Media Strategy

I understand that the ICAEW are using the services of Media Strategy, a PR firm based in London, to help them sway the membership in favour of the merger.

Media Strategy describe themselves, on their website, as being:

"London's fastest growing agency, specialising in corporate communications and government relations..."

I wonder what their advice to the ICAEW will be, and how much it will cost us (the membership)?

CIPFA's E-Newsletter

Visit CIPFA's August E-Newsletter, and read the title of their article about the proposed "integration".

Notice anything wrong?

Kudos to Accountancy Age for spotting this first.

Call For Resignation

Bruce Lawson, who is leading the Welsh campaign against the merger, communicated the results of his straw poll to Ian Morris (President of the ICAEW) in a meeting last Thursday.

Quote:

"The second straw poll we have taken, which I will communicate to Accountancy magazine, has indicated that from 300 practising members, 47 were against, 2 were in favour, 8 were undecided and the rest did not reply. I think it would be unwise to assume that the non-replies mean that they are in favour of the 'consolidation proposals'".

He notes on his website that if the merger proposal is not voted through, then the CEO of the ICAEW should resign.

To read more, visit Bruce's site, and scroll down to the bottom.

Merge Like With Like

My thanks to the anonymous person, calling himself/herself XYZ, who sent me the following message today (exact quote):

"It is narrow minded to resist merger of icaew,cima and other accounting bodies".

I normally respond privately to private messages. However, no email address was provided.

I would note that I am not against the merger of "like with like". In a recent interview (featured on this site), published in Accounting & Business I am quoted as being in favour of discussing a merger with ICAS:

"Ken Frost, ICAEW member, who has set up a website dedicated to rallying members to stop the merger, says he isn't against consolidation.

'I would be delighted if we could enter into discussions with ICAS. We have to merge like with like,' says Frost."

However, as repeated ad nauseam, I believe that the merger of CIPFA will dilute our brand.

We, if we wish to merge, must only merge "like with like"

Featured

My thanks to Accounting and Finance 365 for featuring this site in the Feature section of Editor's Corner.

See Accounting and Finance 365

CIPFA Regional Meetings

CIPFA is inviting their members and students to give their views on the proposed consolidation with ICAEW, at a series of meetings around the country.

The President of CIPFA, Vice President or immediate Past President or a representative will attend these events.

The announcement says that the agenda is deliberately unstructured to encourage a dialogue.

All meetings are hosted by the region in which the meeting takes place.

There is one important point that we should not forget, namely that the membership of CIPFA also have to approve of the merger as well as the membership of the ICAEW.

It would be highly embarrassing for the ICAEW if CIPFA rejected the merger.

One other point that caught my eye on the CIPFA website, is the fact that the CIMA logo is still displayed in the header.

CIMA, you will recall, have pulled out of the current merger plans. Is the inclusion of their logo on the CIPFA site merely an oversight, or has no one told CIPFA that CIMA have pulled out?

The timetable can be viewed via this link Regional Meetings.