post would be deleted if I could, problem solved thanks - I found insurance at a quarter the cost of Society membership

[This message has been edited by Anna Bryant (edited 13 February 2001).]

I thought being on the register INCLUDED insurance 0r have you resigned?

ma57, yes membership does include insurance and I am resigning at the end of March.

May I be so bold as to ask
WHY??????????

May I be so humble as to ask WHY??? you have chosen to not be a member of The Society of Homeopaths anymore????Surely being a member of a large organisation that promotes Homoepathy, supervision,training etc,etc and standards is useful as a Homeopath????
In what way has the Society failed you?
regards
Simon

Will you still be a RShom if you resign? Is it carried forward to another society and can you become RShom with any other societies like ICM etc?

o, whoops, all because the "delete" facility doesn't work here anymore
I am resigning because of the expense. It would cost me £300 subs this year and another £300 if I apply for upgrading from LicHom to RSHom.
Since I earn so little I can't justify it.
If I am open, I am a bit resentful at the cost of upgrading. I could just send in ten cases and have a clinic visit and I would have thought someone local could do that for me for £100 - I certainly would for someone else. Being a licensed member is bringing me no publicity via the Yellow Pages because LicHoms are not included in that.
As far as membership subs themselves are concerned I think they are also excessive because almost identical insurance can be had for £75 and much of what goes on in the Soc, if the Newsletter is a true reflection, is rather amateurish. I know the directors work themselves to the bone, but as a whole the organisation seems not to function well.

Anna - I'm rather hoping that eventually all the main Societies including the Faculty will combine. If only!! Sorry I thought you were already registered. I'm trying to get round to it this year also by the old way!! We pay the same money Lisenced or Registered so I feel we should have the same facilities - including being in the booklet they send out. They should do a separate one of Licensed homeopaths or put us in the same one at the back!!

Ricky, good luck with registration. It's the only way to make Soc membership financially justifiable. It's not so much being in the register as being in the Yellow Pages advert that works I am told.

In my opinion it's a mistake in a professional organisation to have first and second class members - either one is competent to practice or one is not.

The HMA has only one grade of membership for example, and they do not charge for their assesment process as a big financial barrier to entry.

I also think that having two tiers causes resentment because many licensed members know that they are a good deal better prescribers than others who are fully registered - you can guess that I [not-so-humbly] include myself in that category and I bet you do too.

I don't know how the Faculty operates but I do know that a local GP who has been giving free homoeopathy to his patients while he is still training has made life difficult in my locality. How can the Faculty permit their members to prescribe unsupervised when still students I wonder? This is the way GP homoeopaths build up their practices - they treat people for free under the NHS umbrella while training, taking patients from qualified non-medical homoeopaths who are not NHS-supported, then, once they qualify they go into private practice with ready-made practices they have established courtesy of the NHS.
Not a level playing field, and I don't suppose the Faculty would relinquish that.

ps I would love to try for membership of a homoeopathic body [as yet imaginary] of which I could be proud to be a member - something with high standards that represented excellence with a rigourous set of entrance exams and case discussions for example, but at the end of the day, it's because I can't be proud to be a member of the Society that I won't jump the hoops.
That new system for Registration sounds repellent - sitting around talking about "How it feels for ME - up close and personally - to practice homoeopathy" uglh.