Essex Centre

The current situation can be summarised as this:

- We have a prestigious "home" venue in room Que 101 at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, where a tiered lecture theatre provides an excellent auditorium and those attending can sit in comfort enjoying a clear view of the display and hear every word that even the quietest presenter says, thanks to the wireless microphone and full sound system.

- We provide a range of subjects that should provide a varied and informative core of CPD knowledge for those attending.

- The time (normally 7.30 to 9.30 on a weekday) appears to be reasonable and we have no history of requests to change this.

- We provide a buffet with hot and cold beverages to sustain those that must come straight from work and sharing this buffet before the lecture provides a natural time for networking.

Considering this objectively, everything seems in order, so why isn't attendance higher and why do we have almost no student attendance? I am forced to conclude that we can do little more than "fine tuning" and so, for next year's events, I propose to do this by:

- Planning events to coincide with relevant legislation as it hits our members so that they have help available to them when they are forced to come to terms with new regulations.

- Providing occasional CPD events covering slightly different topics, that are less "building" related but still of equal benefit to our members as professionals.

However, I don't think that this will make our attendance leap because the problem, in my opinion, is a national one. These as I see it are the proglems: 1) there is no requirement for CIOB members to attend any CIOB organised CPD events 2) the majority of CIOB members work for large employers who organise and pay for appropriate CPD within normal working hours - what incentive do such members have to come out in the evenings in their own time? I know that some organisation are enlightened and allow employees to book the cost and mileage, but paid overtime to attend is rare 3) members must elect to receive email notification for forthcoming events and there is great ignorance amongst members of this fact - several have asked why they have not received emails and do not realise that they must opt in to receive them. Now, consider the foregoing in the light of the fact that many members are lax in maintaining their CPD attendance and simply gamble on not being asked to produce a CPD record and then the statistic claiming that 80% of CIOB members have never attended a CIOB organised CPD event becomes totally plausible.

To address these issues is beyond the power and remit of the Essex centre acting independently, we can only highlight these issues to Englemere and lobby for four changes:

- To place a requirement on all CIOB members to attend at least one CIOB CPD event every year.

- To lobby all building employers to ensure that they are aware of the low cost of CIOB CPD events and to allow their employees attending our events to be able to book overtime and travelling expenses when attending.

- To be more rigorous in checking members CPD records.

- To raise members awareness of the fact that they must register with the CIOB in order to be able to receive email notifications of forthcoming events

What about students who will constitute our future members and fellows, how do we bring these students in? After all, investing effort now in increasing student attendance at CPD events may possibly lead to better attendance in later years, as these students progress their membership. This is something that I feel we can address and to this end, we are actively forging closer links with the Construction Management course tutors at Anglia Ruskin University to enable us to provide some CPD events every year that are contemporaneous with specific avenues of study or research that the students may be asked to undertake during the year. Furthermore, the addition of a current student to our committee will also provide us with a direct conduit to the students and should allow us to discover how best to disseminate information to them and encourage them to attend.

We have now completed planning for the next year of CPD events and hope that you will like the diverse and stimulating range of events that we have organised and above all we look forward to meeting you when you attend.

If you have any ideas or suggestions that might help to improve attendance, I would love to hear them and although I am happy to receive an email, I would much prefer you to attend one of our CPD events and tell me personally. In summary, I look forward to the year ahead and am truly grateful that I face this task in the knowledge that I can rely on every member of the committee and the redoubtable Samantha Briggs, our Centre Administrator, to continue to provide their dedicated and enthusiastic support.

Marcel Cooper FCIOB Essex Centre Chairman