Why no letters?
The art (was it actually ever an art?) of writing letters to the editor of this august journal, seems to be very much a thing of the past. I wonder why this has happened. Is it because these days, no one has much time, or interest, for the thoughts of an individual, or does the individual have to be a person of some standing in order that their voice should be allowed precious space in such a prestige professional journal as this one?
In days of yore, there used to be a relatively flourishing ‘Letters to the Editor’ section and I have read and followed various such correspondence in the past, particularly from such treasured members as Dennis Gedge and Jeremy Winter (to name but two of our well informed and highly articulate contributors).
On this occasion, I am writing to highlight three thoughts that have sprung to my mind having perused the February 2024 edition of CES. Firstly, why has ‘Letters to the Editor’ dried up these days? Does no one have anything that they would like to observe – about anything?
Secondly, the variety and content of CES continues to be outstanding, even if, as a commercial director (or former commercial director) a lot of the geospatial engineering stuff goes right over my head! And finally, what a great idea for CICES to be sponsoring a girls football team, or indeed any young person’s football team! (CES Feb 2024 pp 08).
Why didn’t I think of that when I was a member of the institution’s Publicity and Publications Committee (yes; we used to have one of those many years ago!! Now we employ professional staff to address these institution matters).
Actually, I do know the answer to why we didn’t, but I’ll let anyone who can be bothered to speculate to write in as to the reason why!
John Bacon, Past President FCInstCES