Members make their voices heard at CIOB Members' Forum

Many organisations limit debate by coming to decisions behind closed doors in advance of AGMs or other set-piece meetings. While this can give the appearance of effective management, it does not improve understanding of the views, needs and aspirations of stakeholders.

By contrast, CIOB’s Members’ Forum provided a real opportunity for debate this year when a paper was presented on the direction of the development of the CIOB regional and local organisation. Proposals which had been worked up over 18 months by a team of members and independent researchers, were put to the meeting and members brought their local insights to bear on the resulting growth and development plans. The proposals covered the reform of communications, CPD activities and the organisational structure of the local CIOB and were debated by members of CIOB who had come together in Cambridge to help set the future direction of the organisation.

Members praised the research and the high quality of the resulting recommendations and proposals. They were supportive of moves to provide a base line level of CPD which will be common wherever you are in the world. They were also supportive of a proposal to substantially improve communications by having a clear programme of differentiated email newsletters, produced by head office staff, to be added to with local information by local staff to increase their interest for local members.

Members were concerned however, about the proposed changes to the regional structure and their implicationsHaving heard the debate, the CIOB Board of Trustees elected to re-visit those elements of the proposals which had caused concern and to bring a revised proposal back to a future meeting.

Chief Executive Chris Blythe drew attention to the importance of Members’ Forum in providing a voice for CIOB members. “It’s been a great Members’ Forum. Members who have attended have been tweeting and blogging about what’s been going on and getting feedback from other members. There has been a real buzz about the event with opportunities for members to exchange views and provide us with their thoughts and insights which are essential if we are to meet their needs.”

All members were asked to input to the Members Forum website so that all those who could not attend can get a real flavour of the debates and information on plans and developments.
Members voted on the future of Members’ Forum and agreed that it was important for the Institution to emphasise its international membership by holding the forum in the UK only every other year. Consequently the next Members’ Forum will be held in Hong Kong in 2016 to be followed by Cardiff in 2017 and New York in 2018.

During the Members’ Forum, Chris Chivers took over from Professor Ghassan Aouad as President of CIOB. He was highly impressed by the quality of debate and the strength of the outputs of the Forum: “The effort put in at this event will make a significant change in next year and beyond. The Institute is at the point of lift off. Things will never be the same again, the Institute will become much more high-profile and people worldwide who have not engaged with CIOB before will soon be hearing about us and feeling motivated to join a body which is unique in the built environment. CIOB represents those who do the complex and exacting job of managing construction projects or buildings and of helping them to provide excellent services, wherever they started from in construction.

“The Institute is in a very sound financial position and will be using this security to develop services which will help members do an even better job. I feel proud to be President at the start of a year of great change and development for our Institute and one in which the Institute as a whole, and its members will make an even greater contribution to the quality of our built environment.”