With voting in the 2025 PRS Members’ Council ballot now underway, Crispin Hunt has spoken about why PRS members should use this opportunity to make their voices heard.
As PRS is owned and governed by its members, the Members’ Council plays a vital role in shaping the decisions which affect the 175,000-strong membership collective. The annual ballot therefore provides a chance for members to have their say on how their society is run by electing their preferred candidates to the council.
This year’s ballot features 10 writer candidates who are standing for three writer Council Member vacancies on the council, while there are seven publisher candidates standing for four publisher Council Member vacancies.
Speaking about this year’s ballot, Crispin — who was elected as the President of the PRS Members' Council back in December — explained: ‘Voting in the Members’ Council ballot is what gives our society its complete credibility, as it’s democratically elected. It gives us the legitimacy as a collective of writers and creators to go out and fight for the value of our rights and copyright.
‘It’s really important that members exercise their vote because it's what makes PRS. Democracy is a key part of our organisation, and it’s our members’ mandate that makes PRS different: we're a collective.’
This year also marks the introduction of the new Voting Plus category, which was approved during the 2024 PRS AGM via a special resolution to adopt new Articles of Association. The new measure aims to increase the impact of writers’ votes in the Members’ Council ballot, with over 4,500 writer members — which equates to more than 10% of all voting PRS members — being promoted to this new category.
Voting Plus members each receive five votes in the Members’ Council ballot, further empowering them to choose the candidates that best represent their views.
‘We’re an enormous organisation with over 175,000 members. Not all of them have a vote, because you have to earn a certain amount in order to be eligible to vote,’ Crispin explained about the new voting change. ‘But the point is that now three or four of you can be as powerful as anyone else.
‘When I've been canvassing or trying to get elected to the Members’ Council before, it was very frustrating to have to go to many of my incredibly hard-working writer colleagues and say, “Will you vote for me?” when you have to get 20 of them to counter the vote of someone else. That’s not to say that the people who've got 20 votes don't deserve 20 votes. I don't think we quite deserve to have 20 times more influence on an election than somebody who's making a decent wage. I hope this change will balance that disparity, and I’m really excited about this year’s election.’
Crispin added that the ‘Voting Plus’ category will ‘enfranchise an enormous amount of people’ within the membership collective.
‘That vote will now have more influence on the future of the society,’ he said. ‘That’s the ethos behind PRS: it’s our society; it’s owned by its members. We’re the good guys, and we can all play a part in the direction it takes.’
You can find out more about the 2025 PRS Members’ Council ballot here.
