Page 5 - police world Edition 3 2013
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Police World
Vol 58 No.3 2013
5
Article
Growing our Membership
I now turn my attention to growing our
membership. It is not sufficient to have the
singular ambition of growth, we have to have a
product that is sufficiently attractive to retain
existing members as well as recruit new
members. I suspect that the recent change to
our membership rules will not produce
immediate dividends in terms of recruitment. We
will now have to actively market the IPA to Police
Staff. However from my point of view recruitment
was not the overriding imperative in pursuing the
widening of our membership. For me it was more
about equality and showing respect for our
brothers and sisters in arms.
Police Staff will be one consideration amongst
many for VP Mick Luke. I tasked Mick with
building a framework strategy that will cross cut
the issues of recruitment and retention. Mick led
on a Recruitment and Retention workshop at the
Chairs’ meeting at Torquay. He also gave a
presentation to the full conference as part of his
consultation. He has distributed his draft
strategy and a variety of proposed work streams.
It is absolutely essential that our members and
particularly the elected members who were at
Torquay engage with this process if we are to
achieve anything meaningful. It was pleasing to
note that delegates from 9 Region responded to
the challenge within days of the NCM and are
providing Mick with promotional materials that
will be further developed with the appointed
publicity officers. We need every interested
member to put time out to read and consider
Mick’s draft strategy and provide feedback on
the critical issues of recruitment and retention.
It is not the case that we will be sitting on our
hands awaiting the outcome of Mick’s
consultation and future recommendations. In the
meantime life for IPA goes on. I have already
mentioned Publicity Officers. This is an
initiative that came from the
Communications Team. There is already
evidence of improved recruitment in the
branches and regions that have active
publicity officers. However while we
have in excess of 50 branches there
are currently only 19 Publicity
Officers. Could your Branch benefit
from the appointment of a Publicity
Officer?
Another initiative that has proved
effective in recruiting is the Special
Interest Groups (SIGs). I am inclined
to the view that if we can find even one thing
that can act as a hook we will be much better
placed to recruit and retain many members. SIGs
can provide a greater variety of organised
activities and opportunities to participate. It is
extremely pleasing to report that we currently
have five SIGs and at least one more in the
offing. Two years ago we only had two.
Mark Kernohan is the VP responsible for
supporting SIGs in foundation. Mark provides
both practical and financial support in the early
stages, ensuring that appropriate structures and
processes are in place and that the Group gets
off to the best possible start. If you need more
information on how to go about establishing a
Special Interest Group simply contact Mark at:
I have previously mentioned that I believe that as
a friendship organisation we tend to be over
regulated. To my mind, some rules have had a
negative impact on member activity and have at
times been a cause of upset to otherwise loyal
and hardworking grassroots members.
I had specifically mentioned what I consider to
be the unnecessarily restrictive publicity policy.
Mark recently took over responsibility for the
Communications Team and after reviewing
policies Mark too concluded that elements of
both the Charity and Publicity Directives placed
unnecessary restrictions on members. Delegates
to the most recent NCM unanimously agreed
with Mark and voted to dispense with the Charity
Directive and the restrictive elements of the
Publicity Directive.
Mark is also our lead on what is probably the
most significant IPA International event for many
years. IPA is a major sponsor of the World Police
and Fire Games (WPFG) to be held at Belfast this
August. It is expected that this event will attract
around 9,000 police and fire officers and brand
IPA will be very much to the fore. Mark chairs the
working party overseeing IPA involvement at the
event reporting direct to the Permanent
Executive Bureau. You can read more about the
WPFG on page 8.
I am keen to ensure that opportunities to
represent UK will also be given to our Region
members. Last year we had three members
travel to Poland for different events. In
September Steve Bretherton represented UK at
the Polish National Council Meeting, Cas Smith
another member from 8 Region spoke at a fraud
conference and Fife member Bruce Bennet
undertook a professional exchange in November.
We also sponsored Alex Jones from 4 Region
who recently attended the second International
Young Officers Seminar in Australia.
You will have no doubt seen the recent articles
on the Web News detailing the professional
exchange opportunity for two uniformed
members to travel to Krakow in July. This is as a
result of the annual professional exchange
programme that we have recently confirmed with
IPA Poland. I am sure this will prove both popular
and a success. Once we are assured that the
programme is a success we are determined to
expand the programme to include other member
Sections.
In summary what I consider the positive
advances of last year or so are:
■ Aligning NEC Business to Principal Objectives
■ Significant Cost Savings
■ Income Generation Opportunities
■ Growth in Special Interest Groups
■ Measure of Deregulation
■ Established a Formal Professional Exchange
Programme
■ Opening up Membership to the Wider
Police Family
None of the above takes account of another
success – re-establishing Section UK at the
heart of IPA internationally. Within two years of
UK setting up the Northern European Forum
(NEF) which is an alliance of Northern European
Sections, four of the five Northern European
Forum candidates for International Office were
elected at the World Congress last September.
The result being that there is a whole new
dynamic in the Permanent Executive Bureau,
whose ambitions are now much more closely
aligned to our own.
Secretary General Dave Taylor has sole
responsibility for management of staff
Vice President Mick Luke - his draft strategy
was circulated to Regions
Ian Tyers giving a presentation
on the Triathlon Group (SIG)
Vice President Mark Kernohan
Lead on the WPFG
