INSTITUTENEWS Consultations IHBC has received several significant consultations over recent months including Best Value in Local Government, the Newman Report on Ecclesiastical Exemption, the Green Paper on Sustainability, and the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport investigation into the Heritage Lottery Fund. Detailed comments have been sent in response to each consultation, but the complexity of the issues and the speed with which new papers are emerging has caused a critical review of the way the Institute is to manage such exercises in the future without causing undue strain on the volunteer time of its membership. MEMBERSHIPNOTES On 20 July, the IHBC membership database included 1435 members. This total included 882 Full Members, 167 Affiliate Members, 15 Associate Members, 6 Corporate Members and 365 former ACO members who are currently Affiliate Members. The breakdown of membership by branch at 21 Janua1y was 162 in East Anglia, 126 in East Midlands, 186 in London, 27 in Northern Ireland, 54 in North, 89 in North West, 102 in Scotland, 118 in South East, 131 in South, 190 in South West, 56 in Wales, 84 in West Midlands, 91 in Yorkshire and 19 Overseas. The following new Members were voted in at the Council Meeting on 9 July : Full Members David Chetwyn Nicola Coxon Mark Evans Nancy Jamieson Michael Jeffries Donald Kitching John Underwood Robert Ward-Booth Simon Went Affiliate Members Paul Barnfather Douglas Black Mark Clitherow Mrs G Duygu Riley Jo Tiddy Please note that any membership application now has to use the normal application forms which have to be endorsed by two people and accompanied by a non-returnable application fee of £20 (£10 for successful applicants for Concessionary membership rate) in addition to any subscriptions which may be clue. The special application form for former ACO Members can no longer be used without amendment. If you are a former ACO member and haven't already applied, you can amend the special application form originally supplied to you by obtaining a new back page. Alternatively, you can obtain a copy of the normal application form from your Branch Council Member. The following former ACO 40 members were voted in as members of the Institute at the Council Meeting on 9 July 1998: Full Members Jan Bond Paul Calvocoressi Mr James H Clark Miss C A Davies Alistair Day Mr Malcolm Foster David Gregory Richard Griffith Charmain Harbour Alastair McNeil! Ray Osborne Miss E A Rigby Mr Anthony Swaine Mark VernonSmith Dennis Vickers Mr SC Went Affiliate Members MsClaudia Bolling Miss Jane Hamilton Mr Vernon Heslop Associate Members Mr GE Allan I would remind all members that only full Members of the new Institute will be able to use the letters IHBC after their name (and not I"HBC please!). I am delighted to say that as far as I am aware I am still in touch with all members on the database. Long may this continue! I now issue my normal IHBC health warnings .. Please note that if you are a former ACO Member and have not applied for some form of Membership of the new Institute, you cannot remain in limbo for ever. When the matter was recently discussed at Council, it was decided that I should contact all former ACO Members in this position and explain this to them. You were all transferred temporarily into the Institute as Affiliate or Associate Members. Hqpefully, you will have received a letter from me or Carole by the time you receive Context. For those who do not apply for membership of the Institute, I am afraid to say that your future within the Institute is probably limited. Will all former ACO members who pay by banker's order please note that the bank account changed with the move to the Institute. Members already paying by banker's order Branch affairs Several members of the Executive had attended the series of branch launches which have taken place around the country over the spring and early summer. Each event had its own distinctive character aided by the varying choice of venues selected ranging from historic chapels and dockyards should have filled in the new form of banker's order supplied with the application for entry to the Institute. If you have lost or destroyed the latest form of banker's order, let me know and I will send you another. As I said in Context 58, many members' banks have, yet again, made a mess of the instructions given to them on the banker's order forms last year. Please check your bank accounts and let me know if you think your bank is paying double subscriptions or doing anything else wrong. If members haven't paid their subscription yet, time has almost run out for them and this Context will probably be the last they receive. We may have let them know before now but at 20 July we haven't notified non-payers and the database tells me there are 298 members who haven't paid! The Articles of Association make it clear that you should pay your subscription within a month of the beginning of the subscription year (1 April) and if you haven't paid within six months, your membership is automatically terminated. The six months terminates on 1 October. If you haven't paid, pay up now or you will find yourself struck off! We do not promise to be infallible, so if you appear to have been struck off and you are sure you have paid your subscription, please contact me with full details. If you are caught by the 1 October deadline and haven't paid, you will have to reapply for membership, pay outstanding subscriptions and pay the normal £20 additional registration fee (sorry but non-payers cause an inordinate amount of extra work)! If you cannot remember what the subscription rates are: Full and Associate Members pay £20, Corporate Members £75, Concessionary Members £10 and Overseas to modern, state of the art, office complexes. These showed the catholic range of interests encompassed by IHBC and demonstrated effectively to the invited guests the dynamic nature of the new Institute as well as the organising skills and approachability of its members. Alan Taylor (non UK) Members £35. Send your cheques (payable to "Institute of Historic Building Conservation") to my address (see page 3). Please do not pay by bank giro direct into your bank. If you do, I will have no record of your payment and you will either receive chasing letters from Carole or myself for nonpayment or you could inadvertently be removed from the membership database. I know it is difficult to remember to pay subscriptions so I would remind you again that paying by banker's order can be of great benefit (as long as the bank does as it is told). New forms of banker's order can be obtained from me (address on page 3). Subscription rates I have received a certain amount of correspondence from Members questioning the fact that Full, Affiliate and Associate Members all pay the same subscription rate. There is no mistake! Full Members should count themselves lucky. As we promised at the beginning of the new Institute, we have not raised subscriptions yet. If Affiliate and Associate Members really think we are going to reduce an annual subscription rate of £20 and produce Context and IHBC News to the current standards, I would ask them to think carefully about it. Try becoming a subscribing member through our publishers - all you get is Context and your annual subscription jumps to £381 Assistant Membership Secretary Carole Davies (London Borough of Harrow) is now the IHBC's Assistant Membership Secretary and is up-and-running. Welcome Carole. I hope that we will now be able to continue to improve the service to Members. Gus Astley, Membership Secretary Context 59 September 1998
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