Branch Lines October 2001

A personal view of the October Council meeting

A Time of Change

A different sort of meeting. New meeting room, different chairman and new Director General plus some new Branch Representatives,
First of all it was down in the depths of the Institute of Materials basement. Certainly not a grand room, but actually much better than the vast tall ones into which most voices disappear. You could actually hear what was being said.

First off was the AGM. Alas alack- inquorate. Yet again we failed to get the requisite 25 members together. So no AGM. Also no opportunity for the two members who put forward their special motions to have them formally considered. Nonetheless Rod Edwards as chairman suggested that it would be an opportunity to have an informal discussion on the two issues. One was a concern that corporate supporters are using LI logo and giving impression that their firms are approved – not a good idea with a design and build company. It will however be easy to change the corporate supporter’s logo to deal with this. The second motion was the horror that membership is now being given without need to take exams. This is actually not the case but the issue does need clarifying and greater transparency shown.
It was a shame that the proposers did not attend. Had they done so the meeting would have been quorate.

New Director General

Mike Weatherill made his first full appearance. Quiet, he is clearly on the ball and out to sort things out.
Reminding everyone of the Nolan principles of conduct in public life Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Openness Honesty, Leadership he made his preliminary appraisal

The Secretariat staff are fine, but need direction.
Proper procedures need to be in place. This has started.
There is a lot of expertise in the organization, but it is not being effectively used.
Financial controls are being introduced. The newly appointed accountant has gone- not necessary to have such an expensive employee
The contracted cleaning firm have been replaced because of continued poor performance and matters of probity
Credit card payments have been introduced.
The exorbitant IT maintenance contractor has been replaced at lower cost.
A business manager has been appointed to handle external events. He should be self-financing.
The premises are not fit for purpose and alternatives need to be sought.
The Library is clogging up the offices and needs to move to more appropriate location - academic probably.
A clearer focus on member’s needs is required.
The Web site needs an overhaul. After the members section had not been operating properly for years a developer has been appointed to start sorting it out. Members details should be back, albeit in a rather crude way before Christmas.
Not everything is transparent

Many of the issues Mike Weatherill raised overlap with the ambit of the governance working group and there is a need top get both parties dovetailed together. Next meeting we should have the business plan --sound promising…

As the new Hon Sec Alison Campbell will be looking at concerns about the constitution and entry of senior professionals. A lot of work bearing in mind that only 6 very eminent new entrants have been accepted, however important.

Urban Design Alliance

With his chairmanship still ahead of him Tim Gale wants to hear from you. We have a real opportunity to influence UDAL If you have something you want UDAL to do, contact him

Landscape Institute Wales

An excellent launch of Landscape Institute Wales apparently. Sue Essex the Welsh environment Minister apparently is an excellent speaker and a very positive supporter of the profession. Well done Gerry Donavon and her colleagues in getting that event organized.

Helios Plant Database

With a lot of support from Calnan Scott Helios is being re launched at the Excel exhibition. Details to be announced then but rumored to be around £95 initially including dongle with smaller maintenance payment for regular updates.

75th Anniversary

Although things are rather quiet so far, plans are in hand for the 75th anniversary in 2004, starting with Regional awards in 2003. A Landscape Architecture Week- LAW is also being proposed. Can you think of a better acronym?

Awards Ceremony

Some heat was generated by concerns that the Awards ceremony wasn’t being properly organized financially. This was fuelled by Chris Blandford who has been organizing the event not turning up to report- presumably because he felt he did not need to. In the end it was conclude that it was probably quite all right. Financially it is quite canny, as most of the income comes from the tables that are sold to those who are winning prizes.

Lack of support from some schools

More concern about the Institute not being supported consistently by the landscape schools. Whilst UCE Birmingham and Sheffield are good, others are very lukewarm eg Wye. Leeds Metro apparently hadn’t even got round to submitting proper info for accreditation. Only 155 of students are members at present. This is being looked at with the help of Charcon who are considering supporting student membership.

Membership Fees

New proposals for membership were tabled

Unemployed grade only to be available if genuinely unemployed, ie exclude those on maternity leave or taking career break currently £32
Those who are not earning as Landscape Architects eg maternity etc on course to be able to go onto subscriber rate currently £43. also for Associate members enrolled as full time students
Part time workers able to claim 50% discount if their income is below£11k.
Student membership only for genuine students. Once course complete to progress to associate or subscriber status

These will be considered later in the year. My first reaction is that fees should be a simple as possible and am not quite sure why we need to charge a different rate between unemployed and non-earning members. Have you any thoughts?

And where was the LI President?? Apparently stuck in Saudi - down a bunker - would have been pleased to get an e-mail from any one - seriously?

Charles Clay
East Anglia Branch Representative

01832 273814 home
01733 742267 office
charles.clay@peterborough.gov.uk
Oct 2001