Download copy of letter below: 5123.openlettertobasw.docPlease feel free to amend and adapt
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Mr Hilton Dawson
Chief Executive
BASW – The College of Social Work16 Kent Street, Birmingham, B5 6RD
h.dawson@basw.co.uk
Dear Mr Hilton Dawson,
RE: College of Social Work
Further to BASW's announcement that BASW became 'BASW - The College of Social Work' on 24-Jan-2011, as announced on 21-Jan-2011, on the communitycare.co.uk site. A number of BASW members and participants on the site's CareSpace forum have requested BASW to answer a number of questions. The originals of which can be viewed here: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/forums/would-you-be-a-member-of-both-basw-and-the-9157.aspx
To help with BASW's response each of the 24 questions has been numbered and in the interest of transparency please provide your response on CareSpace, which should be easy enough as, you yourself and a number of BASW staff are already members.
Can BASW also please provide an explanation of why BASW has registered so many domain names? A list of known ones is shown in the Appendix. When explaining please explain why each one was created. Please provide copies of any meeting minutes or information BASW holds that discuss and cover the creation of each of these domain names. As BASW has created a number of domain names relating to a College of Social Work, as far back as 2009, many of which seem to constructively prevent the SCIE from having any chance to create and assign them to the 'official' College, please specifically explain how such is ethical and why BASW do not consider such to be cyber squatting of domain names.
Please explain when members of BASW were first informed of each of these domain names and when members were informed that BASW registered the Company:
College of Social Work Ltd
with details of exact dates and copies of the actual notifications and how they got delivered to each BASW member.
It seems reasonable to ask BASW to answer these questions and to do so if a Public way, as this matter relates to BASW's claims that no entity in the UK is allowed to use the term 'College of Social Work' and therefore any of the Public funded £5 million budget that has been spent to allow the SCIE to set up the 'official' College might end up being wasted as a direct consequence of BASW's decisions to claim ownership of the term 'College of Social Work' and associated domain names.
Please also explain how BASW's 2010 AGM College 'Referendum', gave BASW's Council the authority to launch BASW's College of Social Work and rebrand your Corporate identity and how it allows BASW to restrict these changes to England only. It would seem that BASW did not get authority from it's membership to launch BASW's College or for the rebrand, as BASW is requesting members to ratify these decisions after-the-fact, at BASW's forthcoming AGM. If this understanding is incorrect please explain why. In BASW's explanations please explain how BASW has ensured BASW's membership will have enough time and information to make informed decisions at BASW's AGM, when they will only have until 11-Feb-2011 to submit motions or resolutions for the AGM, connected to you College launch and rebranding. In the past BASW mentioned it would propose Convergence with the 'official' College at your forthcoming AGM, does your College launch mean this will now not take place?Please confirm that all members of BASW will be furnished with a copy of this letter and BASW responses thereto, at least 21 working days before your 2011 AGM.
BASW's Council has a duty to:
1) Respect members' rights to make informed decisions, and ensure that members participate in decision-making processes;
2) State the reasons for their decisions based on ethical considerations, and be accountable for their choices and actions.
Yours faithfully
My BASW membership ref:
Appendix
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1) List of questions (24)
2) List of domain names (6)
1) List of questions
1) queenb 21 Jan 2011
"'A house divided against itself cannot stand'. We need unity, not division within our profession at the moment. One, strong, independent voice has far more volume where it matters than two smaller, rival voices. "
2) cb 21 Jan 2011
"I just want convergence, not more and more separation. "
3) Grinch 25 Jan 2011
"This is all getting very frustrating. Social workers neither want nor need two colleges. The current debate seems to be getting mired in semantics and hyperbole and anyone on the outside looking in must be scratching their heads and wondering what on earth is going on."
4) hound 25 Jan 2011
"Regarding the latest legal issue re use of the name I find this a slightly curious tactic. In reality, no college exists yet in any real, functioning form. It seems that BASW are trying to close down the opportunities for development of the other college group (SCIE backed for want of a better description) on a technicality, rather than on the merits of their arguments."
5) DaveS 26 Jan 2011
"I am a little cynical as i suspect BASW registering the 'College' name in order to protect it but intending to do little else. I am afraid I am of the opinion that BASW has done little to support the profession (e.g. through the media) in recent times and is now beginning to feel threatened. It would be better if it raised its game. Is that too harsh? "
6) Grinch 26 Jan 2011
"However, I've yet to be convinced that the intended College cannot and will not be independent or unable to meet the identified needs of social workers and, although they may be playing politics, I've yet to be convinced that BASW's bloody-mindedness is for the best."
7) willbe 28 Jan 2011
"I wonder, am I the only BASW member who does not agree with the rebranding and the stance they are taking in relation to the Interim College of Social Work? I joined BASW, not BASW - The College of Social Work"
8) Old Lag 28 Jan 2011
"I still want to urge both sides to take whatever opportunities there are for you to come together in one college."
9) RH 28 Jan 2011
"My head, however, with 40 years experience, tells me that you don’t achieve anything of real substance by alienating the people whose goodwill and co-operation you most need, however responsible they may have been for the mess you’re trying to clear up."
10) cb 28 Jan 2011
"I still think they should get together around a table with professional organisational mediators because this mess is not fair for us, social workers, who really need to have something to represent us and not become a further laughing stock."
11) cb 29 Jan 2011
"I think BASW really DO need another mandate from their members to have taken this step. Referring to a referendum almost a year ago when the terms and climate was different doesn't really hold it for such a fundamental change. "
12) Retty 29 Jan 2011
"BASW's reframing of its own referendum is shameful - Machiavellian politics at its worst."
14)] Rupert M 29 Jan 2011
"IF they hold dual membership have the members of 'BASW - The College of Social Work' all INDIVIDUALLY AGREED to become members of this new Company? If not, what legal or moral authority has BASW got to so register them as members?"
15) Retty 29 Jan 2011
"Registration of "rcsw". This is interesting - and if the "r" does refer to Royal as it almost certainly does - it is quite naughty.
It is a text book case of cyber squatting."
16) Grinch 30 Jan 2011
"This brings us to the present day. I was surprised by the speed and the way that the interim board agreed a deal with Unison but I was even more surprised by BASW's reaction which in many ways has looked like a knee-jerk reaction but at the same time seems so well organised that this was part of their plan all along."
17) hound 31 Jan 2011
"It seems like they are on a mission to confuse me: one of the primary criticisms they seemed to have with the SCIE college was that it was England only. And in a response to that BASW have... well, they have seemingly broken up their own organisation (at least in terms of branding) and started to develop new plans (apparently) for the England only part of it."
18) Rupert M 1 Feb 2011
"Also per a previous posting I do not regard it as ethical if they have just transfered their England members en bloc to 'BASW - The College of Social Work.' This is, I assume, a new Company and members ought to only join by individual application - not by proxy."
19) Vasili 1 Feb 2011
"BASW Council rebranded the association as an English College..."
20)] cb 3 Feb 2011
"My main thought at the moment - as I can't find the wording of the referendum anywhere on the BASW site - is whether there was the authority present in the wording for the BASW Council to take this action. I thought the referendum was about a UK wide college. For me, as a member. that was how I remember it being played out and I liked the idea of UK wide. That is not what BASW have done."
20) Long Tooth 3 Feb 2011
"By going ahead now it has antagonised all the other main players in social work and risks losing the support of universities in editing and contributing to its research publications. Trying to set up its own trade union seems perverse as it is objecting to the Interim College having an arrangement with Unison."
21) Retty 4 Feb 2011
"BASW's approach is, in my humble opinion, that of a white collar vandal. Shameful cybersquatting. It's a shame that BASW can't even bring itself to accept the prospect of mediation"
22) sodomgomorrah 5 Feb 2011
" I would build upon your proposal, to wit:
1) BASW to dispense with all claims to the “College of Social Work” (and BASW College) and returns to being a representative body for all social workers.
2) BASW to reengage fully and actively in a unified movement (SCIE/UNISO etc...) to form a college of social work which, with affiliates/associates/confederates etc.., represents all nations and regions and subdivisions of the United Kingdom.
"
23) Rupert M 5 Feb 2011
"Given that probably 80% of BASW's members are english its Council is heavily weighted against them - so the vote in favour of the english College was more than likely mainly from non-english representatives!!!"
24) hound 5 Feb 2011
"Then there is the issue of the mandate they have for doing what they are doing, which is questionable at best. And as for the name not being the real issue - well so we are told, but if name isn't an issue then why are BASW/SASW/BASW-TCSW spending all this time and money rebranding, and getting into a potentially costly legal argument about the name."
2) List of domain names
a) collegeofsocialwork.org.uk
Created on 10-Jul-2009 by BASW
b) rcsw.org.uk
c) socialworkcollege.org.uk
d) nationalcollegeofsocialwork.org.uk
Created on 08-Sep-2009 by BASW
e) ukcsw.org.uk
Created on 21-Jan-2010 by BASW
f) ukcollegeofsocialwork.org.uk
I'm not trying to be deliberately obtuse here, but aren't many of the "questions" in fact statements of opinion and/or supposition?
Yes, I was just trying to be a bit more creative in a forum posting and I did not wish to mis-represent others comments. I was trying to find a more constructive vent to convey, what might otherwise have been a rant. But you are free to amend and adapt!
JoSoPhine: 16) Grinch 30 Jan 2011 "This brings us to the present day. I was surprised by the speed and the way that the interim board agreed a deal with Unison but I was even more surprised by BASW's reaction which in many ways has looked like a knee-jerk reaction but at the same time seems so well organised that this was part of their plan all along."
Based upon feedback a further letter to BASW/COSW has been drafted, feedback welcome.Download a copy: 3225.highestethicsoftranspaency.doc
26 February 2011
BASW – The College of Social Work 16 Kent Street, Birmingham, B5 6RD
Dear British Association of Social Worker Ltd and College of Social Work Ltd, (BASW-COSW)
RE: Democracy of a Social Worker Member led company and the highest ethics of transparency, request for evidence.
Can you please provide evidence of the exact date BASW first informed all Members of BASW of BASW's registration of:
(a) College of Social Work Ltd
and the exact date BASW first informed all Members of BASW of it's registration of:
(b) collegeofsocialwork.org.uk
(c) rcsw.org.uk and
(d) nationalcollegeofsocialwork.org.uk.
Related information: http://collegesofsocialwork.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/hello-world/
As well as a copy of the means BASW communicated details of the above registrations to all Members and confirmation that BASW did inform all members of the above registrations before your 2010 College of Social Work Referendum. Which I understand less than half of your Members or about 5000 of the UK's 144'000 Registered Social Workers voted 'yes' for.
Can you also provide evidence that at the BASW/Council vote of 24-Feb-2010, concerning the 9 out of 22 Council members who voted to propose a UK wide College referendum of all BASW members, all 22 BASW/Council members had been formally informed in writing before this BASW/Council meeting had been arranged that BASW had already registered College of Social Work Ltd and collegeofsocialwork.org.uk, nationalcollegeofsocialwork.org.uk and rcsw.org.uk (Royal College of Social Work)? Please provide a copy of any internal information you hold that confirms all 22 BASW/Council members made such informed decisions prior to and at the BASW/Council meeting of 24-Feb-2010.
I note that The College of Social Work (SCIE) is responding to information requests for information under the principles set out in the Freedom of Information Act. In the interests of the highest ethics of transparency, I would be most appreciative if you would respond to this request in the spirit of openness at this important moment in BASW's 41 year of history.
A copy of this request has been sent to all of your known Carespace members via:
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/members/basw/default.aspxhttp://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/members/baswsupport/default.aspxhttp://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/members/support-basw/default.aspxhttp://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/members/carer1/default.aspxhttp://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/members/hilton/default.aspx
Notifications
Carespace:http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/forums/would-you-be-a-member-of-both-basw-and-the-9157.aspx
Colleges' website: http://tinyurl.com/6fnb4y8
Press
Facebook notification:https://www.facebook.com/pages/COLLEGESofSOCIALWORK/143655365696038
Twitter notification:http://twitter.com/COLLEGESofSW/status/41578379643850752
BASW/COSW Resolution to Change it's Name to College of Social Work
On Tuesday 25 May 2010 it was reported that BASW was going to going to ask members to make "a big decision" at your 26 May 2011 AGM.
Dawson: Why BASW stood firm over national college
"Q: Does BASW have a future alongside a college?
A: That's a decision for members, but we might be putting a big decision to them at the next annual general meeting [in 2011]. We won't be doing that if we haven't made substantial progress on the BASW model of the college, but there's all to play for."http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/05/25/114584/dawson-why-basw-stood-firm-over-national-college.htm
Can BASW please confirm that this "big decision" was for BASW to change it's name to College of Social Work? As this seems to refer to the "big decision" that is contained in BASW/Council's 2011 AGM Resolution(s)
Therefore please provide dated evidence that the idea of this "big decision" name change Resolution, shown below, was in fact formulated in 2010 and any dated evidence BASW/COSW holds that it was developed before the 2010 College referendum?
BASW/COSW 2011 Annual General Meeting
SPECIAL RESOLUTION NO: 2
1. That the name of the company be and it is hereby changed to “The College of Social Work”
2. That all and any references in the constitutional documents of the company to “The British Association of Social Workers” and “The Association” be and they are hereby changed to “The College of Social Work” and “The College” respectively. http://cdn.basw.co.uk/documents/agm/specialresolutions220211.pdf
Background information:
You can view and download background information to these requests at:
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace/forums/basw-working-to-the-highest-ethical-standards-of-9934.aspx
End
CC: One platform - two Colleges?
http://www.compassjobsfair.com/Information/News/484-/One-platform---two-Colleges
peter.hay@birmingham.gov.uk Peter Hay, Strategic Director, Adults and Communities, Birmingham City Council and Vice-President, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services
kellie@compassjobsfair.com