Traditionally, when meeting a stranger, a carnation in the lapel is a give-away.

Recent identifiers for stray groups of librarians, however, included poppies, distinctive pens, and purple files...

The LA and the Career Development Group run many useful courses and seminars to help candidates prepare for chartership. Unfortunately not everyone is able to justify time off work under CPD.

For just over a year now however there has been an alternative. In late autumn 1999 rumblings began on the lis-la charter list (a discussion list for those currently undertaking the chartership process) about what a good idea it would be for an informal network of meetings across the country. After a few suggestions, the phrase 'suitable pub' was mentioned.

London got things off to a lively start in December, followed by Bristol, Preston, North (of) London, and Newcastle upon Tyne. Other groups also seemed to meet but did not necessarily post write-ups. With somewhat sporadic frequency, these meetings now take place up and down the country in various hostelries and gathering places.

Meetings usually attract about 8-12 people on average, and are usually written up in brief for the benefit of the list. They offer a chance to network, share experiences of chartering, and exchange ideas.

First meetings seem to take a 'getting to know you and your job' shape, with second meetings being more focused. Some people bring along specific items such as what they'd written so far, or what their action plan was for the next year. There seems to be a fairly even split between Route A and Route B. Employment backgrounds are diverse, with academic libraries, school libraries, public libraries, health and legal environments, and 'new' information environments all well represented. In most groups there is a good mix of people just starting out on the process and those who have been engaged on it some time.

RLOs and mentors often give up their free time to come along to meetings, and it was generally felt that the meetings attended by the RLO or where PDRs were available were very useful. The informal atmosphere of the meetings seemed to be particularly enjoyable as candidates could discuss issues quite freely.

One difficulty is how to reach people who don't have email (especially public librarians). Again, RLOs can be of tremendous help here as they have lists of people registered for chartership in their area. The LA updates these lists periodically.

Ingredients for a successful informal meeting

1. A comfortable pub. (JD Wetherspoons seem to be doing quite nicely out of this. The Newcastle city centre Wetherspoons even has a room full of books affectionately referred to as the library.)
2. An accessible location (near a train station, central bus stop, or tube station if in London) with good instructions on how to get there.
3. A theme seems to help, or alternatively agreeing that everyone will bring a specific example of something they've done to work towards chartering.
4. Agreeing to meet monthly or bimonthly and setting actual dates for meetings.
5. Post details of meetings to the lis-la charter list; enlist other LIS professionals'/RLO's help to spread the word to those without easy access to email.

General chartering tips

Many of these suggestions originated in the very useful input from RLOs and mentors who kindly carted bags of PDRs (and proformas where available) along:

· A PDR is about YOU and YOUR professional development, rather than about your organisation. The PDR is different from library school assignments because of this. It should offer an evaluation of the experience/training you have undergone since you qualified, with reference to the broader issues for the profession. It is not just a description.
· An essential part of the PDR is an evaluation of how well your workplace is meeting its objectives. If you can, suggest how it might meet these better.
· If you don't have experience in a particular area, e.g. supervision or managing budgets, explain why this is the situation and what training you would hope to have to help you understand these areas.
· At the end of the PDR it may be useful to sum up with 10 key points, referring back to where you have talked about them.
· Informal support suggestions included visits to each other's workplaces.

More information about the informal meetings already in existence is posted to the lis-cilip-reg mailing list at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/lis-cilip-reg.html

Paula Younger