April 1999

1. The Unification Planning Group's firm recommendation to the two Councils is to proceed with unification (para 12).
2. The Vision should be redrafted to make a more convincing case for the advantages of unification and the disadvantages of the status quo (para 14).
3. The Mission should be left unaltered (para 15).
4. A prospectus of the range of services envisaged should be prepared (para 16).
5. Proposed benefits and services for institutional members should be prepared. Institutional members should not have voting rights (para 17).
6. Revised proposals should explain the Chartering processes in a little more detail, including a commitment to high standards equivalent to the best practice of the two existing bodies (para 19).
7. A commitment to protect the status of existing Life Members should be given. A similar provision for the future should be considered. (para 20).
8. A provision for honouring outstanding achievement by members should be included, in addition to the proposal for Honorary Fellowships for people outside the profession who have rendered significant service (para 21).
9. It is recommended that definitions of the various categories of membership in the equivalencies tables should be included. It is also recommended that the membership status of existing members should not be adversely affected by the unification process. It should be made clear that those members of both existing organisations who were professional/chartered members of both would in future be entitled to only one set of post-nominal letters (para 22).
10. No change to the recommendations for regions is proposed. However, the facility for establishing sub-branches within the proposed regional structure should be emphasised (para 23).
11. The position of members in the Republic of Ireland needs to be further considered (para 24).
12. The proposals should be put in the global context and explicit consideration should be given to provision for overseas membership (para 25).
13. No change is recommended to the proposals for Special Interest Groups (SIGs) (para 26).
14. Initially, the proportion of membership of the new body required for Organisation in Liaison (OiL) status should be set at 20% (para 27).
15. The Council should include direct representation from each region and from each SIG as well as a number of Councillors elected by the membership as a whole. The final number of Councillors would therefore be determined in part by the number of regions and SIGs (para 28).
16. No changes are recommended to the finance section of the Green Paper (para 29).
17. No changes are recommended to the staffing section of the Green Paper (para 30).
18. The title of the new body should be:

The Chartered Institute of Information Professionals

supplemented by the following strapline:

The UK Association for Librarians and Information Scientists

(para 31).

19. UPG recommends that the two Councils should take the following steps: