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Bridge House Hotel, Reigate
New Members Meeting, 12 September 2006
Colin Wall
Colin Wall, current President of the Institute addressed members new and old at the branch meeting on 12 September. Colin is based in Hong Kong and is as much a mediator as an arbitrator. He started his career in Dubai where he received a court appointment to act as arbitrator and later got appointments in Hong Kong. In around 1990 he ran the first mediation training course in Hong Kong and went on to the United States to sit in on mediation there to gain further experience. He then began to work properly as a mediator primarily in construction but not restricted to that field.
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Colin Wall presents some new members with their certificates |
As President of the Institute part of his manifesto is to do more for young members i.e. those under 40, including inviting them onto established committees. All branch chairmen are to be invited to have a young member on their committee. He is promoting "nuts & bolts" lectures to cover the basics on the arbitration process and to get young members to invite people from other professions to attend. He has arranged a social function for members of the Bar, the Law Society, engineers etc. to get together for a fun evening. Rob Bourn, chairman of the Young Members Group is organising a young members' conference to take place in Edinburgh about which more later.
Colin is keen to raise the profile of the Chartered Institute in ADR and mediation because despite it's name the Institute is not solely involved in arbitration. It's resolution schemes have increasingly become widened to include mediation and there are quarterly lectures held at Bloomsbury Square on mediation.
He is strengthening the Institute's profile in civil law as well as common law.
The Members Conference (Croydon, 17-19 November) will contain a plenary session on common threads for mediation, adjudication and arbitration. The conference follows the Congress where the President for the next two years is elected by the international branch chairmen and it is hoped that the delegates for the Congress will then attend the conference.
Colin is visiting as many branches as he can and is keen to answer members' questions.
On the international scene particularly, he is forming sub-branches for those members who cannot reach meetings in their 'local' branch. There are several sub-branches being formed in South East Asia and Malaysia. Colin is focusing on doing more for the members. As well as offering a networking opportunity he wants to offer training in written and oral advocacy skills.
Colin confirmed that because JCT '05 now includes the Chartered Institute as an adjudicator nominating body this has led to a small increase in presidential appointments. Still to come is Accredited Adjudicator Status the aim of which is to give our panel members something to distinguish them from other adjudicators. He is also keen to encourage senior junior barristers to present legal updates on adjudication.
'Linex' will keep the members updated on developments in arbitration and adjudication.
Colin emphasized the need for members to keep their details up-to-date on the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators website. He emphasized that doing so improves your chances of an appointment particularly where they may need specialists.
Colin explained that the Institute have sent out a membership survey but even with the opportunity to win prizes this only got a 10% response. Although in survey terms this is deemed a good response he is clearly keen to hear more from the members.
He reminded members that they can join a second branch for free so that if you live or work in a different area to your main branch or you have a holiday home you can participate in another branch's activities.
Rob Bourn, Chairman of the Young Members Group then spoke about what the Institute is doing for it's young members. He confirmed that Colin is pushing the young members' agenda firstly by supporting the Young Members Group and also by promoting matters of value/interest to young members. Rob enthusiastically claimed that being part of the Institute is like being part of a family, whether you join for fun or to get qualifications. But he reiterated that members must tell the Institute what they want.
He confirmed that a young member is any member of any grade under the age of 40. It does not matter how long you have been in the Institute. The reason for the age barrier is that under 40 members are still likely to be building a career and usually work for someone else who is the decision maker being a director or partner in the business. This is the third year for the young members international conference which has previously been held in Paris and in London. This year's venue is Edinburgh and will include elements of training, a formal dinner and a social event.
All young members who fill in their details on the Institute's website will be contacted by Rob about joining the Young Members Group and its activities.
He reiterated that young member co-ordinators are to be involved at branch committee level. He said that 25% of the south east branch are indeed young members. Where are you?? He urged young members to attend their branch meetings and get the communication process going.
He accepted that it was sometimes difficult for young members in particular to leave the office early in order to attend branch meetings. Nevertheless he urged young members to consider what benefits they felt they could obtain from membership and whether they wanted to progress through the grades. Whilst he concluded that the benefit that any member seeks from belonging to the Institute is something that each member must decide for him or herself, he repeated Colin's message - if you want something, ASK!
Colin and Rob then took questions from the audience including such matters as why government organisations including ombudsmen always refer to CEDR for nominating mediators rather than the CIArb. Colin confirmed that this was a matter he was already addressing. There was a discussion as to whether there was resistance to mediation from lawyers on the international scene, and finally whether the Institute should change its name. Colin confirmed that this was under review and told members to watch out for a new strap line on the Journal from 2007.
Report by Jane Ryland