Hiya - yes I did that.
I believe the value in rospa is in the regular retesting. It's both included in the fees and mandatory (if you want to retain membership)
You can do a retest at the iam but it's an extra charge and the big thing is you have to proactively motivate yourself as it's purely voluntary the problem is that as a result hardly anyone ever does it. I've been planning to do it for years but never got round to it and as a senior rospa tutor I'd say I'm pretty motivated.
I got a silver first time, but after 3 years I got the gold.
If you go on the various ride outs the difference between rospa who retest and iam who don't is night and day.
Rospa is cheap as chips and offer subsidised first aid courses and locally we do trips as well.
Iam are good for the first test but offer little formally to members for retraining. The only path is to become an observer. That is a good thing but it does not focus on you own riding.
There is of course no law against joining several clubs to get the best of both of them and personally I'm glad there is some choice.
I've given most of my volunteer effort to Rospa recently and that's because I believe in re-testing.
The fact that doctors, nurses, paramedics, lorry drivers, electricians etc. etc. have to undergo frequent re-training and re-testing tells me that there is a large body of evidence that it's worthwhile.
I do understand though that not everyone would join if that was a pre-requisite and therefore the IAM offer something that's very valuable to the motoring community.
I belong to both so I can get the benefit of the events/trips/courses offered by both.
It's very inexpensive especially if you believe the on-going participation reduces your chances of having an accident (and you may get some financial benefits elsewhere e.g. insurance).
