The 2004 elections closed at 17:00 yesterday, 3 May 2004, and the following candidates have been elected to the Consultative Committee:

• Jon Axtell (JonAxtell)
• Colette Mason (MsAngry)
• Julie Stewart (JulieStewart)
• Simon Griffiths (SimonG)
• Richard Robson (Dick)
• Keith Hogben (helmsman)
• Paul Chapman (ZATHRAS)
• Chris Woollacott (clw)
• Andrew Banks (wasADB)
• Stuart Ritchie (sr)
• Andrew Humphreys (andyatfirsway)
• Stephen Sowerby (SGMS)
• Pamela Edwards (Austen)
• Leigh Mount (diver)
• Matthew Hanchett (Fat32Stone)
• Stephen Hunter (StephenHu)
• Alexander Heney (alexheney)

These 17 members join 13 previously-elected members who were not up for re-election this year. The first meeting of the new Consultative Committee will take place on Saturday 8 May 2004.

The response to the ISO9001 initiative has been extremely positive with over half of the Founder places having already been reserved on a provisional basis.

It is clear that a lot of members believe that this marque of excellence in professionalism will add material value to their businesses. The prospectus will be available to all members very shortly and that will be your opportunity to take up your Founder's place.

The project team is continuing its dialogue with businesses large and small, and can report a huge amount of enthusiasm for the idea that smaller companies will soon have access to government work.

At the individual freelancer level, there is excitement too, as companies see an opportunity of working with independently-audited people whom they can trust more readily. It reduces their exposure to project risk.

If you want to be at the forefront of this groundbreaking opportunity by signing up as a Founder of this scheme, then you can secure your place by registering now. Those who have already indicated their interest on a feedback form at one of the recent Smarter Freelancing seminars need not register their details again.

PCG held its first co-hosted seminar with Affiliate member Baker Watkin in Stevenage last Wednesday evening. The event, which was very well-attended, included presentations on "Marketing yourself and learning to network for better business" and "Top 10 tax tips for freelance consultants".

Most of the delegates thought that it would be a good idea to run this type of regional event regularly, and would be willing to attend them in the future and to recommend them to fellow freelancers. Given that the seminar was fully-booked 10 days before the event, it would seem that there is clearly a demand for events of this nature, and PCG will investigate the feasibility of working with its Affiliates and partners to extend the programme throughout the regions.

Baker Watkin, a firm of chartered accountants and business advisers, is offering a free one-hour consulting session to freelance businesses, and if you would like to take advantage of this offer, please contact James Abbott at Baker Watkin on (01438) 750 555 or by email at [email protected]

The Inland Revenue has won its case against Future On Line Ltd, which was handled by JSA Accountants. Special Commissioner, His Honour Stephen Oliver QC, who was the Commissioner who ruled in favour of the freelancer in the Tilbury Consulting case in the autumn of 2003, presided over the case of Future On Line Ltd (appellant) and SK Faulds (HM Inspector of Taxes). See discussion thread.

TrainingSphere, the education and training arm of ConnectSphere, recently joined PCG as an Affiliate member. It provides training, coaching and mentoring services in all aspects of IT service Management.

As a BCS/ISEB accredited trainer, TrainingSphere provides a range of public-accredited ISEB IT Service, Support and Delivery courses, as well as customer-specific tailored ITIL awareness and skills development training programmes and associated ITIL and BS15000-related consultancy services.

PCG members can book any of the publicly-offered training courses, as advertised on TrainingSphere's website or that of its course organiser, Unicom. PCG members are eligible for a discount of 30% on advertised list prices. See the Affiliate section of the website for full details.

Independent of IT security vendors and their products, 7Safe offers penetration testing, security standard implementation (BS 7799) and information security training and development.

7Safe was established by information security professionals and was the world's first to introduce Penetration Testing certification for IT professionals in the form of the Certified Security Testing Associate (CSTA) and Certified Security Testing Professional (CSTP) qualifications.

PCG members can take advantage of 7Safe's hands-on ethical hacking and computer forensics training; earn a recognised qualification and CPE points (for CISSP & SSCP from ISC2 ).

7Safe also provides management level training, such as its one-day non-technical Hacking Insight for Managers course.

Members are provided with preferential terms for all 7Safe training courses as well as the full range of Information Security related products. Simply visit the affiliate page or website to view further details and quote your PCG membership number at point of sale.

For further details contact 7Safe on 01223 830 007 or visit their website at www.7safe.com.

Interim management firm Russam GMS is offering places at the "Six Degrees of Separation" networking masterclass run by Management Advantage at a special subsidised price.

The course will be running on 19 May in London and on 22 June in Manchester, and is designed to offer practical coaching in a workshop environment. For further information see http://www.russam-gms.co.uk/executiveintro.cfm.

Senior business analyst - Birmingham
An experienced senior business analyst is required for a six month assignment. The successful applicant will have a minimum of six years' business analysis experience in a blue chip environment. An HR or retail background is highly desirable. Commercial forum posting

Business analysts - Suffolk
Eight experienced business analysts required to work on a client site in Suffolk. Successful candidates will have a proven track record in business analysis / business process engineering (BPR) and recent experience of working in the public sector. SSADM knowledge and experience would be an advantage. Commercial forum posting

Application packager - Northampton
Application packager required for one month, with potential for rolling contract. Requires strong MSI/Windows Installer skills. Wise experience preferable but not essential. No agency involvement. Commercial forum posting

Various contracts
Test analyst, change manager, Vista 4GL developer, digital TV embedded engineers, Uniface developers, Embedded C engineers, risk analyst, credit risk business analyst, summit analyst/consultant (Germany). Commercial forum posting

CEO and MBI opportunities
Russams is looking for a CEO for a venture capital and University seed capital backed University technology spinout, and also has an MBI opportunity. Commercial forum posting

Edinburgh - Tuesday 4 May
Bert's Bar, William Street.
Forum discussion.
Contact: john_ferguson (John Ferguson)

Kent and surrounds - Monday 17 May 2004 19:30
TGI Fridays, Bluewater.
Forum discussion.
Contact: Fat32Stone (Matt H)

Thames Valley / Maidenhead - Wednesday 19 May 2004 20:00
Meal at Purple Elephant Thai restaurant. Please confirm your attendance in advance, so that a table for the appropriate number of diners can be booked.
Forum discussion.
Contact: bergerc (Charles Berger)

London: SQL focus group - Tuesday 25 May 2004 18:00
Any SQL developers (any flavour) interested in participating in a focus group to discuss the state of the market, please email Simon Juden at [email protected].

AICS London - Tuesday 25 May 2004 19:00
IT and e-Commerce Law. Guest speaker Simon Halberstam of Sprecher Grier Halberstam LLP, who will discuss the considerations and obligations of contracting over the internet and the use of IT and e-Commerce templates to support B2B agreements.
Forum discussion.
Contact: ashmele (John Ashmele)

Disclaimer - caveat emptor - PCG carries very limited advertising only from known and reputable Affiliates and complementary organisations. Even so, publication of any advertisement carries no implicit or explicit endorsement by PCG.

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