The IHBC recently circulated a new ‘IHBC Branch Committee Bulletin, from the IHBC’s Director’, to update committees on strategic developments, so if you are keen to find out more on any points below, just check in with your Branch Officers.
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IHBC Director Sean O’Reilly writes:
I’m delighted to be able to update you once again on key developments, initiatives and opportunities from the IHBC’s National Office, as we extend our support for our hard-pressed volunteers. Please feel free to circulate this Bulletin to your Committee or more widely through your Branch network and communications. As ever, more detailed updates will appear in our NewsBlogs service as they arise.
Marsh Awards 2025: Call for nominations, open to 31 March
Perhaps the most significant opportunity for Branches to raise profile and encourage membership across your networks is the chance to plan, promote, spur and submit nominations to our celebrated Marsh Awards programme.
IHBC’s two Marsh Awards reflect critical conservation issues for both the IHBC and our award partners, the Marsh Charitable Trust:
- Celebrating ‘Community Contributions’ by retired IHBC members, which highlights the public benefits our members can bring even after retirement
The IHBC Marsh Award for Community Contribution (Retired Member): Nominate for RETIRED IHBC
- ‘Successful Learning’ in heritage-related skills, to spotlight the critical role learning plays in securing future conservation successes
The IHBC Marsh Award for Successful Learning in Heritage Skills: Nominate for SUCCESSFUL LEARNING
Prizes of £500 cash (which can go to a charity of choice) and free places at IHBC’s 2025 Annual School in Shrewsbury – #IHBCShrewsbury2025 are on offer too.
So please do encourage nominations from across ALL your networks – digital and in person – as a great way to raise the profile of your Branch’s good works:
You can find more background HERE and more detail HERE.
Branch Liaison and Support Consultants: Introductions and updates
The start of 2025 was especially significant as, having met our newly appointed Branch Consultants, I was able to personally introduce them all (by email!) to the officers and leads in the Branch Committees that they’ll support. Each IHBC Branch Committee now has access to a dedicated consultant – contactable via a dedicated email address – in place to help and advise on how best to take advantage of the IHBC’s national resources, services and networks, as well as on arrangements to add capacity in critical areas.
I’ve also sent our Consultants working guidance on our operations and their evolving roles to explore and review. Do please remember that we are still formalising this very new idea, of a small, flexible network of part-time, heritage-linked consultants to help our Branches. So while each consultant offers regionally-focussed support for their allocated Branch Committees, it will take a little time to get to know you all, and your key networks. And as our Consultants have– currently – only a half day a week to spread their service across some four or so Branches, their time is constrained.
The National Office is are also working with a consultant specialising in design and communications to enhance Branch access to more technical support and better Social Media infrastructures, with more details due soon.
IHBC Councils: …. 24 March…
IHBC’s Councils are, exclusively, for ALL IHBC member categories…
On March 24 we will hold our FIRST ‘blended’ Council under the new Articles, courtesy London’s Charterhouse and IHBC member CE Peter Aiers, where we will also welcome current Vice President Rebecca Thompson as next President, and electing Vice Presidents under a new protocol (details to come). We’ll be announcing the details and timings soon, but for now the priority for all Branches is sort one or two delegates who can attend in person – and at our cost – for a programme extending from about 11.00am to 3.00pm or so.
… Councils will also include updates on progress in our exploration of the Charter, notably around the submission of a ‘Memorandum’ as outlined HERE. We have received commendations from a wide range of chartered and un-chartered bodies, and await more, all of which attests to the success of our Branches, volunteers and linked networks in promoting the IHBC and our practice standards….
2025 Shrewsbury School: On ‘Heritage in Context’, with sponsorship funds for Branch-linked events
Our new consultant posts will add capacity to the already extended role the National Office now plays in managing our Annual Schools. The West Midlands Branch is progressing well on its arrangements for the 2025 School, on 11/12-14 June, with the evolving home page HERE. We’re still looking at the speaker programme, but we’re sure we’ll be able to offer an exemplary follow up to Reading’s blended format.
Indeed our new ‘blended School’ arrangements – recently agreed by the Board – see the National Office take a lead in the planning, helping reduce pressure on Branches. The new model also extends the IHBC’s reach substantially, offering easy, low-cost online access for colleagues with even the most more lateral interests in heritage. So please do promote our School in any ways you can when our booking opens.
Also, our 2024 and 2025 School Reception sponsor, Velux, has agreed to sponsor local Branch events – ideally linked to the School theme – where there is an opportunity to discuss their products. As well as Angharad Hart, our lead on training and the 2025 School, our new consultants’ network also will be available to guide Branches on how to take advantage of such initiatives.
IHBC AGM, 2025: Advice on planning for Board roles…
The IHBC’s Annual General Meeting for 2025 is approaching…
If you are – or know of members – interested in a voluntary role as an IHBC Trustee the duties and obligations can be explored first through our web guidance. Or there’s an ‘in real life’ engagement on offer too, simply by contacting any trustee post-holder, or any member of our National Office (including myself or our Administrator and Company Secretary Lydia Porter at admin@ihbc.org.uk).
CPD Branch Partnership
Following the initial success of the Branch CPD Training Pilot, the model is extending to include three new priority topics; Placemaking and Design Codes delivered by Dave Chetwyn, Fire Protection and Regulations delivered by Steve Emery and Enforcement delivered by Bob Kindred. These topics join three existing topics that are still available: Retrofit with John Edwards, Conservation Engineering with Ian Hume, and Conservation Legislation and Curtilage with Charles Mynors.
Our CPD Branch Partnership initiative offers hosting Branches access to funding and expertise towards speaker costs. See more on the website, including guidance and terms, and for more detailed advice please contact lead here, Angharad, at training@ihbc.org.uk.
New MATE Accreditation sessions piloting simpler and shorter application forms
As we digest the conclusions of the very successful (and free) themed MATE Accreditation sessions from before Christmas – detailed HERE – piloting our evolving new application forms, more are planned for the coming weeks and months.
As our Chair says of the new forms, the ‘changes simplify access to our practice standards by minimising those procedures that underpin our assessment of competence in interdisciplinary conservation practice’. So please keep an eye on our NewsBlogs for details of future sessions, and do also encourage anyone interested in developing the membership with us to take a look at our newer streamlined forms.
Branch Committee confab (online): New plans with suggestions sought
We are also looking at another accessible online ‘Branch Committee Connection’ event, likely in the coming months, to promote networking across Branches.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on content etc. please let myself or any in the National Office know, and we’ll co-ordinate thoughts at our end. We would hope to outline in detail the new support leads and services at that point as well.
Fee, finance and Branch Guidance Page
At this time of year membership renewals are also due. It is useful, where possible and while thanking members for their support, if you can remind members of the great value our fees offer, not least as a top-up to other (invariably more substantial) professional fees.
There are further reductions through tax relief (which need to be claimed from HMRC), and reduced rates for lower incomes, all outlined HERE while there is also advice on our Fee Support web page HERE. As ever, it is useful if you can remind members that any changes of address or employment contacts etc. should be noted to Carmen at membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk.
The IHBC’s Branch Guidance webpage has lots of useful resources and links, but has so much it can be hard to navigate, especially when in a rush. If there’s any specific guidance needed, please do get in touch with your Branch Consultant, or myself or others in the National Office.
Wider developments and feedback
Those above are just a few of the new developments we will highlight to all Branch Committees in future Bulletins.
Our NewsBlog update on ‘IHBC’s new ‘Board insight’… NewsBlogs etc on recent achievements’ also summarises some more recent achievements as highlighted to the Board. Of course our news service and linked publications will carry the most up-to-date information, so please do keep up to date using those.
In the interim please feel free to email me on any of the points above, or indeed on any matters you’d like addressed here or elsewhere. If I’m not the best person here to respond, I’ll be sure to pass it on to the right lead.
Cheers, and as ever our thanks and appreciation for the hard work done by you and your volunteers and colleagues.
Seán director@ihbc.org.uk
