I came to realize that if Chartered Secretaries in general and PC Holders in particular, want to become a force to be reckoned with, the individual Members must take an active interest in the affairs of the Institute.

Example?

Well, be unconventional – don’t wait for Secretariat to publish the next advertorial in our Journal asking Members to sign up as PC Holders. Talk to your friends, tell them about the PC Holders scheme, be a "recruiting agent"!

But be warned, your friends will ask you difficult questions!

First they may ask that all familiar question, what are the benefits? Then they may ask why is professional indemnity insurance mandatory? After that they may ask why is the minimum premium so high?

I know, because I asked all three questions myself and didn’t find any satisfactory answers then! Now it is a bit better, but there is still much room for improvement. But my friends this is not about benefits. It is all about building up the numbers – tell me can 74 PC Holders stand up to the world and be a force to be reckoned with?

Help me spread an urgent message – it is simply this: join the PC Holders scheme to build up the numbers.

We have so many more things to do. We need to make ourselves commonly recognizable to the man in the street. We need to develop our own unique selling proposition as a practitioner. We need to charge better fees . Is it going to happen automatically just because we sat down and talked about it?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. It requires tremendous marketing and marketing the profession requires big capital. PC Holders are mostly small to medium sized firms and even the large firms among us may not easily spend on marketing. The best provider for this capital then surely is MAICSA.

But if we don’t have a larger membership, do you know that it will be difficult for PC Holders to merit much attention even within MAICSA? Now that’s plain talk for you but it is a fact.

Imagine how good it is if we can have a regular advertisement in the media describing PC Holders to the public so that every "old" and "new" businessman will only want the services of a Chartered Secretary in Public Practice!

Will MAICSA take out a quarter page ad for 74 practitioners who are too busy solving technical problems and do not even ask for marketing help or will MAICSA take out such an ad because we have 200 practitioners all asking for it?

It’s all in the economies of scale [ie you spend money where more members will benefit] and it happens only if you participate.

Sorry to wake you from your slumber but I am saying the effort for PC Holders to become a force to be reckoned with must be member driven.

Hope you are with me!