We’ve had a tremendous response to the questionnaire sent out in 2002 to practising members based in the UK. Thank you to everyone who responded.

The Society’s questionnaire of 2002 — members’ comments and the Society’s response (pdf)
Summary of results - statistics (pdf)

Comments on the statistics
Comments on the web site and email list and the Webmaster’s response

Comments on the statistics

Based on the statistical analysis of the 364 returned questionnaires, the Qualifications and Professional Standards Committee  reached the following broad conclusions:

• The replies represent >4230 man-years of SRP membership and > 6320 man-years of RP working experience.
• SRP does not appear to be particularly successful at recruiting younger members of the RP profession. The current membership is strongly biased towards the 35-50y and >50y age bands.
• 71% of respondents work full-time in RP.
• The figures suggest that RPA2000 is likely to receive in excess of 250 applications for RPA Certification by the end of 2004.
• The figures suggest that RPA2000 is likely to receive some 90 applications for the specialist Laser Protection Certification, when this is introduced during 2003.
• 26% of respondents are experiencing difficulties in achieving sufficient CPD points, within the SRP Scheme.
• 65% of respondents consider that the SRP CPD is sufficiently well tailored to their needs.
• 56% of members have joined/intend to join the SRP CPD Scheme because of its value in assisting RPA2000 re-certification.
• Only 23 members (7% of respondents to the question) regularly participate in the SRP email discussion group.
• To date, NRPB training courses have dominated the training of RP professionals.
• 38 members reported obtaining their jobs through the SRP (24) and IPEM (14) vacancy notices.
• Greater than 60% of respondents indicated that they intend to stay in RP 'for ever'.
• 50% of respondents rated career prospects in RP to be 'Good' or Very Good'.
• 55% of respondents consider that career prospects in RP are likely to improve over the next 5 to 10 years.
• 20% of respondents believed that SRP could do more to help them to further their career in RP.
• A very mixed response was obtained from the questions on both recruitment and retention of staff and from those on succession planning in RP. It is expected that some conclusions will be able to be reached when the many comments have been compiled.
• Throughout the questionnaire, SRP should expect to learn a lot from the analysis of the detailed comments that were received.

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Comments on the web site and email list and the Webmaster’s response

Comments on the web site and email list by UK members practising in 2002, contained in a compilation completed in June 2004, are given below together with my response. The compilation is derived from replies to the request Please add any suggestions/comments that you have concerning the SRP web-site contained in the Important Questionnaire for currently practising UK members sent out in 2002.

I tend to use HPS site (USA) but I am now using SRP site more-4

With regard to the SRP discussion group it is excellent-14

Rather than abstracts there should be full documents-17
Not sure which abstracts you mean.

I think it is very good-18

I cannot find the vacancies sent by post, I would like to view all not just the selection sent-22
The vacancies sent by post are all that we have. The jobs available page was discontinued because, on average, only two members would see a particular job there before they received details through the post, based on a lead-time of two days. The benefit to members did not justify the effort of maintaining the page.

It is extremely helpful when looking for regulatory web sites- 23

Perhaps need more practical RP issues to learn from experience: other members-28
We rely on members to supply material for the web site. Send us material!

Very useful for somebody like myself working in a small company as a way of keeping informed of updates etc-33

More links to useful RP sites/pages by topic area-38
The Related Sites page links to some 170 sites. If you know of any radiation protection related sites that we have not yet listed, please email us. Please also summarise the relevant content if you can spare the time to do so.

Don’t like email discussion system – doesn’t work with our company email system as we need to use ‘out of office messages’ that create circular messages-39
Some list members use their home email address.

Very good; comprehensive reference for relevant legislation & associated information eg consultative documents etc – 42

What does it do, can it be summarised?-43

Why can’t all job adverts go onto the web site? 51
See 22

Working where I do, I have no work-time access to the Internet.  Other matters grab my attention at home 54

Generally interesting matters but few of direct impact in hospitals 90
See 28

Have tried sev times to join the email discussion grp but have never received confirmatory email back 93
To join the List:

1) Send a blank message to:
srp-uk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
2) You will then receive an automated message from Yahoo asking: "Please confirm your request". This request will expire in 7 days. You will need to respond. (By email is the least hassle.)
3) Click the 'Reply' button of your mailer.
4) Check that the whole of the 'Reply-to' address ending in @yahoogroups.com shows in the 'To' panel.
5) If it does not, copy-and-paste it there.
6) Click 'Send'

Not sufficiently useful as a technical resource; link to resource providers 97
See 28 and 38

Out of office autorespond is a pain; I wish users would not be focussed and only provide professional comment and input 98

I don’t use if because a) I am a very specialised sector b)I work in NRPB which has its own web site, I feel that I am already up to date with the general area of RP.  I don’t attend SRP events lack of travel/conf budget 100

Was a member (of the Email discussion group) but found the level of discussion rather trivial/irrelevant in many cases-108

While in Geneva I was seeking information and support for foreign practitioners to attend conferences, courses etc. presumably we don’t want to publicise this much but of course I couldn’t find much even knowing it must be there.  Otherwise very useful - 111

I’ve tried to join the discussion group – applied through yahoo but have heard nothing back – 113
See 93

Inclusion of technical information or links to such sites would be useful – 117
See 38

It has led to the demise of the RPA Newsletter and thereby reduced communication of SPA with its members and other interested parties – 118

I have problems accessing the members area of the site so don’t tend to use it.  Please can you fix this bit of the site or even abandon having a separate members area and integrate it into a single site parties – 118a
When members have reported difficulties in accessing the members pages and we have tested their usernames and passwords they have always worked. So the problem has always been with the user’s local system or the way that they are using it. For example, some have confused the username with the password.
We have made these changes:

1) You now get a help page if you log in incorrectly;
2) Our policy now is that in the interests of openness and informing the public, password protection should be used as sparingly as possible. Everything should be open unless there was good reason for it not to be; and
3) We are moving pages affected by the policy from the members’ side to the public side as they are updated.

Have been (a members of discussion group) but having to keep subscribing/unsubscribing because of autoreply when out of office (at least 1-2 times per month) too onerous - 136
You don’t need to keep subscribing/unsubscribing. There is a “No Mail/ Web Only” option. See rule 9 of the Email List Rules and Guidelines at http://www.srp uk.org which deals with automatic replies.

Could include more links to relevant databases and information sources – 152
See 38

Not particularly easy to navigate around; constantly losing my password details – 155

I was unable to find when the AGM conf was on – there was no table of events – 179
The current programme of Society events is on the SRP Events page.

Would be useful to have links to other relevant sites (have a look at www.radiation.org.uk) – 182
See 38 and the Related Sites page.

Our policy on links: The SRP links to national and international organisations which work in the field of radiological protection, and to other pages with relevant content. In addition, where possible, the Society provides links to the sites of its Affiliate Members and Partner Societies. We will consider adding other links if formally approached. The SRP does not normally link to commercial organisations except those who are its Affiliate Members.

I must try and use it! – 217

It’s my home page – 225

The update on the SULG seems to have stopped – 234
The update has not stopped, but the EA do tend to issue the minutes after a long delay.

Very useful – 240

I find there are too many to check – so rarely check any – 247

Website is not sufficiently up to date; SRP recruitment service – positions should be advertised on the web site – 261
See 28 and 22

The problem with the SRP discussion group is the silliness of much of the dialogue.  Practitioners are often idealistic which can be refreshing to management but equally often naïve – 281

Some of the questions posed by members are elementary and should be core knowledge to n RPA/RPO – 284

Too much trivia – 285

Continue to ensure it provides information rather than data ie contains a strong element of interpretation – 291
See 28

Chronologically organised rather than subject/topic.  It is not immediately obvious from the home pae to find links to other organisations.  I found it by going through the site map.  See www.radiation.org.uk.  It could be a much better source of useful information on radiation protection. – 308

Generally good site – has been v helpful – 311

Don’t use it often enough – not identified a need to – 319

Difficult to use – not always relevant – 321

I am never sure about my password - 340
We sent you your username and password with your subscription renewal notice. Email us.

I do not know the member password – 343
See 340

At work no access is available because of defence site so I can access only at weekends – 346?

Despite numerous attempts to get the SRP Email system to recognise my email address and send me regular updates nothing has happened apart from an electronic acknowledgement a year ago!! (…@…) - 358
See 93

13 June 2004