An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

90A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILAn Institution Working Group on Regional Affairs, Chaired by Dr John C Williams,Secretary of the IEE, was set up in 1995 to examine a potential structure, roles andresponsibilities for a possible nationwide regional organisation covering all the Institutions.Although well intentioned, unfortunately this was to end in disaster as we shall explain later.The Register and CommunicationsAt the beginning of this 1991-1995 period, the EngC’s staff and Registrants continued tothink and look outwards and the 7 th Engineering Assembly, held at Lancaster University on22/23 July 1991, bore the theme ‘Europe into the Next Century’. There were four keynotespeeches and at the conclusion a formal statement on ‘Opportunities for British Industry inEurope’ was approved, urging British companies to grasp opportunities offered by the SingleEuropean Market. A Registration-Industry Affiliation Working Party, set up this year,developed a strategy for recruitment of individuals and companies. A recruitment drive wasscheduled for launch in 1992.Registrants’ fees were confirmed in 1991 as free from VAT by HM Customs and Excise.‘The Ivanhoe Guide to the Engineering Profession’, first issued in 1989, as we saw inChapter 4, proved so popular that it was published again in association with the EngC, thoughnow by Charles Letts with 226 pages at £9.95 - first in November 1991 and then inNovember 1992, October 1993, October 1994 and October 1995 as year books for thesubsequent year. Despite a change in publisher from ‘Ivanhoe’, its familiar title was retainedas one in the series of guides to professionals such as Chartered Accountants, Actuaries, andChartered Surveyors.The regular series of surveys of engineers’ salaries and activities that had been inherited fromthe CEI continued in April 1992 with the same title as in 1989, viz, ‘Survey of CharteredEngineers, Incorporated Engineers and Engineering Technicians’ and now priced at £130. Itmay be recalled that the first Survey published by the EngC in 1983 sold for £15. The 1992Survey showed that engineers’ pay continued to increase at a rate in excess of the Retail PriceIndex and of the Average Earnings Index. It also showed that nearly three-quarters ofengineers were undertaking some form of CPD - as we explain in more detail below. Overallthe survey concluded that the profession as a whole combined financial rewards, intellectualchallenge and a determination to keep pace with current developments. Then, after a threeyearbreak, the survey next appeared in October 1995 with the modified title “Survey ofProfessional Engineers and Technicians” and sold for £95. The survey, now undertaken byElectoral Reform Ballot Services, again showed positive attitudes and improved salaries forengineers. Indeed, since the previous survey the average salaries had again increased by morethan the rate of inflation over the same period. Extracts from the survey were reported in theDaily Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail, Financial Times, trade magazines andInstitution journals.The introduction of an attractive and advanced web site, hyper-linked to all related bodieswas another key step in modernising the EngC image and practices, useful not only toRegistrants but also anyone seeking more information on the profession of engineering.Nevertheless, portraying the advantages of Institution membership and registration with theEngC was always a problem area. Council member James McHugh wrote:“I became actively involved with the work of committees and advisory groups. Onecommittee with which I was involved set out to improve the recruitment of Registrants.© Engineering Council UK 2004