Membership & Chartership

Over recent years the Fellowship has grown in real terms by about 3% annually and presently is about 11,500. The Strategy, on the right, reports on recent activities and sets out a number of possible actions aimed at attracting new Fellows and retaining those we have.

While some of the ongoing and proposed new activities are aimed at Junior Candidate Fellows and Candidate Fellows, and others attempt, for example, to attract back those whose Fellowship has lapsed, taken as a whole there is no identified target group or groups by discipline, employment sector or ‘age’ which is to be the subject of a recruitment campaign.

At its meeting in February 2014 Council noted the activities under way, progress to date, and plans for the coming year; and discussed proposed new initiatives (set out in Annex A, section 3), and agreed that the following should be pursued:

• Various new Fellow welcome events
• Partnering with other Societies to organise joint meetings 
• Telephone exit surveys
• And to investigate the scope for reduced Fellowship fees (and entitlements) for applicants in developing countries

In the absence of direction from Council of a growth target or target groups Professional Committee have agreed the following Fellowship development strategy document which incorporates the promotional activities previously agreed. Based on recent growth, a 15% increase over 5 years looks easily attainable and 20% should be achievable. Consequently, the Committee has set itself a stretched target of 25%.

The Fellowship development strategy sets out a series of objectives for the Society to continue to maintain, grow and engage its Fellowship, including the actions that it will take to meet these objectives. It also describes how the Society will evaluate the delivery of this strategy. To maintain consistency the Fellowship development strategy will be delivered within the wider framework of the Society’s Strategic Plan.