A few years back when I first retired, I saw a message on the BBC website seeking volunteers for its Scottish viewers' panel. The intention was, they said, to widen the range of members and make it more representative of Scottish viewers. I've often been very critical of the poor quality of news-gathering on BBC Scotland TV especially, so I decided it was time to do my bit as a volunteer.
I followed the link on the website for the application form. It seemed the BBC didn't have a special section on its site for volunteers but expected me to complete a form for a job application. The first few pages asked for personal details. Fine. The next pages asked for academic qualifications and at page 14 I was still trying to fit my Scottish school and university qualifications into a form obviously designed in London with English, Welsh and N Irish candidates in mind. O levels? Don't have them. A levels? Sorry. The section asking when I'd been at university didn't let me put in my 3 qualifications and only covered 3 years rather than the 6 years of university education I'd had in Scotland.
However, I kept on going. My university subjects weren't all recognised - no ticky boxes for Drama, Moral Philosophy or Russian. My teaching qualification wasn't recognised. Nor was my work experience (in a wages office and the dispatch office of a bakery and later editing scripts and writing handbooks for C4 education programmes).
By the time I'd reached page 14 I still hadn't been asked anything about my life experience or what I could offer the panel if appointed. Call me naive but I'd have said these were the only really important bits of information anyone needs. If you really wanted to bring in a wider range of members to the volunteer panel, you'd want to know if they'd brought up a family or been carers, where they'd worked, how they spent their free time - maybe even what kind of telly they liked!
At that point, I gave up. Well, I'd no way of knowing how many more pages there were on the form (no, Geoff, it wasn't a Pdf!) and time is precious when you get to my age!
But it gave me an insight - maybe a false one - into how the BBC operates: someone had been employed to devise that form and no doubt somebody was employed to plough through the replies and separate the job seekers from the volunteers. A wee group would be convened to consider the volunteer applications and discard applicants found wanting. Then there would be interviews. Letters and emails would fly back and forth and eventually the mountain would rumble and spit out a mouse - or maybe 3 volunteers for the viewers' panel. All highly bureaucratic, centralised and costly.
But the most important thing is: does this process get you the best people? In volunteering terms, I would say no.
I'm a good volunteer to have around. I do the job carefully, follow the rules (mostly) and understand about stuff like health and safety. But I gave up at page 14 of the form. How about people who are interested in the media but have no academic qualifications? Would they even get to page 14 before deciding the BBC's wish to bring in a wider range of people to its viewers' panel was a joke - and this off-putting form was proof of that?
The great thing about volunteering is: you don't have to do it. This is something that her maj's government doesn't seem to realise (By the way, I just loved their suggestion that 60 year olds volunteer to look after 80 year olds!) and we do exercise quality control, believe me. I gave up on one volunteering slot because I didn't like how volunteers were treated. I said so and nothing happened, so I walked. Two colleagues have just chucked the library home delivery service in Glasgow because they have been messed about over their travel expenses (12.6p per mile - yes, you read that right!) for 5 months.
Looking at the BBC from the outside, I'd say it shares characteristics with organisations like BT, RBS and Scottish Power. It's too big. Still too centrally organised, despite efforts to get it dispersed to the 'regions'. Too remote from its customers - except we the viewers are also the owners!
In news terms, it has fallen way behind C4 News and Sky News. STV's late evening news programme has Reporting Scotland knocked into a cocked hat. If Newsnight is toast, that's fine by me. It was, after all, the London news people who said there would only be a 'Scottish 6' news over 'their dead bodies'. Folks, that can be arranged, especially if you play right into the hands of the Tory Party, as happened last week.
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