Not My College ?

Its almost May, the snowdrops are out, and with the spring comes the annual RCVS begging letter.  When many of the membership are struggling to cope with record costs-of-living, a demand for payment is never welcome, particularly when it has increased by 4% Perhaps if the College hadn't splurged £20 million on their new headquarters (which after more than two years they still haven’t occupied) in the process emptying the contingency fund * which was,  ' built up over a number of years for just such an eventuality,'   or so we're told, the increase might have been absorbed. With more of the profession practicing part-time, shouldn't we be looking at reducing the fees for those working shorter hours ? It would certainly be a more equitable way of doing things but I'm not holding my breath. Empires are being built even as we speak and empires need money, in this case yours.  Where are they putting the throne room     *C on·tin·gency fund  [contingency f...

Gerry Henry, a  regular contributor to Samizdat is standing for election to the RCVS Council (again !). We took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his candidacy. Sam . The electoral process has changed this year, no candidate statement but a series of questions and answers instead. Do you think it's an improvement ? GH . Not really, it reads more like a job application for Morrison's. In the past the Candidate Statement allowed you to introduce and develop an idea, this is just a series of little 200 word puffs that could be entitled, 'why I'm just the best thing since sliced bread.'  The bigger change which you haven't mentioned, is candidates are now only required to answer one question posed by the membership, not two as previously, and they still get to pick the one they answer. Personally I think candidates should have to answer at least four questions, with the two questions most commonly asked by the membership being compulsory. Allowing u...