Following a lengthy appointment process, the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS) and the British Humanist Association (BHA) are pleased today to be able to announce the members of the AHS’s new Board, which was formed after the AHS was reconstituted at its 2010 AGM in July. The new Board, which replaces the AHS’s old Board of Trustees, has ultimate management responsibility for the AHS, including management responsibility for the AHS’s financial state.
The Board consists of the President of the AHS (currently Richy Thompson), the Chief Executive of the BHA (Andrew Copson), up to three members appointed by the trustees of the BHA, and up to four members appointed by the AHS executive. The BHA have decided to make two appointments and the AHS three, leaving one slot empty on each side. The BHA’s appointments are Norman Ralph and Jenna Catley, the two former Presidents of the AHS. The AHS’s appointments are Alex Gibson, a trustee of the AHS on the AHS’s old board, David Pollock, President of the European Humanist Federation and trustee of the BHA, and Andrew West, BHA member and official photographer of the BHA.
AHS President Richy Thompson commented, ‘I am very pleased with the five appointments made to the Board. The fact that the BHA’s appointees both come from the AHS, and that two of the AHS’s appointees come from the BHA, reflects the spirit of cooperation that continues to flourish between the AHS and the BHA, especially since the AHS’s recent reconstitution, which also sees the AHS facilitated and supported by the BHA. The AHS executive looks forward to working with the Board over the remaining ten months of our terms in office.’
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘The AHS has an ambitious mission – a society on every campus in the UK – and we are proud to work with them to achieve that aim.’
Board member biographies
Richy Thompson is the third and current President of the AHS. He was the founder and first President of the Oxford Atheist Society, as well as a former President of Oxford Secular Society and coordinator of the first Oxford Think Week. He was the first south-east Regional Rep of the AHS, before becoming the AHS’s Press Officer and then becoming the third President. He is also currently Oxford Atheists’ AHS Rep. Richy has recently completed a degree in computer science at the University of Oxford, and is now interning at the British Humanist Association.
Andrew Copson became Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association in January 2010 after five years coordinating the BHA’s education and public affairs work. He is a former director of the European Humanist Federation (EHF) and is currently a Vice President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), where he leads on strategic alliances and is a member of the growth and development committee. Andrew has supported the activities of the AHS since inception and was a member of the AHS’s old Board of Trustees, before the AHS was reconstituted at the 2010 AGM.
Jenna Catley is a D.Phil. student in Education at the University of Oxford, having studied Law and Politics at Keele University and the University of Bristish Columbia in Canada. Whilst at Keele she was heavily involved in student representation, and student societies including the Critical Legal Group, of which she was Secretary and then President. Jenna went on to found the Keele Activist Support Network in the hope of embedding student activist support structures within the institution and later designed and taught an undergraduate Politics module on Active Citizenship. In 2007, she founded the first Keele University Humanist Group and she has also served as Oxford Atheist Society’s AHS Rep from 2008-10 and Welfare Officer from 2010 onwards. In 2008 Jenna served as the first AHS Secretary, and her 2009-10 AHS presidency culminated in a redrafted AHS constitution introducing structural change designed to empower and enable the organisation to flourish with the support of the BHA.
Alex Gibson is a former President and Secretary of the Oxford Secular Society and an intermittently published writer. He helped set up the AHS, was the AHS’s first Director of Membership and is the Editor of the AHS’s Secular Future magazine. He was also a Trustee on the old AHS Board of Trustees, and his carrying across to being a member of the new AHS Board resultantly seemed a very natural one. He has always believed that students are a lot more passionate than people give them credit for, and is very happy to be associated with an organisation that is going to prove it.
David Pollock is the President of the European Humanist Federation, and a member of the BHA Board of Trustees. Back in the 1960s he was also heavily involved of the University Humanist Federation, effectively the predecessor organisation to the AHS. He also served as Secretary and President of the Oxford University Humanist Group, which at its peak was the largest student society in Oxford at the time, getting over 1200 people turn up to one event. Now retired, David campaigns for Humanism full-time, and has supported the AHS since inception.
Norman Ralph is the founding President of the AHS. Norman is a member of Leeds Atheist Society and has served four years on their committee, having been the Secretary, President and AHS Rep. The AHS was founded during his tenure as Leeds President, and having drafted the AHS’s first constitution, Norman was subsequently elected as the AHS’s first President. Norman’s time in charge saw the AHS hold its press launch, at which he spoke alongside Andrew Copson, Polly Toynbee, A C Grayling and Richard Dawkins. A keen debater, Norman is always prepared to speak his mind on all things.
Andrew West is the BHA’s Official Photographer, having photographed their events for the past two years. He is also a student at the University of Westminster, currently entering the final year of his photography degree, and is hoping to finally teach his tutors the difference between ‘humanist’ and ‘humorist’. Andrew photographed the AHS’s first Conference – the press launch – in Conway Hall in February 2009, and the AHS’s second Conference in February 2010. Subsequently to this he helped organise Questival, also serving as photographer for that event.
Notes
For comment or information, contact Richy Thompson, AHS President, at president@ahsstudents.org.uk, or Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive, on 020 3675 0959 or andrew@humanists.uk.
The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies is the umbrella organisation for all non-religious student societies in institutes of higher education across the UK. The AHS’s vision is a thriving atheist, humanist or secular student society in every institute of higher education in the UK, networked together, with a shared voice in public life, whose members can contribute to and be part of the wider national and international movement. The AHS’s mission to build, support and represent atheist, humanist and secular student societies; to facilitate communication between them, to encourage joint actions and to ensure that their members have opportunities to be part of the wider national and international movement.
The British Humanist Association is the national charity representing and supporting the interests of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.
The AHS is facilitated and supported by the BHA.