From Birdcage Walk

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

Dear Member,

Anniversaries are a good time to reflect on events of last year and make sure we have learned from what we went through. In a few weeks we will be one year on from our Special Meeting in the Institution of Civil Engineers that reflected divisions in our membership and highlighted significant concerns about the way we operate. It is an ideal time to make sure that we are taking the most from the unpleasant experience and substantial cost that none of us would want to repeat.

The three Reviews that arose from the meeting are now being published. The Finance Review and the Code of Conduct Review are being forwarded to Trustees and will shortly be sent to Council Members for discussion at Council on 22 May. The Governance Review is nearing completion and hopes to be able to report in the first half of June. Its leader, Mike Howse, however intends to come to Council ahead of publication to take questions and describe the sort of thinking that is shaping their recommendations. For those of us at Birdcage Walk, this whole process has been a true example of democracy in action. The teams have called for evidence (which especially for the Governance Review came from thousands of you) and have deliberated in private sessions to give of their honest professional opinions.

The key now is to move to the implementation phase. The decisions on what will actually happen will be taken by your democratically elected representatives on Council and Trustee Board. As with any election it is your opportunity to elect those people who you think would best represent your views. Please do make sure therefore that you have either posted back the voting form that went out individually to the 70,000 or so electorate, or go to the online facility at your My Account login where you will see in the banner headline that you have until 23.59 on Monday 20 May to vote. Do take time to look at the expanded candidate profiles there to help you with your selection.

The results will be announced at our Annual Meeting which starts at 5.15pm on 22 May.  If you can, please do come along to Birdcage Walk and take part. You can register to attend and download the brief agenda which is to adopt the Accounts and appoint the Auditors in addition to hearing the election results. If you would like to study the Annual Report and Accounts beforehand then you can find online and print copies.

We look forward to hopefully seeing you at one of the most important days in our Institution’s calendar.

Thank you,

Colin Brown

Chief Executive

• Find out more about the Governance and Finance reviews
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