Launch of MetroMOLA

[Jack]

And obviously in a different dimension from the world where MAP2 (and later guidelines) guides managment

[GPStone]

That's what he said, Noddy Land! Have you never been? :p

[beamo]

'The whole lot came out of a piecemeal privatised county council system with entities like Network for instance partially originating from post-privatised (previously state-owned) 'consultancies' and other private start-ups and amalgamations slotting in as they started to take advantage of the expanding market. It was a mess which is why there was little consensus and the precedent was set for the same mess we're in now.'

GPS - the first part of your statement regarding the origins of the units that operate as charities is broadly correct, but I'm not sute about the link to Network. My recollection is that this was established as a purely private sector company and still operates as such.

U01 - regarding your comments on what the charity units have done with their lovely profits, back when I worked for one of these units any 'operating surplus' as it was known (charities do not have 'profits') was ploughed back into the business by way of equipment, training etc (even wage increases in very good years). Charity laws restrict the amout of cash that can be held back as a reserve.

Having said above that charities cannot retain large cash reserves, surely one of the answers to the discussion about overdrafts and a company's expenditure being 25% more than income is that companies with cash reserves do not need to negotiate overdrafts, they are merely drawing down on reserves from the good times.

Beamo

[Unitof1]

Network was formed out of diggers who had been employed on British Gas pipelines when it was split up into National grid and mostly carried on with the same standards that it had when it was a state owned industry in the gas pipeline industry. Its peculiarity was to work with the dti (or what ever it is now) as the authorising authority which basically means no authority.

Beamo -I don?t think that the charity units ever made any lovely profits. In gpstone terms they are a non profit making organisation. If you care to name the organisation that you used to work for we might be able to re-glass your rose tinted spectacles.

And now for my essay on ?Reports? and charity units and ?doing archaeology? or maybe we should start with ?if you mean consistent research that has subsequently been fully funded, comprehensively undertaken and fully published to a high standard, then I can't see to much of an issue.?. I think we might also try and get that other charity unit in eh with its meaningless map thingy.

[P Prentice]

and i for one feel all the better knowing that you are out there as an ambassador unit

[Unitof1]

it sells its self

[GPStone]

GPS - the first part of your statement regarding the origins of the units that operate as charities is broadly correct, but I'm not sute about the link to Network. My recollection is that this was established as a purely private sector company and still operates as such.

It was indeed formed as a purely private entity for commercial purposes, but Unit has identified exactly what I was getting at. They didn't shoe-horn/build their way into the sector through what you might think of as a normal start-up route.

Having said above that charities cannot retain large cash reserves, surely one of the answers to the discussion about overdrafts and a company's expenditure being 25% more than income is that companies with cash reserves do not need to negotiate overdrafts, they are merely drawing down on reserves from the good times.

Beamo

That's essentially right, providing they don't make losses. However, all self-respecting business directors will ensure they have credit facilities in place as fall-backs and even highly profitable businesses will rely on them to provide short-term cash cover for operating costs as they move profit around the business - the larger the business the more they might well rely on them regardless of their profit as the longer the tenticles of the various operating arms, the harder it is to reclaim cash or move it to where its needed at short notice. I would expect most of the larger businesses in archaeology will have relied heavily on these sorts of arrangements over the past couple of years as the shrinking market has progressively eaten into their cash reserves on a month to month basis and any form of restructuring as we've seen at a number of the larger firms will require intial investment/outlay which might require an overdraft or similar to cover it before reaping any subsequent financial 'reward', if it isn't simply about making the business viable at a basic level.