Paul Filmore, Chairman

A Ship in Harbour

From Dr Paul Filmore, Chairman, chairman@scimednet.org Forum: Editorial (Please comment via the members’ website)

I am sure you have heard the quote above, or variations, attributed to John Shedd, the American author. If you will humour me for a few minutes before returning to the quote, I would like to mention a radio programme I heard perhaps over a year ago and still has me concerned. The programme was about the youth of Japan and how their lifestyles are being affected by technology and by this I mean 24/7 access to the internet in its many forms. In the programme the presenters were talking to the youth and seeing a profound change in their values associated with relationships. Paraphrased, the outcome of these was towards a lifestyle of staying single, ‘enjoying the moment’, and playing games online. Officials in Tokyo and elsewhere were worried as they had already seen a decline in marriages and therefore population. Now you might say

‘A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for’. John A. Shedd.

this is a good thing, but particularly with IT allowing so readily virtual contact between people, one wonders how far this will go. I am reminded of an Asimov detective story of a murder on a planet where no one meets except virtually! In fact even the thought of being in a person’s company on this planet becomes an anathema. But I digress and need to come back to this world and trends that are of concern. In particular the fact that Japan as a leader in IT evolution with the young, so will this happen elsewhere? My feelings are that this trend of the young becoming dislocated from life is growing here in Europe. I can say this with some certainty through my experience of teaching the 18 to 24 year old age group. Alongside the ‘totally switched off group’ who pay their £9k tuition fees and then never appear in classes, are a smaller group who feel dissatisfied with what life is offering. When not partying, they are looking around for this something else. They perceive dimly that they should not be ‘staying in the harbour’, and that extreme sports are not the way forward. These are the students to whom we as an educational charity should be offering an alternative. This is why, this year, the Network has two embryonic projects: one looking at what we can offer to ‘students’ and secondly to see if we can attract academics to help further, in part with our youth. If you agree with these sentiments in any way, could you consider how we as the Network can help, or you as an individual can contribute? Perhaps we all know deep down that staying in the harbour is not what what life is about, and that by sailing out, we can help the world become a better place.

SMN Annual Meeting From Nicholas Pilbrow, Treasurer The Annual Gathering of the company was held at Horsley Park, Leatherhead on Sunday July 8th 2018 and was attended by 40 members as well as members of the Board of Directors and Trustees of the Scientific and Medical Network Charitable Trust. The Chairman said that whilst the vision of the Network had not changed and still provided a forum and safe haven for those wishing to explore the frontiers of science outside the materialist limits imposed by the current scientific and medical mainstream, we wished to expand membership to include more younger members and those from academia. Task groups have now been set up for this purpose. He also said that the new rules on data protection had now come into force which required the company to limit the availability of information on members within the company to those who specifically confirmed their agreement to it. To cater for this, he proposed two categories of membership, “Members” who agreed to make their information available to other members and “Friends, who enjoyed all the other aspects of membership but whose personal information was not made available. He reported that the company’s finances were now in much better shape but we are still looking for other ways of balancing income and expenses without requiring the SMN Trust to fill the gap. The Chairman reported that Edi Bilimoria, a past member of the Board, had again been co-opted. Accordingly he, the Chairman, Paul Kieniewicz and Joan Walton had retired by rotation. All offered themselves for re-election and the assembled company voted to re-elect them. Janine Edge, the chair of the trustees, organised a Members’ Forum to discuss the key issues of concern among the members. The main issue proved to be that of bring in younger members and academics. A number of solutions were proposed, including contacting retiring GPs, who are retiring earlier, targeting universities, appointing ambassadors from the membership and offering Continuing Professional Development Certificates.