Welcome to my blog. I had one thought in mind when I first expressed a notion to write an infrequent blog of my activities as Chair of BIFM, openness. All too often the workings of an organisation seem distant and irrelevant and I wanted to try and introduce the human element. This is it. Over the coming two years I plan to upload some thoughts, accounts of actions and events and to generally make some comments on the facilities management industry and BIFM. I plan to do this on average every two weeks, we'll see if that idea lasts.
CIC chairs and presidents day
23-06-08, 05:34
It surprised me recently how the Institute is viewed by others, I recently attended a Construction Industry Council chairs and presidents inauguration day - it was really a lot more interesting than it sounds - and BIFM was well regarded amongst our peers.
Sunand Prasad, President of the RIBA, new CIC Chair Keith Clarke of Atkins and incoming President of the RICS Peter Goodacre all spent some time with me talking FM (this blog won’t always be a name dropping fest), and it was a common theme over the two days as sustainability topped the agenda.
I have to say that I definitely stuck my oar in during the debates, repeatedly introducing the notion of operation, something that happens after the procurement and continues to happen for quite some time after! I pointed out that the CIC made much reference to the built environment, not the build environment. They will get it one day.
The surprise though came when I started to contextualise BIFM with other august groups and Institutes, I won’t name them for fear of reprisals, but we are certainly among the larger institutes and in many instances significantly larger and, in almost all cases, significantly younger. I take that as a big positive and an encouragement to look at more aggressive growth.
The two days were very interesting and it was good to spend time with what was essentially the bulk of the construction industry and property industry representatives, I think I argued our case and I feel it was of benefit. Which is lucky really as is the case with all of these events, it cost me two days off work without remuneration from BIFM, so leave off about sponging!
I am preparing for the AGM now, so the next episode will be my account of that, hopefully eggs and angry mobs will not feature.
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| 07-07-08, 11:54 | Making the most of our position in our industry | #1 |
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| David Millar | Whilst it's good to hear we are viewed well by others in the world of construction/property as an institute it seems we're still having to push the "operation" message again so has the debate moved on?
Perhaps what will really make our mark there is an idea of how much value (say spend for now) our ~12k membership base influence each year not only in the UK but also overeas. Let's get a simple message out there about us and what our members can do.
This would make people step back and perhaps give us a platform to show what we can deliver that impacts the triple bottom line in real hard terms for the important people out there - the end user! |
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