I'm not sure, when dealing with bodies like the PC, that you can make a real
distinction between what the senior civil servants think and what the body
itself thinks. I am only passing on what has been reported to Council and
to the Professional Practice Committee when the matter was raised. Can you
quote any professional body with a royal charter whose non-chartered members
may vote? Being able to cite a direct precedent always gets your civil
servant excited.
Tony (also not 22, sadly)
Tony McSeán
Director of Library Relations
Elsevier
+44 7795 960516
+44 20 7611 4413
-----Original Message-----
From: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Briggs
Sent: 07 November 2005 11:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Tony liberation and Affiliates
Mcsean, Tony (ELS-OXF) wrote:
>
> At the moment, the level of services provided to affiliates (and
> therefore their cost of membership) is very much the same as for
> chartered members. This is basically unfair particularly to librarians
> whose salary development has been less fruitful than Guardian Tony's -
> who are effectively subsidising affiliate membership. Hence the price
> hike.
And the reason low-paid chartered members are subsidising affiliates is the
move towards flat-rate subscriptions - the subsidising is no longer being
done by the highly-paid.
> Interestingly in the light of Ian's comments, the big difference
> between affiliate and chartered membership is that only chartered
> members are allowed to vote in Cilip elections. Many people in Cilip
> would like to change this (no taxation without representation etc) but
> the Privy Council, which grants and oversees Royal Charters to the
> rest of us, is very strongly of the opinion that professional bodies
> which certify members by a chartering process must be run by its
> chartered membership and none others. This may change over time, but
> in the views of those in Cilip who have deal with PC matters this
> isn't going to happen any time soon.
The "Privy Council" have no such opinion. You are, of course, quoting the
civil servants in the Privy Council Office, who have a habit of pretending
to knowledge and expertise that they do not possess - I think they just say
(with suave confidence) the first thing that comes into their heads. I can
give a concrete example: the IIS once approached the Privy Council Office
about applying for a Royal Charter, and were told that they do not grant
them to two bodies in the same field. This is, of course, complete nonsense
- they probably just meant that the LA had objected.
John Briggs
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