How shall we face the new millennium? With this issue of Consumer News you will find a paper in which you are invited to give your ideas and opinions on how consumer consultation should develop, and with it the National Federation of Consumer Groups. We are sending this questionnaire to others besides NfCG Members and at the conclusion of the exercise will publish our findings, perhaps in the form of Good Practice Guidelines. This is an important initiative for NfCG and every reader is asked to ponder the questions and give considered replies - as you always do, of course.
Thanks to help from the Department for Trade and Industry we now have a presence on the Internet and improved communications. Consumer News is on-line. Users of the Internet are growing by their thousands every day, even in Britain where we do not have free local phone calls. It means that any one of those thousands, and the millions already signed up, will be able to read Consumer News (for free - and that poses another question). This is a bit startling when one considers our present readership. Will we need to produce versions in all European languages and what about Chinese and Japanese?
One of the behind the scenes activities of NfCG is the operation of a number of Networks, covering various topic such as Water. These are flexible groups of NfCG Members, knowledgeable in the Network’s subject, who can be contacted quickly to obtain educated views and enable NfCG to respond to consultative documents and invitations to comment on proposed legislation. Networks can, of course, be proactive as well and protest at injustice and unfair treatment. Each Network has a co-ordinator who alerts members to matters requiring their attention and draws together their opinions. Stuart Coverley has been the Water Network Co-ordinator since its inception. Now he has decided to stand down and a successor is needed. Would somebody please come forward, the task is not too onerous and it brings the incumbent into touch with the wet wide world of water supply, which, Stuart assures us, is a very interesting topic.
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