ICON Edinburgh office closure

I read with shock and dismay in the latest Iconnect e-briefing of
the planned closure of the Institute of Conservation's (ICON)
Edinburgh office with the loss of two posts there. In the same issue
three new posts were announced for the London office.

Unfortunately, I missed last night's ICON Scotland AGM but would be
very interested to hear other ICON Scotland members' views on this
matter. In particular I would like to hear from colleagues involved
in the negotiations to merge the Scottish Society for Conservation
and Restoration (SSCR) with the United Kingdom Institute for
Conservation (UKIC) to form ICON in 2005. Was the loss of the
Edinburgh office foreseen at the time? I seem to remember that one
of the 'carrots' for the merger was the promise to retain a Scotland
office as part of the new ICON structure.

Considering also the loss of independent funding and autonomy as a
result of SSCR's dissolution combined with much higher ICON
membership fees, is this turning out to be too high a price to pay
for accreditation (the main reason for joining ICON) and if so, what
can be done about it? I sincerely hope that the new ICON Scotland
chair and committee will be able to raise and resolve this matter
with their colleagues in London.

I would also like to express my thanks and appreciation to Carol
Brown, Gillian Drybrough and Georgina Ripley for their hard work
over the years. Carol, in particular, has been an absolute rock for
Scotland's conservation profession and has been of invaluable help
to budding conservators and the conservation profession in Scotland
over many years. Without Carol many of us (myself included) may
never have made it into our dream jobs. It is hard to imagine ICON
operating effectively in Scotland without her and her colleague(s).

Christa Gerdwilker ACR
Stone Conservator
Historic Scotland
Alba Aosmhor
7 South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh EH12 9EB
+44 131 334 6367
Mobile: +44 7786 110276


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:33
                 Distributed: Sunday, January 15, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-25-33-007
                                  ***