From Birdcage Walk

The latest in our ongoing series of updates about activities at the Institution.

Dear Member,

A rather more inward looking week this week as we finalised and then issued the Terms of Reference for both our Finance and our Governance Reviews.  You will see you need to log-in using your membership number as they are really intended to be primarily for member benefit.  When you have logged-in, why not take the opportunity to check ‘My Account’  (the button is at the top of the screen) and ensure that ‘My Profile’ has the mailing preferences correctly recording your consents under the General Data Protection Regulations?  This is also the part of the site where you can update ‘Career Developer’, if that is the tool you are using to record your CPD - mandatory from 1 January 2019.

We are extremely grateful to Bill Edgar and Mike Howse for coming forward to chair our two Reviews.  They are both characters of very high standing, are Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and have many years of extremely relevant experience to help them perform their respective tasks.  You can see their brief CVs in the Terms of Reference, along with the details of the member teams who have similarly come forward to support them.

Both Reviews will report to the Trustee Board, with the Finance Review making its immediate findings known at the end of this month.  It’s important to realise too that the Institution is in a great place to be able to act on the recommendations they make.  The 2019 Business Plan is in preparation and will of course reflect the Finance Review team’s vision.  We also have the CEO recruitment awaiting guidance from the Governance Review on the job description and the process that should be followed to fill it.  Finally, we have the Trustee Board elections in the Spring 2019 where seven of the current Trustees will be coming to the end of their terms.  These elections will be an ideal opportunity to take advantage of the high level of optimism and expectation we have seen from members for the next phase in our 172 year history. We're confident this positive outlook will be reflected in the turnout for these important elections in March.

Meanwhile, in the wider world of engineering, we attended the Professional Engineering Committee meeting last Thursday. This is the quarterly get together of the Chief Executives of the 35 Engineering Council-registered Institutions, together with the Royal Academy of Engineering, Engineering UK and the Engineering Council itself.

It has the potential to be the nucleus for some great new ideas on how the Institutions can collaborate to greater effect. In the current climate, it could well help to develop some of the ‘unification’ concepts we will be discussing at Council on 1 November.There are no doubt as many models for improving the relevance and effectiveness of what we do as there are Institutions, but it became clear on Thursday there is an increased desire across the profession to reject the status quo. Significant change is clearly possible, for example, the Institution of Automobile Engineers and the Institution of Locomotive Engineers continue to play leading roles within our programme many decades after they gave up their independent existences. In one case, their continued status is enshrined in our Charter and By-Laws.

There are many opportunities to learn from what has worked in the past. We need to remain mindful however that all changes ultimately need to win the support of the majority of our members before they can take place.

Colin Brown

• Find out more about the Governance and Finance reviews
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