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‘Armed with the results of this survey, Roy and I put our heads together and brought out the first draft of a CPD Scheme, aimed at being robust enough to command the respect of our tourism industry partners and flexible enough to meet the requirements of our particular profession. A CPD committee was also formed to roll out the Scheme and develop it further in light of experience.
‘Roy and I and other committee members introduced the proposals in a series of roadshows round all the branches, took the feedback on board and the final CPD Policy document was subsequently adopted by the Board as a Standing Order under Article 70(a) of the Association’s Articles of Association.
‘Because this was a major new policy for the STGA, which was not without its critics, I suggested to the Board that we should put the new CPD Policy before our national AGM for ratification. Though not a constitutional requirement, I felt it was a pragmatic one, as we wanted to have the majority of the membership behind it. At the 2010 AGM we had a record turnout of 117 members with much lively debate and the CPD Policy was overwhelmingly endorsed by the AGM.
‘The first year of the CPD scheme involved paper logs and evidence and the CPD committee had to process a mountain of paperwork, which was then all returned by post to the participants. Each log was checked to ensure the participants understood and were following the terms of the scheme.
‘With the advances in IT the scheme is now run far more efficiently with much of the log processing being automated. After eight years the scheme was well “bedded in” to the professional structure of the STGA, so only the logs of the new participants and a random sample of the established participants are vetted for compliance with the scheme. However, this still involves considerable time and effort by colleagues on the CPD Committee who do so on a voluntary basis out of commitment to maintaining the professional standards of the STGA.
‘Before I handed over the chairmanship of the STGA CPD committee to the capable hands of vice chairman Lyn Brown, I had the satisfaction of being approached for advice by some of the Blue Badge Associations south of the border who were seeking to develop CPD schemes of their own. The board was always happy for me to pass on the STGA CPD policy and attendant documents. Knowledge, as they say, is the one thing you can give away, but still retain yourself....
‘To those fellow members who ask, ‘Why should I do CPD? It brings me no extra work. It’s just ticking boxes,’ I would say, ‘There are far greater numbers of unqualified tourist guides out there than qualified. Why should the clients choose us? Answer: We stand out because we prove to the world that we are professionals by complying with all the
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