What about the lighters?

We should not be too concerned about the name of our body, as we will be judged professionally on the basis of what we do and the legacy we create, not what we call ourselves.

However, Dr Strong’s remarks on the origins of the CIBSE name are an alarming indication that many senior members and officers of the institution have formed an insular culture.

It seems to have been forgotten that the Chartered Institution of Building Services was formed by the joining of the Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), in an equal partnership. Over the years, former IES members and their interests have been marginalised, despite the efforts of a few dedicated lighters and the transformation of the former lighting division into the Society of Light and Lighting. BSj no longer carries news about SLL in the members’ area of the journal and the institution relies on volunteers and the help of another institution to provide its newsletter.

I am a chartered engineer, a former SLL president, and practise building services engineering (across several disciplines) at a senior level, but my lighting-based qualifications have not yet allowed me to attain a corporate CIBSE grade. Within SLL, having opened our doors to lighters with backgrounds outside building services, we now have many members who question the relevance CIBSE has to lighting.

There is a growing feeling among SLL members that CIBSE is no longer representative of their chosen profession and that we should move on. Other professional bodies would undoubtedly welcome us with open arms.

It’s understandable that some in CIBSE wish to change the image of the institution and expand internationally, but grass-roots

membership and basic domestic issues must remain at the top of the agenda.

If we want to tackle 21st-century problems, it’s our core values, not our name, that we should be concerned about. It’s no wonder outsiders are bemused about what building services engineering means when CIBSE itself appears to have forgotten.