2nd March 2006, 02:05 PM
I have to agree with 1man 1desk and beamo
A couple of points sort of my own
First ? please don?t confuse hits to a website with the number of people accessing it ? there are an awful lot of robots roaming the data streams of cyberspace? You may achieve a clearer idea on how many people are using the message board by calculating the number of ?reads? to ?replys? remembering the same person my read the same topic several times as well?
Next setting up a new organisation. This seems to get mooted every few years! My first response is to echo 1 man 1 desk?
Off the top of my head the setting up of a new organisation may present some very practical difficulties ?here is a far from exhaustive list:
you would need to organise some open meetings around the country for like minded people to meet and discuss the nature of this organisation.
You would then have to elect a working party to construct a constitution on how the group would work. You would then have to have another meeting in order to inaugurate the new body and officially elect its officers.
Then you would have to have a mechanism to agree a strategy and give a visible democratic mandate to the organisation to pursue that strategy.
Costs so far would include travel and possible living expenses for the officers of the organisation (the UK is a large place), the cost of venues for meetings, advertising, communications and other overheads. It would also be important to have access to reliable legal advice.
Now you will be able to start lobbying various bodies for greater pay. This will involve costs involved in letter writing, attending meetings, reviewing the agreed strategy and implementing any changes required because the world is mot static. To be done effectively this cannot really be a part time post.
In order to give your organisation more clout you need to persuade a lot of people to join you ? in which case you will need support overheads to keep lists of members, who is up to date with their membership fees, communicating through various magazines and web sites perhaps?
You may realise that there are a number of parallel issues the membership wants you to explore in detail ? some of these may be specialist issues so perhaps committees could be formed of volunteers t explore these area and report back to the group as a whole with recommendation based on their researches.
500 people, or 8% of the profession with a ?5000 a year income ?
What will it be spent on?
Newsletter? ? About ?1000
Travel? How many meetings a year how many people in committees? A peak return to London from where I live costs ?100?
Stationary? Printing? Postage?
Venue hire? Website?
If you are not an IFA member why not join the diggers forum for ?5 a year?
A couple of points sort of my own
First ? please don?t confuse hits to a website with the number of people accessing it ? there are an awful lot of robots roaming the data streams of cyberspace? You may achieve a clearer idea on how many people are using the message board by calculating the number of ?reads? to ?replys? remembering the same person my read the same topic several times as well?
Next setting up a new organisation. This seems to get mooted every few years! My first response is to echo 1 man 1 desk?
Off the top of my head the setting up of a new organisation may present some very practical difficulties ?here is a far from exhaustive list:
you would need to organise some open meetings around the country for like minded people to meet and discuss the nature of this organisation.
You would then have to elect a working party to construct a constitution on how the group would work. You would then have to have another meeting in order to inaugurate the new body and officially elect its officers.
Then you would have to have a mechanism to agree a strategy and give a visible democratic mandate to the organisation to pursue that strategy.
Costs so far would include travel and possible living expenses for the officers of the organisation (the UK is a large place), the cost of venues for meetings, advertising, communications and other overheads. It would also be important to have access to reliable legal advice.
Now you will be able to start lobbying various bodies for greater pay. This will involve costs involved in letter writing, attending meetings, reviewing the agreed strategy and implementing any changes required because the world is mot static. To be done effectively this cannot really be a part time post.
In order to give your organisation more clout you need to persuade a lot of people to join you ? in which case you will need support overheads to keep lists of members, who is up to date with their membership fees, communicating through various magazines and web sites perhaps?
You may realise that there are a number of parallel issues the membership wants you to explore in detail ? some of these may be specialist issues so perhaps committees could be formed of volunteers t explore these area and report back to the group as a whole with recommendation based on their researches.
500 people, or 8% of the profession with a ?5000 a year income ?
What will it be spent on?
Newsletter? ? About ?1000
Travel? How many meetings a year how many people in committees? A peak return to London from where I live costs ?100?
Stationary? Printing? Postage?
Venue hire? Website?
If you are not an IFA member why not join the diggers forum for ?5 a year?