8th March 2006, 05:31 PM
Personally I would not have said the role of a professional institute is to act as kind of store discount card. I would be saddened and disillusioned if that was the case. Certainly as a fringe benefit it may be able to negotiate some discounts for economy of scale, as it does for insurance for example.
I don't know about other professions but I doubt very much if the RIBA ever did a great deal, if anything, about levels of pay. That is a matter for an employer and an employee, who may both be professionals and may both be members of their professional body. I wouldn't asume that all architects and related professions are on huge salaries and all equal either. It depends on your ability and experience, who you work for and where, in what particular field, and the state of the economy at the time. There was huge unemployment in the profession, and very low salaries, in the old boom-bust days.
For myself, I went to quite some trouble to apply as a humble affiliate for the primary reason that I wished to associate myself with a code of conduct, thus making a public commitment to conduct myself in a certain manner. To me, that is what professionalism is all about.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
I don't know about other professions but I doubt very much if the RIBA ever did a great deal, if anything, about levels of pay. That is a matter for an employer and an employee, who may both be professionals and may both be members of their professional body. I wouldn't asume that all architects and related professions are on huge salaries and all equal either. It depends on your ability and experience, who you work for and where, in what particular field, and the state of the economy at the time. There was huge unemployment in the profession, and very low salaries, in the old boom-bust days.
For myself, I went to quite some trouble to apply as a humble affiliate for the primary reason that I wished to associate myself with a code of conduct, thus making a public commitment to conduct myself in a certain manner. To me, that is what professionalism is all about.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.