jde - Forum regulars will guess from your reference to ‘the register' that you were alluding to the IOSH register of OS&H consultants, but other forum users might not. Anyhow, implied jest or not, surely you cannot relate the non-arrival of a speaker from IOSH HQ at a branch meeting to the nature of the consultants register. As experienced members of IOSH network committees will probably confirm, there are all sorts of reasons why expected speakers are delayed or prevented from getting to IOSH meetings as planned. Also, the IOSH HQ speaker may well have “missed the plane” due to one or more reasons beyond his/her control. If so, your criticism of the speaker might well be unfair and furthermore inappropriate for this forum. Cluck cluck!!!!