Peter has got it in a nutshell. There is nothing wrong with a trade association, but it cannot be regarded as a professional body that represents an engineering discipline. The raison d' etre of a trade association is to look after the interests of its members. Membership hardly constitutes a QUALIFICATION, albiet that it can mean compliance with certain professional standards. One would not compare membership of BFPSA with certification of a fire alarm contractor by LPCB or under the BAFE Modular schemes. I am astounded at the idea that membership of the AFC is somehow ''better'' than registration on IFE register of risk assessors. Some fire consulting practices do not even carry out FRAs in the context of the WFPL, so there can not even be a comparison.(Incidentally, the register will also contain a section for those who ''audit'' risk assessments ie officers of anforcing authorities.) As Peter suggested, registration is intended to ensure the competence of INDIVIDUALS, and the quality of the register will, in my personal opinion ( this is not intended to represent an offical IFE opinion) be determined not so much by those who get included but by those who get rejected for inclusion-and yes people can and no dount will be rejected! As yet, no one has been registered, but numerous applications have been received and are being processed. The register is being promoted already on the IFE website, and no doubt there will be further publicity once there is a critical mass of people on the register. There will also be an article about it ina future issue of the IFE Journal. I am not sure, Bob, what the problem is with the criteria being used, but, if there are issues with the criteria, I am sure that, if you draw these to the attention of the WG responsible for the register, they will be addressed.
