Context 164 - May 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 4 : M A Y 2 0 2 0 45 Notes from the chair The best-laid schemes I am one of those people who hope for the best but expect the worst. When I took on the role of IHBC chair last June in Nottingham, I knew that there were challenges ahead, not least progressing our proposed new model of governance. Otherwise, I was very optimistic about the future. I was impressed by the organisation and content of the Nottingham annual school. Its theme of ‘Heritage, Risk and Resilience: confronting conservation calamities’ was certainly timely. The tragic fires at Notre Dame earlier that year and at Glasgow School of Art made the topic rather strangely serendipitous. My optimism was still in place for 2020, in respect of the planned annual school in Brighton. Its title of ‘Old Towns, New Futures’ seemed to be hitting the mark again.What could be more topical, with rapidly changing patterns of retail activity, the well- documented decline of the high street and the proposed injection of government cash to stimulate a revival? But then, in the words of Robert Burns in his famous poem, ‘To A Mouse’, ‘The best- laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley’. For those readers without a knowledge of Old Scots dialect (or language, depending on your point of view) ‘gang aft agley’ means ‘often go wrong’. So here we are, all struggling with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Others will be analysing its effects and our responses in detail, but here I would like to reflect on the Brighton Annual School. Following much discussion, we have decided to postpone the Brighton Annual School until 2021. This has been disappointing for all involved, not least the South East branch’s organising committee, particularly as most of the arrangements were already in place.We hope that the all the speakers and tour leaders will be available in June 2021. This also has a knock-on. The 2021 annual school, which had been planned to take place in Aberdeen, will now take place in 2022. All has not been lost, however: at time of writing an alternative, online day school is being planned for 19 June 2020. Details will appear on the IHBC website and in Newsblogs. The postponement of the annual school and the other fall-out from the pandemic have caused me to reflect on how resilient we are as an organisation. Our ‘virtual’ office and frequent digital means of working, including online meetings, have left us in a better place than many other organisations to cope with the current lockdown. But I am sure that there will be many lessons to be learned for the future, and implications for work practices. Resilience also underlies the theme of damp in this issue of Context . At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, in the UK damp is the most serious threat to our building stock.Whatever the causes of damp, from deteriorating materials through faulty rainwater goods to extreme events such as flooding, we all recognise the effects and the long-term results of leaving it untreated. The long term health and resilience of buildings depends on good maintenance. Our Stitch in Time booklet, published in association with the SPAB, which includes advice on the