The Affiliate Policy

Picking up on John’s review of the current policy, I notice a few points.

We do need to keep an official register of recognised affiliates with details about who is the mentor, contact person, regional delagate .. and the like.

Section 7 of the policy mixes rights and responsiblities. It might be an idea to separate these. For example, is it a right to be able to use the WGI Logo or is it a responsiblity?

On a related point I think it would be useful to have a separate affiliate logo showing our symbol and with the annotation “Official Affiliate of WGI” or some such.

Finally, section 8 probably should read “with WGI’s vision and values” and not just “values”.

Any chance of using PDF files? If it’s a Word file I need to download it, open it and convert it in Pages where the layout might not be the same as you intended! Will upload a PDF version now for the benefit of others. (This is not just part of my well-publicised and well-based antipathy towards Microsoft. PDFs work better in the online environment and PDFs work for everyone.)

What you say about “Allied Business” sounds OK but I suspect there is going to be a lot more work involved in monitoring this. With an “affiliate” organisation, we are talking about a group that is basically doing the same as we are doing. With an allied business there may be other factors. Suppose for example they are also teaching hypnotherapy, homeopathy or magnetic therapy …. ??? Remember that such a business, if it is giving WGI official courses, already has the benefit of saying the courses are official. Can we rubber stamp them beyond this? I believe we need to straighten out the affiliates situation as a matter of urgency and that the businesses can wait.

I’m afraid I’m not a fan of appendices. When something is called an appendix, it sounds like an appendix, an after-thought! I find it very hard to compare the original document and this one due to this fact. You have also dropped the numbering system which is so helpful in referring to articles and changes in same. This is like doing the work right from the start again.

I notice something about affiliates collecting fees. We have been working hard to create an online membership renewal system, one that will reduce the need for a lot of work-hours, administration and careful record keeping. If affiliates do this then the work load is in fact increased from what it was before. We need to balance policy with pracicality. If you want to suggest such an arrangement then you would need to suggest all the practical steps for its implementation.

Surely the top purpose of an affiliate is not to link to other affiliates. Surely it is to localise WGI work. They are in a good position to decide on what is the best arrangement of hours/days, translate into the local language, understand local marketing. They may also need to enhance some programmes to meet local needs (as in the case of the European Psychotherapy qualification). The key work is enhance, not diminish. (For example, one affiliate delights in 3-day basic weeks!!!!!!) We also agreed some time ago that certificates should be issued centrally due to some strange practices out there. (Provided we issue cert numbers centrally that is really all we need.)

Finally, something I said elsewhere, I think we need to distinguish rights from responsiblities. One responsiblity not listed is to adhere to WGI policies.