It seems the CIPR election is an event that causes me to dust off the blog and give voice to an opinion. So - with the acknowledgement that I have been the most inactive of bloggers, and a promise that I will try to do better - here we go again.
This year's CIPR election features very different candidates. One new, one returning.
This will be the third time my friend Lionel Zetter has stood for election. The first time he beat me but I bear him no ill will. I had my turn two years later. The second time Lionel stood (last year) he lost out to Sue Wolstenholme.
The other candidate is Miti Ampona. I do not know Miti as well as I know Lionel but I got the chance to meet with her and see her in action when I hosted the CIPR TV debate between the two candidates.
I was cast in the role of independent host, rather than inquisitor. That was just as well because I would have found it very difficult to stay on the fence as an interrogator rather than the conduit for questions from those watching.
Let me explain why.
Lionel's platform is a populist one. It is about working closer with other industry bodies - notably the PRCA. I am very much in favour of that closer co-operation and of finding ways to act as one voice. Where I differ from Lionel is that I do not support a merger or - to use the term favoured by Lionel in the debate - a "re-unification".
I think that re-unification or merger is a "clarion call" that will have appeal, but that it is ultimately a call that should not be followed and an objective that cannot be delivered.
The CIPR's Chartered status was earned over many years of campaigning. It was a hard-won accolade that Lionel himself describes as our Gold Standard. It is granted by the Privy Council to the CIPR as an organisation. Were the CIPR to merge with the PRCA, the new organisation would not automatically assume that Chartered status. It is not in the gift of the CIPR to transfer it to a new body. My understanding of the situation is that it would almost certainly be lost.
The only way, I believe, for the Charter to remain in force following a re-unification, would not be a merger; but an acquisition of the PRCA by the CIPR. The CIPR would subsume the PRCA and would then need to convert its organisational members into individual members at whatever level was appropriate for each individual. I cannot see that happening in any way.
Let me repeat. I support Lionel's call for greater co-operation between the two parties. But alongside that I would call for more differentiation and areas of clear water between an organisation that it is a professional body for individual members with qualifications, ethics, and lifelong learning at its heart; and a trade body which should be proud of acting in the best commercial and professional interests of its member businesses.
There is plenty of room for co-operation. When I was President I even raised the concept of jointly outsourcing some back office elements of the two organisations. But I always believed we needed two distinct front doors.
Sadly, I think Lionel realises and actually respects the barriers the Charter presents to re-unification. I think for the purposes of winning the election, he is choosing to ignore them and present a simpler message. I think that is misleading and that is why I cannot support him at this election.
Which brings me to Miti. Her performance in the debate, in the #CommsChat on Twitter, and in her election correspondence has been a little idealistic and to my mind underestimates the challenge of one-year Presidency. I know only too well how much your term and your ambitions can be hijacked.
But I do not doubt her ambition or her drive to do "the right thing" and to try to increase the profile and standing of the organisation.
I wish her well in that process and offer my help in any way I can - starting by putting my vote in her camp.
And Lionel, despite the words above - should you win, you too will have my support in striving for a more united profession; as long as we make sure to stop well short of merging and we protect the Chartered status.
