Now I’m not a prude.  I like a laugh and a joke the same as anyone.  I have even been known to utter the occasional bad word, when in the company of good friends, just for emphasis you understand.  But it seems to me we have created a monster that we can’t control that has the ability to destroy our image, our business and much more unless we are very careful indeed.  It’s called social media.

I don’t know why it should be but, when chatting to ‘friends’ on social media, we seem to forget that we are supposed to be respectable business people.  Skip onto any Facebook page, for example, and you will find otherwise relatively mild, reflective souls slipping into the kind of language you would normally find reserved for a dockyard or the back seat of the rugby coach – on the way home from the match.  

The problem is that swearing is something that has its place.  It doesn’t usually go down well with grandmothers, mother-in-laws, immigration officers, policemen or anyone with whom you do business – unless you know them really well.  Unfortunately, social media is not quite that selective: everyone can see it and, for me, it’s a real turnoff.  When people swear on social media they go down at least a notch on my respect gauge.  I suspect others feel the same.  And it’s a shame, because those same people wouldn’t dream of lapsing into the vernacular in polite company.  They also have spent a great deal of time and money in building up their business persona only to have it knocked down again by a pointless rant that didn’t really do anyone any good.

But it gets worse.  As I write we are on the cusp of the conference season.  Conferences are characterised by long nights in the bar and jolly behaviour. In the old days it was OK: people could be relied upon for their discretion, at least in the cold light of day.  But now, make a wrong move, get too close to someone attractive that you don’t know well, have a drink or two too many, and presto, the phone camera has captured the moment and someone who’s as drunk as you are has it on social media before the smell of the morning’s breakfasts has time to turn your stomach.

The world’s a dangerous place.  Reputations built over decades can be scrapped in seconds.  You have been warned!

I am really not sure what’s happening on the UK trade association scene right now.  I have just returned from a meeting at which yet another association was proposed: that would make five in the UK as far as I know and that doesn’t allow for the expanding list of forums and online groups that seem to be springing up like March daffodils.

It wasn’t long ago that the UK had BAR and that was it.  Love it or loathe it you had Hobson’s choice but many good people dedicated much of their working lives, free, to working with BAR to improve the lot of its members and to represent the industry at large.  Many others seemed to dedicate their lives to criticising it, often without bothering to acquire the knowledge to understand its actions. 

Today we have associations coming out of our ears and there may well be a need for them.  There are plenty of movers who do not qualify, or do not wish, to belong to BAR. They have their reasons.  Yet still they want a badge of some kind whether or not it serves any useful purpose or its customers have a clue what it stands for. “Just give me something to belong to,” I have heard people say.  It’s a primal human instinct.

There’s another: they must help the member make money.  Yes it’s nice to be part of a family, but you also have to put bread on the table.  Every association has to question the value it provides to its members.  If there’s no value, there’s no future.

The association has to make some money too otherwise why would the organisers bother to go to work each day?  And how much will their members allow them to earn before they begin to think that their motives have changed?  I don’t know but I’d like to bet that the two are significantly out of step.      

BAR has been in operation for close to 115 years.  It has always been overseen, to some extent at least, by dedicated members who have worked their tails off for the benefit of the industry for free.  I don’t know if that is still true but I do know that any organisation that tries to occupy its space will need the backing of its members in equal measure.  I wish them success in filling whatever need exists, but let nobody think it will be easy.