Can I please make an appeal to those members of the list working in the private sector to make your views known (and respond off-list to Bryan if you would like to participate in this discussion further).

 

Over 90% of the activity on the list comes from the public sector, primarily local government and education. This may be a reflection of the fact that the information and networking needs within the private sector are more effectively provided for through industry-specific bodies. Speaking personally, whilst I remain on this list and find some of the discussion interesting and challenging professionally, there is little direct relevance to my day-to-day work. Some of my private-sector colleagues have removed themselves from this list and have allowed their RMS membership to lapse for the same reason i.e. the perception that the RMS is too heavily focussed on the public sector. However, both the RMS and SoA have membership from the private sector and it would be useful to the discussion going forwards to understand what value they perceive in membership of those bodies and any expectations and desires with respect to any potential merger, development of accreditation etc.

 

If the governing bodies of the RMS and SoA do progress merger discussions as suggested (or even just a poll of their members’ views), I believe that inclusion and support of their private sector members needs to be on their agenda.

 

 

Hi David

 

As part of this discussion I have offered to facilitate and gather together the names of those members of the list who are interested in being a part of this imitative for when the list moves on to other topics.  Many of them have contacted me and I will be continuing gathering the interested parties together until the end of this week.