Context 152 - November 2017

C O N T E X T 1 5 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 39 Welcome to new members The following members were voted in at the September 2017 IHBC trustees meeting. Welcome to you all. Full members Kate Biggs (WA) Anthony Farman (SW) Laurence Hayes (NW) Roger Higgins (NO) Tom Hunter (SC) Lucy Jarvis (EA) Paul Rappaport (OV) Richard Stocking (LO) Rebecca Thompson (YO) Joanne Upton (SE) Victoria Webster (LO) Rowenna Wood (EA) Affiliates Kate Attrill (WA) Angelo Aviles (WA) Jonathan Bell (EA) Romana Bellinger (SE) David Bonner (EA) Alexander Bowring (LO) Paul Bradley (EA) Jeremy Bromfield (EA) Maria-Elena Calderon (YO) Louisa Catt (SO) Jennifer Campbell (SE) Valeria Carnevale (EM) Jason Clarke (EM) Claudio Corallo (LO) Joseph Critchley (YO) Kimberley Dowding (SE) Sophie Drew (LO) Grant Elliott (SW) Roberta Ferro (LO) John Folan (LO) Paul Fox (NO) Lucie Fusade (SW) Sarah Generalski-Sparling (SW) Michael Gray (SW) Stephen Griffiths (NW) David Gurtler (LO) Matilda Harden (LO) Neil Hewitt (EA) Jill Himsworth (SW) Zoe Hooton (NW) Joel Hopkinson (SE) Mike Huggon (YO) Tim Jenkins (WM) Shane Kelleher (WM) Helena Kelly (EM) Gillian King (LO) Lauren Kirk (OV) Rory Lamb (NI) Eimar McDonagh (LO) Debbie Moore (NW) Paul O’Connor (WM) Nicolas Page (EA) Cameron Page (LO) Marc Pique Gascon (SW) Ian Pritchard (SO) Jo Redmond (NW) Madeleine Rigby (LO) Glenn Shaw (SC) Tudor Skinner (SW) Ben Smith (EM) Sarah Stirling (NW) Nicola Storey (LO) Michael Sutherill (EA) Jenny Timothy (EM) Ben Tosland (SE) Louise Vaile (WM) Cranmer Webb (WM) for many students on IHBC- recognised conservation courses • awards, including Gus Astley Student and IHBC Marsh Awards • dedicated training programmes, to include especially those for branches; the Church of England; HESPR members; and national amenity societies and heritage bodies • annual ‘course-connection days’, offered as free learning events for students on conservation courses and, to start from this year, courses with conservation threads. While most committees go through more and less busy patches across the year, policy – supported on behalf of the national office by Fiona Newton – seems to be the committee permanently preoccupied with new and urgent developments, and with panel and sub-committee reports alone covering legal, rural, technical and ‘green’ issues. Policy also monitors practice resources, including guidance, such as that for the IHBC’s Toolbox, and – especially time-consuming – ongoing policy developments. That includes as coordinating responses to Historic England on matters such as curtilage; exploring consistency in conservation advice; the IHBC’s slowly evolving local authority quality-assurance initiatives; historic environment records (HERs); liaison with link bodies such as the Historic Environment Forum, including its skills client demand task group; promotional matters such as the conservation areas 50th anniversary funding support from the IHBC to local civic bodies; and core-specific targeted initiatives to address needs such as guidance on environmental impact assessments, being led by our national chair, James Caird. For the communications and outreach committee the remit seems relatively well defined in terms of its business plan: ‘To develop a clear organisational presence and use it to deliver an appropriate standard of internal communication to members, and external communication to partner organisations and the public.’ Achieving those ambitions requires coordination across the institute’s full and diverse operations and platforms. For that committee the major development in 2016–17 has been a ‘communication and outreach strategy’, previously reported in these pages. It has been developed to support the institute’s core charitable work, including member support, external influencing, and promoting conservation professional practice and skills. Its ambitions are well represented by relevant themes headlined there, including benchmarking of the competencies across the IHBC; linking publicity with policy and consultations; and evidence-based conservation promotion and research. This broad sweep has inspired the institute’s national office to develop its own plan to coordinate communications.We have recently devised an experimental template to serve as a framework for volunteers to shape, monitor and direct annual ‘key messages’.These can be rolled out across our publications, events and related services, from social media to proactive advocacy. Such a model process should allow for more focused and more structured messages, and for greater impacts and efficiencies on our internal operations. It takes our support for committee volunteers full circle, empowering them to empower the IHBC’s own mission. These are all just some of the activities that volunteers can get involved with on our national committees. If you are interested in refining, extending or even developing skills, or simply in helping to deliver better places, just let the IHBC’s national office (or any of our esteemed volunteers) know. Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk