It’s been a busy, productive year

My second Christmas at CIBSE already and I am now fully immersed in the high and lows of working in an engineering institution – and what a diversity of activities and issues is involved.

Certainly we have made progress during 2007, but of course we can always do more and will be looking towards the New Year with a sense of achievement and of motivation for 2008.

In my January column, I remarked that, with regard to CIBSE’s position within the engineering institutions, it is the relatively agile, responsive one in the land of dinosaurs. Do I still feel that to be the case? Have we started to adapt and evolve? To both questions there is a definite …Yes!

Perhaps the one issue for me is that we do need to maintain our agility, especially in the arena of climate change. There is intent and substance but in other ways progress has been much slower at the political and regulation level.

Certainly our profile and standing as the prime source of knowledge for sustainable buildings has risen significantly. It is how we, as individuals and collectively, can best bring the engineering knowledge and skills to bear for the benefit of society – that remains our challenge.

Are we any further along in identifying volunteers and developing the Patrons Scheme? Well, not yet. True, there has been some work in this area, there are plenty of green shoots and we are starting to develop some plans for 2008. I am particularly interested in how we generate and maintain the volunteer stream.

So much of our work is dependent and predicated upon our army of members who give so much of their time and energies to the institution, I cannot simply take you for granted. Getting our young members to participate in and influence our work is a crucial element of our development.

This has been such a busy, productive 12 months for CIBSE that it is difficult to mention only a few highlights – the proof can be seen in good publication sales, membership levels, improved industry connections and successful seminars. CIBSE Young Engineers have had a positive year, with a number of meetings, events and social evenings helping to strengthen the role they play in ensuring the institution remains relevant to the younger generation.

Projects such as the second 100 Days of Carbon Clean Up campaign, the Low Carbon Consultants Register and the revamped website have spread the word about CIBSE to new audiences and underlined the need to engage with key issues within the industry. Meanwhile the work to establish CIBSE Services and our certification with energy performance regulations will mean that 2008 is an exciting year for us all.

As 2007 comes to a close I would like to take this opportunity, from all of us at Delta House, to send our very best wishes of the season to our members and friends throughout the world.