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7180 MA (Marketing) Email to Leslie
Email to Leslie 13/07/99
I begin to understand what Tony Blair and Mo Mowlem feel like. I hope we are not getting into similar political difficulties - since this would be regrettable where, though it might not in this case a matter of life and death, the timely launch of the MA could make a very useful contribution to filling the hole in the OU's finances. I had thought we had all fully agreed the principles behind the MA, along with most of the detail, at the previous meeting(s). The reason for the discussion of the revised blueprint was only that the format had been changed (when the accounting certificate) was presented to School Board. In any case, I believe that everyone should have as many opportunities to debate such proposals as possible, and indeed the last meeting usefully developed the idea of the induction package for B820.
From now on, there are no specific meetings planned for the MA itself, and certainly none dedicated to it, since I had thought - as I have said - we had agreed all the principles involved (which is all we need do at this stage) and the next forum for debate should be the MBA Board on 5 October; also as previously agreed. As your email suggests, not the least reason was that - being the summer holiday period, I thought that everyone was very tied up. I had, however, suggested that the B82X interest group meetings should also allow some time for discussion of any last-minute comments on the details of the MA (such as those raised, rather more dramatically than I had expected, by Tony in his email). All of my contributions must be informal, since - as already agreed (not least by School Board) - the responsibility for the programme - assuming it is approved - must ultimately rest fairly and squarely on MBA Board, and in particular on Richard Wheatcroft's shoulders. Even so, I assume that anyone who wants can call a meeting to discuss it further; and I will be happy to attend such meetings - and would hope that Richard is also invited. If you do feel that another meeting dedicated to the MA is needed, therefore, please do get your secretary to call one; and, if you feel that the electronic responses to Tony's email (such as the one I have already sent) will not resolve the issues, then this new meeting could also address these.
The B82X interest group is a rather different matter. We have asked Martin Sullivan to, as usual, advertise this; so that anyone who wants to participate can do so (and even if they can't attend the meetings they can contribute electronically - as Tony has already done so effectively). We were, however, expecting that the academic marketing group would form the core of this (and the membership of B885, with the addition of yourself who we had assumed would also want to join, largely covers this). In addition, though the PLANET form won't be needed until early next year, we felt that it would be beneficial if we could at least come to some conclusions about the overarching framework before the MBA Board debated the MA. Unfortunately, the only dates we found possible were those on 31 August and 28 September - and even then some members could not attend. If you want another meeting which you can attend yourself, please ask Mo Vernon to arrange this; though you may find that attendance may be problematic for some people - though not myself, as I will happily drop everything to get to it.
I had hoped I had opened up enough informal opportunities to debate both the MA and B82X, but - as I have said above - feel free to provide extra alternatives. These are important issues, and must not be fudged, though they are also important enough that I, for one, do not want the MA to fall by being 'talked out of time'!
Even more important, perhaps, we have recently - as a marketing group - been working well together, not least on this MA. I personally would hate to even contemplate any return to the divisive tensions of early last year. If the general view within the marketing group is that we want to kill the MA, for whatever reasons - be they real of political - then let us kill it now!
David Mercer
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