Branch Lines March 2003

Some personal notes of the LI Council meeting held at 1 Carlton House Terrace

Back to a meeting in the elegant and of The Institute of Materials, Metallurgy and Mining now trendily called IM3. With only three meetings a year this proved to be a long one.

New Entrants to the profession. The crisis in getting good quality students into courses continues. Although it is only early days in the academic cycle so far only 111 applicants have been received for accredited courses- approx ¼ of a years intake.
Work Experience An extremely important way to get young people interested is through work experience. All members need to be involved with this. Gerry Birkbeck`s scheme in Warwickshire see Jan LD needs to be used as a model. Mary O'Connor foR Practice Committee undertook to prepare a Practice Note.
The Official Journal. The search for a high quality journal, with much closer Institute/publisher relationship, at no cost to the Institute continues. Landscape Design Trust have now appointed their new Chief Executive Emma Way as sole negotiator and discussions will continue with her and other parties. To help matters along LDT have agreed to continue producing LD until December free. Apparently lot of hostility from LDT has had to be unpacked and there seems to be a need to move cautiously. More next time.
75th Anniversary Awards This year each branch is being encouraged to hold their own regional awards. Unfortunately with working details only just being released the original idea of regional awards feeding into the national ones has had to be dropped. The two schemes will now run separately. This will allow branches much greater freedom as to how they organise their schemes. Details about the arrangements will be circulated shortly.: Categories are:
- The landscape architect who had made the greatest contribution to the region
- The most influential scheme 1929 -1969
- The most influential scheme 1970 - present
- The best community involvement scheme
- Greatest landscape influencer in the last 75 years
Web Site The upgrading is going to be developed in house - a new look has been promised by Director General Mike Wetherell .
Business plan With our new management approach we now get a regular report outlining the activities of the secretariat It` s on the web site for everyone to see.
Charter Changes Bit of a mess up with the SGM or was it EEGM to sort out adjustment to the Charter. Details to be circulated shortly - basically 5 alterations. Council agreed to put them being put forward provided they were approved by the EGM /SGM -possibly at Annual Conference.
Policy Officer for Wales agreed on trial basis. Situation for Scotland and N Ireland to be reviewed in light of experience in Wales. Then presumably English Regions?
Relocation of Secretariat still being investigated Queen Anne's Gate not suitable.
SLICK. A new Student Council has been set up, autonomous and self-governing. Alison McGill the first chair was welcomed
Budget With our new accounting system in place a formal budget with three pages of headings was approved. Also agreed to put subs by 3% .
National Plant Specification - continued frustration about the fact this has got tied in with Helios, a commercial product, and will not be easy to put into public domain. Also noted that a large amount of work by James Wilson of Cheltenham and Gloucester had gone the same way.
PPE Very full report about Professional Practice Exam- still only 63% pass rate- many associates are putting themselves forward when they don't really have enough experience, just because two years is up.
Ethics. DG asked how we would want to respond potential sponsorship from Esso; they already sponsor the Tree Council. An interesting ethical debate took place, concluding by agreeing that we need a position, but in the meantime we do not want to start anything with Esso- personally very relieved about this. But it was noted that RIBA for example generates huge income from sponsorship- millions as does AILA our US counterpart

Charles Clay
East Anglia Branch Representative

01832 273814 home
01733 742267 office
charles.clay@peterborough.gov.uk