News
Successful BIFM Members’ Day event and AGM
04-07-08 10:34 BIFM
The BIFM welcomed over 100 members to the prestigious British Library Conference Centre at St Pancras, London this week for what proved to be an insightful and enjoyable event.
At a morning press briefing, hosted by CEO Ian Fielder and new chairman Iain Murray, the two leaders spoke of their passion for the industry, the challenges facing the profession and the opportunities presented by the current economic uncertainty.
Murray explained the plan to move the Institute forward and said how much he is looking forward to representing the BIFM alongside Fielder.
The Members’ Day event commenced with an introduction to the building by John de Lucy, Head of Estates and Facilities at the British Library. De Lucy described current plans for the expansion of the Library’s facilities and development of the St Pancras site as well as others in the UK.
Nick Parker from Bite Catering continued the day with a thought provoking talk on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in catering. Nick brought some clarity to what can be a confusing subject. He set out a three point plan for FMs to consider the effect of their catering on Planet, People and Profit. Nick gave some interesting facts on foodmiles and how sometimes, when billed as “local”, food can have travelled 17,000 miles in its preparation!
Nick Rudlin general manager at Leith’s at the British Library continued the theme, explaining their CSR policy in action. “The Last Word” café in the library’s piazza is one of London’s first carbon neutral cafés and Rudlin went on to highlight the CSR challenges of feeding two million people across the library site each year.
Next followed a “Food Quiz” where participants had fun in squeezing, smelling and prodding a unique array of fruit and vegetables from around the world. Some were unidentifiable – never having been seen before! The winners were pleased to receive vouchers for their choice of organic veg.
Coellie Hamlyn from Land Securities gave an interesting insight into their ‘sustainable lunch’ offering, where disposable cutlery, plates and cups were removed to reduce waste – and instead employees were given a set of personal cutlery, hessian bags and insulated cups, key to sustaining the business. Uniquely, food scraps used to feed the worms in the on-site wormery produces fertiliser for growing herbs on the roof terrace garden used in their executive dining.
The formal AGM opened with outgoing BIFM Chairman Peter Cordy introducing Valerie Everitt, BIFM’s Director of Professional Standards & Education, who announced a number of successful BIFM examination candidates. These members were then presented with their certificates. The examinations are the most popular route towards BIFM Qualification and the dedicated candidates completed Part I or Part II whilst also holding down demanding jobs.
Peter Cordy gave a glowing report on the BIFM’s membership growth and the professional development of the Institute, illustrated by the recent achievement of ‘Awarding Body’ status by OfQual.
He ended his report by thanking all the BIFM members that helped raise almost £25,000 during his term for Marie Curie Cancer Care, the Chairman’s Charity, taking the total raised since 2005 to just under £48,000.
The formal business of the AGM included acceptance of the report of the Board and the 2007 audited accounts; re-appointment of the auditors and a special resolution amending the Institute’s bylaws. Appointments to Members’ Council were announced with David Emanuel re-elected as one of the individual representatives on Members' Council for a 2 year term; John Bowen re-elected as the Regional Representative on the Board for a 2 year term and Gordon Ludlow elected as the SIG Representative on the Board for a 2 year term.
The formal handover from Peter Cordy to Iain Murray then took place. Murray set out some of his goals for his term as chair, including developing closer direct links with government and continued development of entry level qualifications.
Murray announced the new mission statement of the BIFM, adopted by the Board following consultation through Members’ Council. The new statement is:
“To advance the facilities management profession”
He vowed to be an “accessible” chair and will be writing a regular blog for the BIFM website. He also introduced the ‘new Chairman’s charities’: ‘Macmillan Cancer Support’ and ‘Dogs for the Disabled’.
The day ended with networking and a tour of the new St Pancras International Station, hosted by the Network Rail FM team.
All the AGM documents can be downloaded from the Governance page of the BIFM website.
Please click here for BIFM Governance
