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What do I expect from IET – Community - France & Paris.

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Firstly who are the IET Fr MIET members?

I joined this PEI in 1980 from Grenoble. I was on substantive leave from MoD. I decided to stay for a longer period and got married here. At that time we were the first to come over with the EU agreements of that period.

There were already ex-patriot UK people with huge benefits living here, there were the UK EU adventurers with no objectives but work was abundant, there were the first student exchanges, and some had married into French families. I did not meet any UK people who simply came here to live and work at that time.

 

Most of us found the difference between the UK and France as difficult as between the UK and China. They just did not live, eat or drink like us.

 

I was advised by the first UK settlers to just join in and enjoy myself, which I did.

I first met French culture when I organised the “entente cordiale” between the Concorde R&D groups of UK RAE and French ONERA. It was unbelievable, when the opportunity to have a job and career change came, I took up nuclear engineering in France.

 

I returned to the UK which had drastically changed – Thatcher, strikes, riots. My name  was plagiarised in my work. I had to leave the UK after my employers failed to protect me. I returned to France.

The first time every one talked of the quality of life in France, the second time it was the Iraqi wars and crisis.

 

So what do you need to work and survive in France now and how can the IET French Community help.

France is huge; it is not realistic to travel from SE or SW France for a meeting in Paris.

Maybe we need a newcomers guide such as most French towns give to new arrivals.

France is still totally different from the UK.

We have different categories of IET members who are at least engineering & technology related.

 -Ex-patriot, UK enterprise sales & marketing staff, Erasmus students, Enterprises from the UK that have delocalised with their staff, those that have married into families, entrepreneurs and SMEs in IT technology and those that now just want to work and live in France etc.

What would you advise
  • Should we have a MIET arrivals’ guide

  • Should we have guides to French language courses

  • Should we have guides to CPD in France

  • Should we give advice on French administration

  • What about the dos and don’ts of French culture.


Or should we just mind our own business and keep it to ourselves?

 

I recommend reading : Stephen Clarke – 1000 years of annoying the French and other titles and most of his references. French English history is not as taught in schools.
  •  Out of season hotels in France are cheap, maybe one or two visits with IET families or friends to E&T venues could be affordable.


And the French Community AGM & voting should be on line and at distance.

I’m retiring from E&T have fun in France

 

Give Rob McCann some help

 

John Gowman MIET (ex ITEME Grenobl 1980)

 

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  • 0
    John (Turton), I sympathise with your disappointment. I'm not sure how many members the IET actually has in the Toulouse area but I’m pretty sure it is far fewer than the RAeS. However, for IET members to attend such a meeting they do need to be informed about it and this sort of communication with members has been a real problem for quite some time now. I am signed up to receive information about events in France but your post was the first I heard of this meeting.

    On the other hand, I’m not sure just how much the IET will “continue to push out internationally” as I fear that Brexit will put an end to the mobility of IET members. Membership of the European Union was key to the creation of IET poles in many countries as a result of increased mobility. In fact, many moons ago when I presented the history of the IEE in France, the presentation started with General de Gaulle’s death in 1970. Until that time, the UK’s path to Europe was blocked and IEE members in Paris were lucky to be able to organise a dinner every other year. After the UK’s accession to the EU, the IEE French Centre came into being in 1990 and has held meetings in many places across a country that is four times the size of England. These “non-Paris-centric” meetings depended heavily on local members in their organisation in the days when the local organisation had access to membership data and could easily get in touch with other members in the provinces. Data protection has put a stop to that, effectively putting an end to any geographical dimension to events. However, if you wanted to offer a bit of your time to the French LN I’m sure this would be much appreciated.

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  • 0
    John (Turton), I sympathise with your disappointment. I'm not sure how many members the IET actually has in the Toulouse area but I’m pretty sure it is far fewer than the RAeS. However, for IET members to attend such a meeting they do need to be informed about it and this sort of communication with members has been a real problem for quite some time now. I am signed up to receive information about events in France but your post was the first I heard of this meeting.

    On the other hand, I’m not sure just how much the IET will “continue to push out internationally” as I fear that Brexit will put an end to the mobility of IET members. Membership of the European Union was key to the creation of IET poles in many countries as a result of increased mobility. In fact, many moons ago when I presented the history of the IEE in France, the presentation started with General de Gaulle’s death in 1970. Until that time, the UK’s path to Europe was blocked and IEE members in Paris were lucky to be able to organise a dinner every other year. After the UK’s accession to the EU, the IEE French Centre came into being in 1990 and has held meetings in many places across a country that is four times the size of England. These “non-Paris-centric” meetings depended heavily on local members in their organisation in the days when the local organisation had access to membership data and could easily get in touch with other members in the provinces. Data protection has put a stop to that, effectively putting an end to any geographical dimension to events. However, if you wanted to offer a bit of your time to the French LN I’m sure this would be much appreciated.

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