As I am under 35, like the people in your article on "the ones to watch" ("35 under 35", 13 June, page 30), I find it increasingly challenging to read articles like the one about the conference knowing that:
- there are few subsidised places for delegate passes for frontliners in the housing field. This year, my experience was that many representative tenant passes were available but none for the staff that those representatives work with and alongside
- the CIH continues to fail to service its grass-roots members such as newly qualified rank-and-file, frontline housing staff – often the people who cannot afford the £400-plus for a delegate pass but are not senior enough to get sponsorship from their employers
- the CIH seems constantly to rebrand itself as a client/membership focused organisation. It needs to get its basics right first. Sponsoring large, in-your-face events like the conference flies in the face of continually failing to campaign effectively for overall recognition for the housing profession (staff retention; salary levels linked to professional qualifications like CIH membership itself; encouraging and retaining new blood in the profession).
Like many capable, "younger", housing professionals, I actively chose and committed time to qualifying to enter the housing profession.
Improvements from the CIH, to my mind, are still not tangible enough. I am not proud of the way the institute seems to be forgetting where its money comes from – not all, but in part, down to memberships subscriptions – and what its priorities should be.
The value for money the memberships receives is questionable, as is the institute's commitment to the long-term health of the housing sector itself.
Source
Housing Today
Postscript
Mel Golden (writing in a personal capacity), North Yorkshire
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