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Re: 12 Good People
Well then if I have to up the Scottish contiguent on the steering committee then I`m in but I have one condition…..
Kwatt starts spelling my name right!!
Barrie
Re: 12 Good People
I forgot Alex, hard to forget Alex I know, but I did. So there’s one more name I’d throw in the ring. 😉
K.
Re: 12 Good People
Best way to ask me would have been pick the phone up, I had a call from another member regards this, didn’t know I was in line. No thanks, up to my neck in work, overworked understaffed and in too many little quangoes as is.
Not only that, at my age, I might be perceived as an old boy as per an existing old boys club.
No offence guys, I know you will manage and I will watch with interest.
Alex
Re: 12 Good People
Okay, so confirmed thus far we have…
- Bryan Williams (r600a)
Lawrence Carey (lawrence)
Chris Chantrell (Penguin45)
Jim Banks (IADOM)
Steve White (aqualectric)
Adrian Welke (washdoctor)
Clive Jameson (clivejameson)
Barrie Munro (bazza500)
Carl Robinson
Anymore raising a paw before we start canvassing?
K.
Re: 12 Good People
Ken if it becomes necessary I will add my name to the options available.
In all honesty though, it makes no difference to me if I am elected or not, I will still do everything I can to assist.
Regards
Jackal
Re: 12 Good People
Thanks.
Here’s my thoughts on this and how to run it, you can agree, disagree or just plain shoot me down in flames…
To be perfectly frank (but call me Frank and I’ll get upset), I’ve had enough of the secret society type way of doing things when it comes to a TA. I don’t think it’s right and I don’t think it does any favours for the strength of the organisation. So, me being me, would suggest that we turn it on its head.
What I’d do is to have three categories if possible as we did with the AC forum, sole trader, mid size (up to 10 employees for example) and large independents (over 10 employees) and vote for two in each if this is possible. If not shorten it to being sole traders (by that I include one engineer plus one of the phone) and multi-engineer businesses.
Doing this offers a spread of opinion and, hopefully as is the intent, a spread of opinion and fair representation for each area of the industry as it appears to us.
Next, I’d open that vote to ALL trade members, not just the subs.
There are several reasons for this, but the most overriding is one of being open and allowing the entire community to become involved so that it’s not just a private little club or seen as such. In other words any trade member can have his or her say in some way. It isn’t giving up any control IMO, it’s being democratic.
The chairperson (to be all politically correct) should be voted on either by the subs only or by the people in the governing body as should any other appointed posts.
Of course just my thoughts, but I do think that it’s a solid foundation on which to build of openness and honesty.
K.
Re: 12 Good People
Firstly Frank oops Ken 😆 , I would prefer to see three categories namely sole trader, up to 10 employees and over 10 employees. This only comes from a personal perspective as my business is a partnership which also employs a part-time book keeper, we both do admin and engineering so we really feel we belong to the sole trader camp and not with the ‘big boys’, but if we used your two category idea we would be lumped in with them. Besides i don’t see having three categories as creating an admin headache, and it might give a little more flexibility over membership rates?
I would definitely want the vote to be open to all traders, after all this is the birth of something new that is intended for all traders. I feel very strongly about that.
As to the chairperson…well I assume we are talking about a steering committee and not an executive council in which case i think i’d be happy to see that nomination coming from the committee itself, after all they have to work with that person, and i feel any combination of the names proposed would give a good mix of representation?
well….there’s my three penneth 😀
Re: 12 Good People
Yep, sorry I was basing it on the number of engineering staff basically, easier to deal with.
Yeah, I just think that being a lot more open is the way to go.
Chairperson, agreed IMO, that’s the way to do it.
K.
Re: 12 Good People
kwatt wrote:Yep, sorry I was basing it on the number of engineering staff basically, easier to deal with.
K.
That’s my point…we have an engineering staff of two, but consider ourselves to be more like sole traders 😉
Re: 12 Good People
I can’t be bothered to paste all the quotes as I need my beauty sleep (no comments 😆 please)
but suffice to say I agree with the open vote to all trade members ,and the trade categories ,and also the vote for chair coming from the executive/steering group (whatever it gets called )
LawrenceRe: 12 Good People
Ah right, sorry I misunderstood. 😕
I dunno, there’s one in every crowd! 😆
TBH I never considered that scenario as usually it goes sole trader>multi-engineer (small)>multi-engineer (large) or at least that’s the way I break the usual structures down.
Free analysis follows…
There’s a huge amount of the sole traders, not as many multi but still small and few large. Probably, at a guess, there’s only thirty companies or so I know of that employ more than about ten engineers, percentage wise in the industry as a whole they are pretty small really but they do a huge volume of work normally. However they do tend to be allied to one particular manufacturer, the vast bulk of them being either Service Force or Whirlpool. Outside of those two networks the large multi-engineer businesses are very rare, I can only think of two in London off the top of my head.
What I’m saying is that, so far as a TA goes they represent only a small proportion of the actual industry and are usually focussed on one particular contract.
Due to this (puts on TA hat) they are often not as important as they are thought to be strategically or as some think that they are. They are almost always in based in high population areas as they need the volume to support their size and are usually, so long as you’re not being too picky, pretty easily replaced by many other businesses surrounding them. They do however offer a one-stop solution in almost every instance in terms of skillset.
In terms of contract work the more important band is the middle one, followed by the sole traders as they offer, generally, a higher level of service as they are more flexible and tend to treat especially low volume contracts well.
ICS scoring carried out by John proves the point and illustrates this brilliantly.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but they are exceptions.
That said, many of the bigger companies are exceptional in their core product areas and would beat many into a cocked hat for service levels, but only on the core products. They also tend to be far more informed in certain areas, such as legislation, due to close working ties with the manufacturers.
The point of telling you all this is to demonstrate that you should not be misled by this big -vs- small argument, each has its place and each has its pros and cons and both often have different outlooks and needs. It is also important, IMO, to understand that both offer extremely good service, but in which areas does differ with the ultimate goal remaining the same.
Hence the need, IMO, to break it up to give a fair representation across the board as well as a better understanding of each particular areas needs as they do differ. But knowing why and where each is coming from is, to me, absolutely essential for all round success.
Hope that explains the rational.
K.
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