Of our 9700 Fellows some 2200 have achieved Chartered status, and this number is growing steadily, say George Tuckwell (pictured) and Bill Gaskarth*.
Geoscientist 19.4 April 2009
The first set of CGeol applicants under the new regulations will be interviewed on April 15 at Burlington House. If successful, they will be elected to Chartered status at the Council meeting in June. At the same time some 62 applications are going through under the old regulations, and these will be for election on April 22. This represents a sizeable increase in our CGeol membership.
The deadline for submission of CGeol applications for the next interview event (scheduled for Edinburgh on July 15), is May 1. The following deadline for interviews (at Stoke) the week commencing September 7 is July 1, and after that September 1 for interviews in November. This succession of deadlines and interview days has been set up to enable candidates to know when and where they will be interviewed, and when they will receive the results of their application.
With increasing numbers of experienced Fellows seeking Chartered status, and in order to ensure that all the procedures continue to run smoothly, the Society has put out a call for volunteers from among our senior Chartered Fellows to be considered for scrutineering work. Any interested CGeols should contact the Chartership office for an application form. The Society guarantees that at least one scrutineer will be a specialist in the field of the applicant, and we are also conscious of the need to minimise the environmental impact and financial cost of the process (as well as the use of our scrutineers’ valuable time!).
Our pool of experts must therefore provide a good coverage in terms of both geography and expertise, since we never know how many applicants there will be for any one event, or their specialities. Regional and Specialist groups have an important part to play here in encouraging their qualified members to volunteer. At the moment we are particularly interested in getting volunteers from Scotland to ensure that we have adequate coverage for the July 15 event.
Considerable numbers of Fellows work overseas, and commonly applications from outside the UK are scrutinised and interviewed in the country of origin. Because of this we would wish to invite volunteers from overseas to offer their help in carrying out interviews.
Finally, a number of applicants work for small companies where geoscience mentors are difficult to find. The Chartership Panel wishes to encourage members of the various Regional Groups to volunteer to help with this important work.
The Chartership Officer has already been invited to visit several Regional Groups and some companies to provide information and advice for those Fellows who are starting the process of preparing their CGeol application.
Requests for help and advice should be sent to
[email protected] and you can be assured of an early response.
*Chartership Panel Chairman, Chartership Officer resp.