Readers, including myself, may have been surprised to read Stella Walsh's article on the Stronger Voice training course for trainers of consumer representatives which appeared in the November/December (202) issue of Consumer News. A copy of her description of the course was sent to NfCG's Chairman (who sent a copy to me for information) in July last year. At that time the training was in its early stages and the views of any potential trainers was sought and acted upon.
The Stronger Voice Training Pack was designed by trainers of long standing experience from an organisation specialising in training community groups in user representation and helping them work together and pool their strengths. There has been input throughout from the Advisory Group and high quality materials were used so that the Packs would last.
The Advisory Group consists of representatives, some trainers themselves, from consumer organisations, including NfCG and Consumers in Europe Group. Initially NfCG was ably represented by the late Maeve Robertson who made many valuable contributions. Readers, had they known the background, may have been puzzled by the comment that "the team responsible for the development of the pack obviously had limited experience with the grass roots consumers movement".
The Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) had agreed to fund the project for the first year, after which it was supposed to be self supporting. Consequently John McCulloch, who wrote the article which appeared in issue 201 of Consumer News, was brought in to market the Pack. At this time NfCG asked me to replace Maeve on the Advisory Group. However, John, having been brought in rather late, had not enough time to launch a product which would meet all the diverse needs of those interested in it.
There were pilot training courses including one for NfCG members run by Anne Thomas. The feed back was encouraging, although Anne had a difficult task putting the material over due to the varying degrees of representative experience that her group contained. Anne is much in demand now as the training she gives to health consumer representatives is proving very successful.
Of course Stella Walsh is entitled to her personal views and she did point out that not all was doom and gloom. I hope that NfCG will continue to support Stronger Voice which has been developed further since Stella attended. It is an important training function and the DTI has agreed to fund it for another year. The training should soon meet the criteria of accreditation by an independent body.
Charges for voluntary organisations have been reduced and I hope that some at least (or perhaps all!) of NfCG's Groups will consider sending some members for training. As one member of the NfCG pilot course said "the training was ...designed to make one think hard about what you are doing on someone else's committee and that the training pack might well be a useful `aide memoir' for new committee work".
Every day one is told about a new Internet Web Site, or someone tells you about his or her e-mail address. Before writing this I heard on the radio that in five years time everyone will have a digital TV and analogue services will have been suspended. I do not think this is true, but the point the speaker was making was that everyone has a phone line into the house and digital TV sets will have an Internet capability when plugged into the phone line.
That is five years hence, or maybe longer. What about now? One gets the impression that everyone has a link to the Internet, either at work or at home. It is becoming essential to succeed in life and in business. While this may be true in business and it is true that most private houses have a phone line and a television set, very few people are, as yet, connected to the Internet at home. Not many employees have the opportunity to use their employers' Internet link and some employers are becoming increasingly unwilling to let those who use the net for work use it also for personal matters.
At present it costs about £1,000 to buy a new internet equipped computer and printer and there are ongoing costs in using the internet even if the phone charges are at local call level. This is a lot of money for an average household to find. What is more, purchases on the internet require a credit card and not everyone has a credit card. Are people being panicked into equipping themselves with some new technology which they cannot afford and do not really understand for fear of being left behind, or will there be a divide with those on the internet enjoying all the benefits of shopping thoughout the world for bargains beyond belief, while the internet-deprived have a much lower standard of living?
In truth the internet provides convenience, plenty of information and easy communication. It is the latter which I think is the most important feature. Buying on-line is like buying from a catalogue. You cannot touch or feel the goods, squeeze the melon, or test drive the bargain car. Many internet traders have failed because they were unable to provide a service and some have left consumers in the lurch, having paid for goods which never arrived.
A correspondent in a paper recently pointed out that every internet purchase left a trace. While the likelihood of your credit card number being misappropriated is less than it used to be, the possibility still exists; but what the correspondent meant was that your purchases can be traced and a profile built up about you.
A worst case scenario might be that burglars could buy the information about who had purchased expensive jewellery, cameras or watches and what air line tickets they had booked.
I mentioned earlier about the future being internet TVs for households with a phone line, and practically everyone has a phone line. Or do they? The phenomenal growth of personal portable phones - which do not require a land line connection, will surely result in more and more people deciding that they do not need a fixed phone at all. Mobile phones can access the internet already and their performance, which is a bit limited at the moment, will improve speedily because of the demand. I wonder if the land line telephone has had its day?
John Brown
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