The SPCS’s leadership structure is modeled after the interdisciplinary palliative care team and is inspired by swarm intelligence principles. Notably, we have no president or other hierarchy within our Council.  We aim to utilize our diverse viewpoints, individual skill sets and passions to solve problems by pooling our knowledge and processing our ideas through social interactions. Much like what happens within a colony of honey bees, this process far exceeds the efficiency and problem-solving ability of a more-typical hierarchical structure and allows all of us to benefit from a more creative, collaborative fellowship.

The Chairman of Cornell’s Entomology Department, Dr. Tom Seeley, has analyzed the collective decision-making by honey bee colonies for decades, and his analysis indicates that a group will possess a high level of swarm intelligence if among the group’s members there is: 

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• A diversity of knowledge about the available options

• An open and honest sharing of information about the options

• Independence in the members’ evaluations of the options

• Unbiased aggregation of the members’ opinions on the options

• Leadership that fosters, but does not dominate the discussion

To learn more about how the Society functions, please review the  Constitution and Bylaws.