ISCO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO ADDRESS INCREASING ISCO MEMBERSHIP AND IMPROVING FUNDING FOR THE WORK OF THE ORGANIZATION

On behalf of the Executive Committee the President and Secretary have written to Members of the ISCO Council requesting views on steps to be taken to increase membership revenue in order to increase funds available for running the organisation and moving forward with its work programme.

It is part of the role of the ISCO Council members to advise the Executive Committee and comment on major items of policy.

A proposal has been made that readers of the ISCO Newsletter who are not currently members of ISCO should become members if they want to continue receiving the free newsletter.  With individual membership costing only £65 per year, the cost of joining is not at all expensive.   Companies and organisations would be expected to join at the relevant rates as corporate members or industry partners but would continue to be able to nominate multiple members of staff as recipients of the newsletter at no cost.

Since the newsletter began publication eight years ago in July 2005 it has been free of charge for all and has helped greatly in raising the ISCO’s international profile.

However, in approaches to readers, reactions to the proposal have all been positive. For example, Dr Merv Fingas said “An excellent idea – there are so many people getting the newsletter now and it is the only good one out there” and ISCO Member of Council for Brasil, John Cantle said “I totally agree what you are saying, I’m sure the membership numbers will increase”.  Several of the delegates attending the recent IMO OPRC-HNS Technical Group meetings in London expressed similar views and fully understood that ISCO needs more funding.

Readers will be kept informed on decisions taken.