Come together

I have been involved in discussions about mergers recently. Not of commercial organisations, but of professional societies. The reason is that “professionalism’(in the sense of being part of a community of fellow professionals) seems to have lost its appeal. Apart from the very few (perhaps “real”)professions where membership is a “license to practice”, the specialists have given way to the (better educated) generalists, supported by the high flying consultant to give expertise (and hopefully credibility) to particular investigations and decisions. There is no point lamenting this change; we have to deal with the world in which we find ourselves. Thus,mergers!