The Ceremonies Sub-committee (C/Sc) exists to create, maintain and extend the provision of a range of Ceremonies, conducted by Celebrants registered with the Humanist Society of Scotland.  It is answerable to the Board of Trustees via its Celebrants and clients, both as members and non-members, whom it serves. It also acts in conformance with the requirements of the Society’s charitable status. 

The committee consists of a National Co-ordinator, two Assistant Co-ordinators (job share) and four Regional Co-ordinators (two of whom job share), all of whom are elected into post by the Celebrants.  Our Training Manager has recently been co-opted into the Sub-committee.

The S/c is responsible for ensuring that all ceremonies are of a high standard, and that the Society’s good relationships with organisations concerned with our services are maintained.  For example, maintaining contact with the Registrar General on issues concerning Legal Weddings, and producing, collating and acting on information from questionnaires routinely circulated to Funeral Directors whilst maintaining a relationship with them to the benefit of the Society.

The S/c is also responsible for keeping the Celebrant network informed of what is happening, the organising of meetings, both regular regional and annual national Celebrants Gatherings.  It also responds to approaches about the ceremonies service, acting as a central point of contact for those enquiring about them.  A large part of the CS/c’s work is in inviting and collating the quarterly Celebrant returns, which document their activity on which they pay a fee of 10% of their self-employed earnings to the Society, requiring liaison with the Treasurer.  The statistics from these returns are subject to detailed analysis, allowing the planning of growth and recruitment needs.

The whole team, under the guidance of the Training Manager, administers the recruitment of new celebrants, usually prioritised on a regional requirements basis.  Beyond the initial training undertaken by all Celebrants, the C/Sc also monitors celebrant performance to ensure standards are continually maintained.  Continually enhancing our practice led us in 2007 to the provision of 5 separate training courses on various aspects of ceremonies work.

The C/Sc oversee disciplinary and complaints procedures, and continually review its standards to ensure current compliance with regulations on issues such as discrimination, data protection, and our legal obligations to the Registrars Office.

The S/c works with the Treasurer in the preparing and monitoring of budgets and in concert with the Media & Publications Sub-committee, undertakes appropriate marketing and advertising, maintaining awareness of competitive ceremonies activity.  Information leaflets, folders and stationery are also produced for the Celebrants use.

Members of this sub-committee are elected by the HSS Celebrants. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .