication piece into each activity as appropriate.  The aim is to link in a PR activity to each event/initiative – be it writing email text/Newsletter text/activity updates to members etc. 

MCI  - Based in Geneva, MCI are the professional conference organisers which are engaged for 2009 – 2011 conferences right now.  They take care of all the logistics and registrations etc for the conference whilst EphMRA prepares the content.

General Secretary Assistant - This will be a General Secretary Assistant to undertake admin work, Yearbook work, and some tasks currently undertaken by the General Secretary.