Botched & Dire Advice
Well, its that time of the year when the smell of a drying wet dog permeates the house. The leaves are turning. The Fall is here as our colleagues across the pond might note.
The disturbing, but perhaps not unexpected, news this week is that the BDA are experiencing their own Autumnal Fall. This has of course galvanised the bar-room gaggle into snap analysis and quick fixing over a pint. Whoa Trigger. If only it were that easy!
It seems that the fancy new 3 tier membership has resulted in a wallet voting rush for web-BDA only. Which bit of the “Rollup, save £300” message did the membership FAIL to get? The story goes that the wide-red-braced management consultant’s expected, cosy, even split of membership from “Basic” through to “Free Conference Tickets for all” levels has not materialised. Well, quelle surpise.
There has been what one must assume is a catastrophic fall in membership income, and already barely three months later redundancies are taking place. Lifeboats and the Costa Concordia come to mind. Abandon ship, or merely muster at lifeboat stations? Time will shortly tell.
So what is the message here? Some ¾ of the membership of about 18000 are understood to have elected for no personal contact with the BDA. That may be the reality of distant and isolate practice– one hopes… But of course it might be more of a vote of no-confidence.
But the 18000 HAVE signed up to 60 hours of vCPD [I wonder how many will actually take that up]. They HAVE signed up for library and journal access. And they HAVE signed up for soopah- doopah web access to 5000 pages of dental whatever. You could of course try Google for free and save another £300.
Perhaps more pertinent in these times - They HAVE signed up to Trades Union support.
Is it me? The new membership have declined the offer of a free conference ticket, and by and large rejected the Expert practice and management support package and yet signed up in the main to the very bit the BDA hardly excels at – representation at government level. Even then, in the basic package, all support will have to be ‘on line’. Joy.
The BDA seem to have shot themselves in the foot with this new membership and then left themselves with the only remaining task of running the marathon of representation. In rugby parlance, a hospital pass.
Maybe this new membership split IS a vote after all …
Maybe we will now have a Trade Union with balls.