IfA - A Chartered Institute

[barkingdigger]

This is an interesting thread - I wonder if the same debate occurred at the birth of the RIBA, RICS, etc? Chartered Institutions all affect who can and can't work in their professions, and are probably controlled by the top 3% of managers/directors who run the bigger firms (just like in IFA), but for better or worse folks wanting to get on in those professions wind up trying to get in because it opens doors regardless of how much they "like" the institution! If IFA gets itself chartered and eventually gets to influence employment as predicted, the simple choice for most diggers will be to join or to be excluded. I'm sure it will remain a controversial organisation, with internal fights and calls for it to serve the common digger better, but show me any big institution without these ongoing power-struggle problems. Of course, part of the reason the top 3% run the show is because many of the 97% are only in it to get the necessary letters after their name, and are not necessarily keen to raise their voices...

The IFA cannot now police its own policies because it has no real authority. Getting chartered status would be a step on the road to the necessary authority, so I wouldn't expect to see any "teeth" growing until the whole chartered business bedded in. I fully expect that achieving member status will get tougher too, as the institution matures. (But aren't we already well past the much-quoted era of the "self-certified MIFA"? I thought the remnant who wouldn't provide evidence got relegated to Honourary status.)