The Arboricultural Association guidance states that it will consider your ‘experience, contribution and achievements in the industry’ when considering your application for Fellowship.
Nobby Clarke receiving his Fellowship certificate from AA Chair Jaime Bray. Left to right: Mick Boddy, Simon Richmond, Jaime Bray, Nobby Clarke, Graham Underhill and Simon Stuart.
That is quite a benchmark, and I can’t say I was either totally comfortable with it or particularly confident about the outcome, but ultimately, I considered it was a benchmark worth measuring myself against.
Putting together the Fellowship application is, as I found out, quite an involved process. It is an interesting, and at times deeply introspective, journey. You look at aspects of your career from different angles, and different perspectives, and the process allows you to reflect on and evaluate some of the weird and wonderful steps you have taken. It’s certainly not something you would want to take on lightly.
It’s a big ask, to pore over and dissect your professional life, collate the evidence in a document as your anonymised life’s work, then hand it to a panel of industry professionals to review, minutely scrutinise and judge.
Having been successful with my application, I am extremely honoured to have been awarded this Fellowship. It is professional recognition from an organisation whose members and values I hold in the very highest esteem. It’s a great feeling, and for me, a big achievement.
This article was taken form Issue 185 Summer 2019 of the ARB Magazine, which is available to view free to members by simply logging in to the wesbite and viewing your profile area.