CHAIRMAN'S PAGE

It gives me very great pleasure to announce that The Hon. Mr Justice Thayne Forbes QC, Head of the Technology and Construction Court, has kindly accepted the committee's invitation to become Patron of South East Branch. Mr Justice Forbes has been a member of the Branch for many years and we are delighted to be able to honour his membership and express our esteem in this way. We are also particularly pleased to be able to highlight the strong links that exist between the Judiciary and the Chartered Institute, and to give due recognition to the judicial support upon which the enforcement of arbitrators' awards and adjudicators' decisions ultimately depends. I very much look forward to welcoming our new Patron and Mrs Forbes as our guests at the Annual Dinner to be held at the Royal Engineers' Headquarters Mess in Chatham on 9 November 2001.

As this is the first edition of News & Views produced under a new editorial team, I should like to express our thanks and appreciation to our Immediate Past Chairman, David Bailey, for his sterling work as Editor over many years. The job of Editor is onerous in itself, but David's contribution to the Branch is all the more remarkable in that he was also Chairman during the last twelve months, in a period of innovation of which he and Past-Chairman Robin Orme were principal architects. Although David is now enjoying a well-earned rest from executive duties, I am pleased that he has agreed to remain on the main committee.

I should like to give a warm welcome to new Editor Roger Clarke and his editorial team, Peter Horne and Charles Stimpson. Congratulations on the high quality of this first issue, and we look forward eagerly to future issues.

As noted by the new editors in their editorial, the main objective of News & Views is to stimulate communication among members and to encourage member participation in Branch events. However, News & Views appears only three times a year, with long intervals of silence between. If members would let us have their e-mail addresses, we could issue more regular updates of what is going on and planned. Anne Kenny has kindly agreed to co-ordinate members' e-mail addresses, so I encourage all members who would like to be kept more regularly informed to e-mail Anne at akenny@arbitrators.org and ask to be put on the e-mailing list.

Proper communication is a two-way thing, and I am keen to get the input of members on what we do and how we do it, so that we can make our events more relevant to members' needs and wishes. One of my primary objectives as Chairman is to stimulate greater participation in Branch events, and with 711 members there is enormous scope for improvement. But we need your input to keep us on the right track. So please write to me at the address at the front of this issue, or e-mail me at derekross@compuserve.com, if you would like to make a suggestion or express a view.

As many of you know, South East Branch has opted for category B status under the Secretary General's new Strategic Review. This means that we have elected to run Entry Courses to introduce new members to the Chartered Institute. I am happy to report that, under the impetus and direction of Roderick O'Driscoll, plans for holding an Entry Course in conjunction with Brighton University on two consecutive Saturdays in October 2001 are now well advanced. To maintain this momentum for future courses, we are keen to identify new delegate groups who may wish to participate. So if any of you have ideas, or would like to become involved in promoting future courses, please contact Rod at the address at the front of this issue.

Looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at forthcoming events.