President's Notice – June 2015

Thank you to the members for electing me at North Berwick, which was our best ever attended annual gathering, so thank you to everyone who made the effort to come.

Council Meeting – May
We have had our first council meeting when Caspar and Edwin were welcomed as new chairmen of Professional Development and Sustainability Committees. We all look forward to working with them over the coming years. This meeting is also the start of the new 5 year plan and there remains much to think about. At the fore-front of this is a new effort to promote the work of the Institute more widely.

2016 AGM and Conference
We are still planning to go to Northern Ireland and plans are progressing but we are not ready to announce where or when yet. Dates and exact venue are not yet fixed.

2015 Study Tour
This is coming ever closer – only 3 months now. Julia, Ross and I went for a reconnaissance trip to Royal St George’s, Royal Cinque Ports, the hotel and Leeds Castle in May. We will do the same for the Berkshire venues after Julia’s well-earned holiday. Once again, Julia’s control of this substantial event is admirable – Ross and I are just making up the numbers! I really hope that this tour will be every bit as good and as memorable as the first two were.

Promotion and PR
Our marketing advisor, Lindsay, met with council in May and we are going to work closely with her over the next 12 months on a variety of new initiatives to make the EIGCA more visible and recognised for its professionalism. One part of will be giving one member the chance to promote one of their own projects every month. Quite how each will be selected has not yet been decided, but active member involvement is essential for this to be a success.

Professional Development
Caspar has taken over as chair of the Professional Development Committee with Libor continuing to help him which is great. It is hoped to have another workshop, along similar lines to the Marketing one, either late this year or early next year. The topics have not yet been finalised.

Sustainability Committee
Edwin is now in charge and is pushing to bring more members through the webinar stage and onto their Case Studies – Ruben and Achim have already done this so the race is on to be first on the register. Edwin is looking to get a group of at least another six members to that stage by the end of the year. This project is really important to the profile of the Institute. Our Industry Partners and The R&A have helped to fund it so it is vital that we do our part.

EIGCA Logo Clothing
The Study Tour comes ever closer. It would be a real shame if the EIGCA team did not turn up wearing the logo clothing. I saw Julia’s email and it is disappointing that there has been so little take up. It is really easy and efficient to order them.

CDM Seminar
If you work in the United Kingdom we have another exciting seminar on health and safety coming up on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 as we did when the last version was introduced in 2007. This will be open to our Industry and Consultant Partners if they are interested in attending. The timing has not yet been discussed, but it is likely to be in the autumn. Please let the office know if you are interested.

Thanks

Tom