I do not know whose idea this was, but consider the following: I work in one particular field of occupational health and safety in which I have been active for many years. I spend considerable time ensuring that my knowledge in this field is as up to date as possible. I do not operate in other areas of health and safety, but certainly would consider myself as a professional in my particular area. If I were to attempt to become a chartered member this would involve considerable cost and time which would then not be spent developing knowledge, new techniques, etc. in my particular area and would be of no benefit to either me, my partners or my clients. Incidentally the IIRSM has accepted me as a Fellow, based on my work in my field. My daughter, who works with me (and has a PhD in skin health surveillance) has been accepted as a specialist member of the Faculty of Occupational Hygiene. IOSH does not appear to have any procedure for recognising those who have specialised in one particular area, so I remain merely a lowly affiliate.

Oh yeh - and then spend the rest of your career proving to various organisations/affiliations that your competent.

Good responses by Chris Packham and Rayrapp. Though the credentials under Chris's name list him as an IOSH member, his type of membership is not shown and doesn't need to be because it's irrelevant as regards this forum. However, what is clear in my opinion from the content and style of Chris's numerous postings on this forum is that he is constructive, informative and a notable contributor to OS&H with his specialism. Also, I confess to being flummoxed initially by the reference to "SMP" in the thread title. However, I'd recently skimmed through the latest (Sept) edition of the IOSH magazine and vaguely recalled seeing the word 'coast' in the heading of an article in it. For the benefit of forum users, especially newcomers, who are not IOSH members, the magazine is the "Safety & Health Practitioner" alias SHP.