Wait, wait , wait, one at a time please! Davey, commies can't be fire consultants, except in old guard commie countries, which means you would need to practise in either Albania (bit spartan), North Korea ( dont even think about it) or Cuba ( nice birds and good cigars, good weather, so you could think about it, also you can send new pics of Che Guevarra back to your leader). But we would miss you if you went, so stick to the FBU, good old Uncle John P, who I am sure you have forgiven for giving you a kicking, and the English weather. Peter, no the IFE do not give away membership too easily. It is a broadly based organisation that brings together all part of the fire community, and some other institutions do have non- C Eng members actually. The rank and file (mostly fire brigade) members did a brave thing when they allowed the Engineering Council Division to be formed. There are 10,000-11,000 members worldwide (with lower case m), and about 300-400 in the ECD. I think it would be hardly appropriate to downgrade or disenfranchise the people who have worked hard to get the Grad or Members by examination, simply because they did not have the chance to go to university. And incidentally, I would respectfully suggest that you or I as chartered engineers with degrees could not walk in off the street and, without a great deal of study, pass the membership examination. (Trust me, I know someone who tried.) If you want to dispute this I will send you a membership exam in the post and Bob Docherty will mark it for you, as soon as he dismounts from his high horse. To the chap doing the preliminary, etc, do not worry so much about equivalences. All study is worthwhile and is simply a means for progressing education to the level that you, ultimately, wish to attain. I wish you best of luck in doing so.
