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Opinion
Branch Chairman's Open Letter to the Branch
I have been asked write a few words to introduce myself as your new Branch Chairman. Most of you will already recognise my name as I have been Secretary for the past couple of years, but I was honoured and flattered to be elected by the Committee to take over as Chairman from Robin Orme at the September meeting.
I could not start this 'letter to the Branch' without first acknowledging Robin's immense contribution throughout his term as Chairman, and thank him on behalf of all of us for his tireless commitment to moving the Branch forward and developing its strengths for the future. Many of you may not realise just how much thought and effort he has put into maintaining the high standard of meetings and other events, and the amount of time he has spent representing the interests of our Branch. The past couple of years have seen the implementation of Agenda for Change and other changes to the structure of the Institute, and Robin has worked tirelessly to make sure that the views of our Branch have been contributed and our needs communicated. He has, quite understandably, stepped down to allow more time for his 'day job' and other commitments, and he certainly deserves to have the opportunity to spend his time on other things. I hope to be able to continue to build on the strong foundations provided for the Branch by Robin's hard work. I am also lucky to be part of, and supported by, a similarly dedicated Committee, that has backed up Robin's commitment and hard work over the years.
I must admit that I was somewhat surprised to be asked to take on the mantle of Chairman, being as I am an Associate who has only been involved in the Branch and the Institute for three years. I was, as I mentioned before, flattered to be asked to take over from Robin and, despite my initial hesitancy, was reassured when the Committee seemed to think I was up to the task. On that basis, I agreed to 'give it a go' and I can only promise that I will make my best endeavours to follow on suitably from those who have gone before!
One thing I hope is that my being elected as Chairman might perhaps encourage others in a similar position to get more involved with the Branch and the Institute; as a member, it is your Branch and your Institute after all. I hope that it might go some way towards convincing younger or newer members that anyone is welcome and can contribute if they so wish; all they have to do is show willing. I suspect that it may be a belief amongst new or young members that you must be around for about 100 years before you can get involved with your Branch or be welcomed at Branch meetings and events. I had perhaps erred towards that impression when I was first joined the Branch, but I am pleased to have been proved wrong. Many of my fellow Committee members are either younger or newly qualified members (indeed some are still ploughing through the route to fellowship or Chartered status), and the more established members have been nothing but welcoming and supportive to us all.
At the time of writing, I have just returned from Congress - the biennial meeting of Branch Chairman, attended by many of the Board of Trustees and other Institute representatives - and from the Members' Conference held in our own Branch area at Selsdon Park.
The Members' Conference proved to be a most enjoyable weekend, and there are a couple of notable points worth reporting from Congress, in addition to the election of two future presidents of the Institute, Teresa Cheng and John Campbell.
The first is that, for all our local difficulties and concerns, it was enlightening to learn the extent to which we really are part of a global Institute. I am aware that many members feel that perhaps the UK Branches have been set aside or forgotten about whilst the Institute expanded its global interests, but it is no understatement to say that I, and many other UK Chairmen, came away humbled and inspired by what our International colleagues had to say. Our local problems, which of course do need addressing, nevertheless pale somewhat when compare with, say, the Lebanon Branch, whose Chairman made an impassioned plea for support and help. Since being founded in November 2003, Lebanon Branch had made immense progress in spreading knowledge and building membership, and is active and desperate to continue and grow. Their particular local problem is that they are trying to do this against the backdrop of war. The Branches in Africa all have huge landmasses to cover, but determinedly continue to organise an active programme of meetings. Members of the Kenyan Branch strive to progress, despite the fact that training courses can cost 9 months salary. Zimbabwe have similar, and clearly many other, battles, and every time anything is organised they then have to deal with 1000% (and rising) inflation. The commitment, determination and loyalty of these Chairman and their Committees certainly puts things into perspective, and I think most of the UK Chairmen came away agreeing that we should consider ourselves lucky by comparison!
The second thing to note is the very strong message that we must all make an effort to encourage and support our young members. The Institute's Young Members Group (YMG) started in 2003, with a Young Member considered as any member under the age of 40. The decision was taken to define a Young Member in this way (as opposed to other organisations which also extend 'young membership' to those newly qualified, whatever their age) as it was felt that this distinction particularly recognises that those under 40 are probably also trying to build their primary profession and that this has its own set of restrictions and difficulties.
It is incredible to realise that 25% of the Institute's membership fit into this category. This statistic is pretty much consistent across the Branches, which in our case means that there are almost 200 of you out there in the South East region. Following discussions at Congress, it is high on my list of priorities to make sure that our Branch provides for the needs of our Young Members, and I will be discussing some ideas with the Committee so that we can put things into action. It is also the Institute's intention that a YMG Co-ordinator will be appointed for each Branch, and it is my intention that we will work with them closely so that we start to meet the needs of our Young Members.
Although our well attended 'New Members' meeting in September was perhaps a good first step, none of us can ignore the fact that the presence of Young Members is sadly lacking at our Branch meetings. I hope that we can start to rectify this in the very near future, and in the meantime I would appeal to Young Members to perhaps give our normal Branch meetings a go. Whilst we undoubtedly need to provide events alongside our regular programme that are particularly suited the needs of our Young Members, you might also be pleasantly surprised - as I was three years ago - that the topics are actually interesting and other members welcoming. One other advantage in our Branch is that you know that at least one other Young Member will always be there as she'll be the one chairing it!
Before drawing this to a close, I must just say that I am very much looking forward to our forthcoming programme of meetings, details of which can be found in this issue of News & Views. I hope that you will agree that we have secured a very impressive and varied group of speakers, and we have tried to include a decent range of topics of interest to many of you across the Branch. Some of the names will be known to many of you, particularly Marion Rich, Rod Pettigrew, Tony Ensom and Peter Chapman - indeed both Tony and Peter are members of the Branch. Those in the construction field will also know the name of Keating Chambers, who have kindly provided Vince Moran to speak at our May meeting. Moving away from construction, Deputy Costs Judge Jennifer James will give a most welcome talk on dealing with costs in February, and Hugh Wright from the Law Society will enlighten all professionals on how you can deal with your (often difficult!) customers, clients and parties in March. March also sees the Branch AGM and I would encourage anyone interested in having a more active role in the Branch to put themselves forward for election to the Committee. We are particularly pleased that all of these meetings have been accredited for 1.5 CPD Hours by the Law Society and would welcome members' feedback as to whether it is useful if we carry this on for future meetings. One of the common problems all Branches face - and ours is certainly no exception - is in trying to stimulate and maintain members' interest in Branch activities and to try and provide what members actually want from their Branch. Unless members tell us what they want - or perhaps even more importantly what they don't want - we can only guess at what your needs and wants are. I am personally keen to hear from any of you about what you'd like to see more - or less - of in the Branch Programme. Would you like us to have a joint meeting with your other professional organisation, or have something different on the website? If you have any ideas then I would love to hear them; my contact details are inside the front cover of this newsletter.
Having now read this back to myself, I see that I have actually swerved nicely around my brief from the Editor to provide a bit of information about myself, and have managed to talk about everything but instead. Well for those who haven't met me already, my 'day job' is as Practice Manager for MCMS, a practice specialising in construction ADR. I have been in the industry for about 6 years now, and, in addition to the Institute, I am a member of the Society of Construction Law and the Adjudication Society. I organise a couple of conferences a year for the Construction Group of Arbrix, and my colleagues at MCMS number amongst them the Secretary of CIArb London Branch, the Director of Courses and Training for West Midlands Branch and the regional convenor for the London Region of the Adjudication Society. My partner is also in the industry, so I spend very little time away from dispute resolution all in all. If you want to know any more than that about me then you'll have to come and say "Hello" at a Branch meeting sometime!
Helena Brown