Only Ties?

How about a lanyard - most people wear them at work nowadays?

To follow up on Roy's post, it made me look around the room yesterday afternoon. I was in a national standard drafting committee, so all of us there had some degree of eminence , of the 10 of us there, 8 male 2 female, 4 were wearing ties. I used to wear one when meeting very senior rail industry staff, but to be honest I often don't even in those circumstances these days. I've noticed a huge change in this - across all professions at senior levels - over the past 5-10 years.


The other thing about IET ties is that I'd make a fair bet that only a certain level of IET members would even recognise one if they saw one (I wouldn't). The people I want to advertise my IET membership to are typically younger members and non-members who are trying find someone to chat to about registration or membership.


We're a professional association, not a men-only golf club!


Lanyards are certainly an idea, although back in the day when I used to wear one regularly my company would have much preferred me to wear a company branded one. But it would be cheap and easy to try - have a basketful at IET member events and see how many get taken. I work from home now, and my wife rarely asks me to show ID before she lets me into the office


Cheers,


Andy

This has got even more intruiging.

Quiz question: WIthout looking it up*, do you know which registration grade is connected to which tie?


Grades:

1. Engineering Technician/ICT Technician

2. Incorporated Engineer

3. Chartered Engineer

 

Ties: (broad diagonal stripes)

A. green, black and red

B. gold, black and red

C. blue, black and red


Again, I didn't, but I do now! Although I probably wouldn't remember if I saw one.


Cheers, Andy

* P.S. if you do cheat and try looking it up I don't think you'll find the answer on the IET website, but I didn't look very hard! 

Mmmm......


We (the IET) only have ties for our Members and Fellows. 


I'm not aware that we sell ties for the different registration grades which is probably why you can't find them on the IET website... 

Andy, i think you are talking about ECUK Ties but not the IET Ties.

1 - A
2 - C
3 - B

Am i right....

No the IET doesn't sell them (but IET members can buy them)...I wasn't going to make my quiz question that easy

A few more thoughts...


The more I think about this the more I think it really is sending the wrong message to only offer ties. It very much suggests that the IET is for "clubbable" men of a certain age, which, let's face it, is definitely an image problem the IET already has - it doesn't want anything that will make it worse. I can image how the IET ended up here, I can well imagine that the sort of people who buy merchandise are predominantly the same sort of people who mainly buy ties. However, the more I think about this the more strongly I feel that either a range needs to be offered that clearly covers the spectrum of members we want to attract - or don't offer anything at all.

It's not about political correctness (horrible term), it's about the image an organisation presents of who it wants to appeal to.


Another thought, and this is what took me onto the EC page yesterday: if badges were to be introduced I'd suggest that versions be made that include a discreet but visible "CEng" "IEng" and "EngTech" logo. We need to be promoting the registration grades far more, and this would seem to be an excellent way to do it. (Could also apply to Julie's suggestion of lanyards.) The EC do have CEng, IEng and EngTech badges, but personally from how they look on the screen I'm not keen on them - they don't look subtle. I'll probably order one anyway to have a look - they're only a pound. I don't suggest only differentiating the grades with different colours - no-one will ever remember which one's which, other than deep insiders who are not the people we're trying to publicise the grades to!


What do others think?


Talking of which, the actual tie colours are (available from the EC):

So EngTech is the "Gold Standard"  And I'm pleased the CEng is GWR green!


Whilst mentioning the EC page, I didn't realise that we can now download CEng / IEng / Eng Logos from there, which I did yesterday thinking that I didn't know what I'd use it for but it seemed useful. And then this morning I responded to a request from my old school to talk about STEM, which gave a perfect opportunity to stick it under my "signature"!
http://www.engc.org.uk/shop/


Cheers,


Andy

I looked at the ties on the EC web site.  But I could really do without a garish stripy tie that gives no indication of what it's for.  All it seems to say is that engineers have no dress sense.

Throughout my working life, I have always worked with or around machinery that you would not want to wear a tie due to rotating parts, etc. However, I do like ties and I do like the IET members tie, but could not wear one day to day due to the for mentioned reason.


I really like the idea of having a members lapel pin with a slightly different design depending on the years of membership and not just the one you get with 50 years of membership ...  ~40 more years is a long wait for me for that one! Membership lanyards would work too. 


With regards to the EC ties, they remind me of 6th form college ties and I would choose the IET tie over them any day of the week.