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Opinion - Chairman's Page
BRANCH PLAN
Robin Orme MA MPhil RIBA FCIArb is now in his second year as Chairman of the South East Branch. He is an architect, Chartered Arbitrator and accredited adjudicator. Welcome back to all members after the holiday season. At its last meeting before the summer break, your Branch Committee agreed a three-year plan for the Branch. I would like to give you a brief synopsis (the full text is on the 'new-look' Branch website at www.aritrate.org.uk).
The Branch functions primarily as a professional and social forum for those within the Branch area interested in Private Dispute Resolution. It also provides training and CPD to Chartered Institute standards, and promotes private dispute resolution (arbitration, mediation, adjudication and other forms of dispute resolution outside the Courts) and the interests of the Institute within the Branch area.
The Branch has a core of active members, but far fewer than we would like. Membership has been fairly constant, with a slight decrease from year to year. Overall the Branch is stable and could continue as it is for some years, but we feel that it could have a much healthier future. It was against this background that the Plan was drawn up. The overall aims are to:
(i) increase participation in Branch activities
(ii) increase membership and promote advancement of members to higher grades of membership
(iii) co-operate with other professional organisations in the Branch area interested in private dispute resolution
(iv) promote new private dispute resolution schemes within the Branch area
(v) improve Branch finances
How will we achieve these aims? Well, first by improving the format of our monthly meetings - new topics, improved presentations and more time to meet fellow members before and after the talk. There is also the dinner afterwards - it has proved increasingly popular with good opportunities for talking to friends and making new contacts, and it's another chance to pick the speaker'?s brains. We are also planning joint meetings twice a year with other professional organisations - the first one is with ICE on 30th November in Tonbridge. This will mean we can more easily hold meetings across the whole Branch area in parts of our area other than Reigate.
To increase membership, the Branch will continue putting on courses in conjunction with Mid Kent College. There will be regular entry courses for those wishing to join the Institute, as well as other courses aimed at a more general dispute resolution audience. The first of these will cover '?Dispute Avoidance', led by Tony Bingham. We also aim to use joint meetings as a forum for promoting the benefits of joining the Institute, as a complement to membership of a primary professional organisation.
We have been aware for some time that members have not been progressing through the grades of membership as fast as they used to. With the new Charter and Bylaws, attaining Fellowship will be easier, as it no longer includes becoming a Chartered Arbitrator. Nevertheless we plan to organise and promote a mentoring scheme for those moving up the membership grades and starting out on their dispute resolution career.
The joint meetings will, we hope, be the start of longer-term partnerships with other organisations interested in Dispute Resolution. We can achieve much more working in tandem with other like-minded organisations.
Promoting new private dispute resolution schemes is a longer-term goal. Our first task is to assess demand for such schemes, whether in the field of court-annexed mediation or in the local authority field similar to the Scheme developed with the London Borough of Hackney.
As far as Branch finances are concerned, we are always looking for ways to achieve the same (or more) for less. We shall be actively seeking sponsorship for Branch meetings for this very reason - to increase participation and to save money.
Obviously our efforts will be more successful if they match what interests and attracts existing and potential Branch members. So please give us your ideas and suggestions, either to me or to members of the Committee co-ordinating action in the following areas:
Branch meetings Jane Ryland, Murray Armes, Jon Hills
Programme Ian Williams Joint meetings Helena Brown, Peter Cousins, Peter Horne
Courses and mentoring Rod O'Driscoll
Sponsorship Helena Brown, Robin Orme
Court-annexed mediation Derek Ross, Rod O'Driscoll
New local authority schemes Jane Ryland (Contact details on the website.)
Best wishes to all
Robin Orme
Branch Chairman