A Very Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all.
It is a great pleasure to be writing for the 50th edition of News & Views, the magazine that has brought such prestige and identity to South East Branch for the past 17 years. Publication of the 50th edition of any periodical is a remarkable achievement, and in this case it has been brought about by the resolve of a surprisingly small band of editors and sub editors since Dennis James founded it in 1986.
I was amazed to learn that since its inception only 10 people have served on the editorial boards of News & Views. Some editors – Dennis, and Francis Miller who followed him, and more recently David Bailey – have edited the journal single-handed – a brave and time-consuming undertaking. No less commendably, other editors, like the late Paul Darrington, Derek Jerram, Peter Horne and the current editor Roger Clarke, have performed this task in collaboration and with the help of sub editors John Coleman, C J Willis and Charles Stimpson. For their valuable contribution to the Branch we are extremely grateful. This edition celebrates their collective achievement on our behalf, which is unique within the UK, and a clear example of the dedication and industry of the few benefiting the many.
This New Year, with its 50th edition of News & Views and the approach of our 20th Anniversary AGM on Wednesday 19 March 2003, offers good reason for reviewing our personal aspirations and roles as members of the Branch and of the Chartered Institute. Since the Branch’s formation in 1983 there have been many changes in the Chartered Institute. Most striking for me is the broadening of its interests to embrace Adjudication and Mediation, which now challenge the pre-eminence of Arbitration as the preferred method of dispute resolution within the Chartered Institute. This broader spectrum of dispute resolution techniques suggests that no one method is the best in all situations: if we are to be effective dispute resolvers, we shall need to deploy a range of techniques as circumstances dictate. Our President, Tony Canham, made this point in person when he visited the Branch last September, and the Branch committee intend that the Branch meeting programme should reflect this.
I have long believed that the primary function of the branches is to satisfy members’ needs in priority to Headquarters’ interests, though we should try to satisfy both. Whilst these needs and interests are naturally closely associated, they are not so truly aligned in areas where the members and the Chartered Institute seek to derive benefit from each other. The Charter obliges our Institute to set and maintain standards in our profession, and that process is largely funded and supported by the contributions of members themselves. The Chartered Institute seems to see itself more as a training and examining body than as a procurer of appointments for members. The high standards it sets enhance the standing of members, but expansion of its appointing role would at once achieve the win/win ―position of increasing members’ workload while also boosting the ―Institute’s ―external income.
Whilst the Chartered Institute makes appointments when asked, it does not appear to market this service with the vigour of other institutions. It is good occasionally to come across the Chartered Institute as the default appointing body in certain standard-form contracts, but the infrequency of this suggests that more could be done to promote our Institute as an appointing body. True, massive strides have been made in the field of scheme arbitrations for various industries, but we can now offer the commercial community a complete range of dispute resolvers and dispute resolution methods outside the courts, and I sense that this is an area of commercial potential as yet somewhat underdeveloped within the Institute, particularly in relation to adjudication appointments, for reasons I have never fully understood.
Returning to branches, it is every chairman’s wish to increase member participation in branch events. The SE Branch programme is set with that aim, but our attendance record remains unflattering in relation to the Branch’s size. Statistically, only 15% of us ever attend a Branch event, and those of us who do attend rarely do so together. An evening meeting attracts 4% of the Branch membership on average, whilst perhaps 7% of us turn out for a well supported evening. Hopefully these statistics do not indicate any deep dissatisfaction among members; if they do, I should want to be told. There is huge scope to rekindle the enthusiasm that encouraged us to join the Chartered Institute at the outset. It is the 85% of members who choose not to participate at all that I would especially like to reach and understand. So if any of you have suggestions for improving what we do, please let me know. My contact details are on the committee page link.
One recent suggestion relates to Branch surgeries and CPD. To our shame, the last surgery hosted by South East Branch was back in 1999, when 36 participants attended a hugely enjoyable day of problem-solving and discussion in friendly surroundings. Since then several proposed surgeries have been cancelled, not so much for lack of interest as for reasons of cost. Given that panel members are required to attend a minimum of 60 hours of CPD in each three-year period, and pre-panel pupils are encouraged to attain at least 75% of that, what better use of Branch resources could there be? Regular attendance at our evening meetings can provide 45% of panel members’ required CPD, but the Branch clearly needs also to hold surgeries each year, and to subsidise them from our Headquarters subvention if necessary. To redress this shortcoming in our 20th anniversary year, we propose to hold a Branch Surgery (now re-titled ‘Problem-solving Workshop’) at the Reigate Manor Hotel on Saturday 15 March 2003 come what may.
I hope you all enjoy this bumper issue of News & Views, and will join me in thanking our Editors past and present for their enduring contribution to the history of the Branch. A set of back issues is now available from our current Editor, Roger Clarke (see notice on page 12), to whom all thanks are due for that initiative. And if there is anything you would like to tell me for the good of the Branch, please get in touch.
Back issues of News and Views are available on the web from January 1997 issue and are fully indexed from that date.