Hustings recordings now available to listen again

Recordings of the live election hustings that were held on 19 March are now available to listen again via The Webinar Vet website.

If you didn’t know about the hustings, or were still at work when the event was broadcast, then you still have chance to hear what the candidates had to say and which of the questions posed by members of the profession they chose to answer.

It was a very interesting and worthwhile hour, and certainly gave a very different impression of some of the candidates than their written profiles did.

Heather Briggs MRCVS

Each candidate’s answers are available individually as three-minute recordings – the time limit they were given on the night – so you can pick and choose who to listen to if you don’t have time to hear them all.

A total of 262 people registered for the free webinar, which was kindly run free of charge by The Webinar Vet, although only 116 people actually tuned in on the night.

“This was a new venture for the College in our ongoing attempts to engage more members in the annual elections, and whilst the number of listeners was lower than we were hoping for, we hope the listen again option will enable a lot more people to hear what the candidates had to say,” says RCVS Registrar Gordon Hockey.

“The spoken, rather than the written, word can give quite a different insight into someone, so I would encourage all veterinary surgeons to listen to the recordings before casting their vote.”

Feedback received so far from listeners has been positive, too. “It was a very interesting and worthwhile hour, and certainly gave a very different impression of some of the candidates than their written profiles did,” said veterinary surgeon Heather Briggs, adding: “It influenced how I shall vote and hopefully it will have also increased the number of people who vote this year. Overall, superb - I hope become a regular feature of the RCVS elections.”

The full list of questions and summary slides of the candidates are also available via The Webinar Vet.

Votes may be cast online, by text or by post and should be received no later than 5pm on Friday, 26 April 2013.