18 YEARBOOK 2022 continue to face barriers with which we are so familiar, largely centred around a fear of change. Older professional bodies like the RIBA and RICS have the advantage that their accreditation is well established, so when their members are assessed as suitably ‘upskilled’ by their own built environment profession so that they are able to advise on conservation work, it is relatively straight forward for the heritage bureaucracies to acknowledge the new accreditation. That’s familiar territory for them. However, as an interdisciplinary professional body, the IHBC’s role is not only unfamiliar but outside the orthodox. Despite the paucity of formal recognition by heritage bureaucracies, there is growing recognition that our accreditation standard reflects the most universal descriptors of our members’ conservation practices, not least the 1993 ICOMOS Conservation Guidelines and World Bank project management models. We are making progress at the highest levels and the role of an interdisciplinary ‘conservation professional’ is gaining acceptance. Similarly, too, the barriers to multi-disciplinary membership bodies created by national vocational qualifications are in abeyance. This is most notable as our Education Secretary Chris Wood has successfully negotiated recognition for our members’ credentials through the standard Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) carding system for onsite workers. Until now, CSCS cards lay beyond our members’ reach precisely because of the diversity of skills across our core membership, where no single vocational qualification equivalence could be applied. Of course we’ve continued to focus on improving the kind of support we offer our members through services, information, regulation, networks and more. And our 25th anniversary is bringing huge clarity to that. For example, when adjusted for inflation IHBC membership costs less today than in 2004, the year we first established a professional executive, despite the increase in staff and all the new services. It is a credit to the IHBC – and absolutely typical of it – that it did all that without any recognisable financial support from the wider heritage world, just its own members investing in their future. And the revolutions continue, spurred on now by the enhanced standards of governance linked to our new Articles noted above. While the most familiar of IHBC services are tied to ‘coal face’ support of the most important sort, their future is intimately linked to the wider developments in our governance. In fact, as our new constitution is tied to our member and voluntary network, at once our most valuable resource, it is also tied to our recent achievements and future ambitions. One good example of the symbiosis across strategic governance and individual practice is how we can now advance our international strategy. The adoption of some sort of an international perspective and remit has been an aim of the IHBC since it was founded, not least because the foundations of our own multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary accreditation are rooted in global standards, as noted above. The old IHBC constitution formally barred us from investing in such activities. With our new governance and more open and transparent planning, development and accountability, we can now confront the widest of such challenges without unnecessary constraints. So, already – and in a very early manifestation of the new IHBC – we now have an international working group to help us grow that agenda. Not only are we starting to pursue the global remit here, but the volunteers that lead the working group now have a constitutional locus of a sort we could never offer before. For example working group members can report to our new Council, itself a newly constitutionalised tier of governance that is as nascent as the working groups themselves. Of course our recent achievements are not only tied to that constitutional progress, even if it does mean we have been able to move forward with much more confidence. We have also been working on a huge range of other stuff including: • our first ‘virtual’ AGMs and linked general meeting • new mechanisms and tools of governance to suit the new articles • newly-fashioned member services, including our twoday ‘virtual’ Brighton School, and the forthcoming blended Aberdeen School in June • the institution and development of the learning-led MarketPlace platform, allied to the annual schools but with the potential to live independently • our charity fund, the IHBC CREATIVE Conservation Fund • extensive collaborative work, not least joint Guidance for Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment… ….and much more that I have to leave out due to space. One change has been contentious. The membership categories have been recast to focus on supporting early career progress and educational frameworks. This entailed introducing the new ‘Supporter’ membership category for those who are not applying for, or who do not qualify for membership as an Affiliate (see page 10). This change clarified the meaning of membership, but some members understandably felt that their familiar place in the IHBC was being challenged. As we have always made clear, that supposedly familiar place was in fact a long-standing illusion of ‘membership’ based mainly on a fee payment. As we grow, a firm solution was required, and with the inconvenience of that change now behind us, we will move forward with real credibility and clarity for members. Each year the IHBC’s board of trustees offers its special and sincere gratitude to the many volunteers, supporters, consultants and staff who have all contributed to the vast work programme over the year. Repeating those thanks here is a suitable conclusion to the update in this silver anniversary year! Seán O’Reilly is the Director of IHBC (director@ihbc.org.uk), joining in 2005 after working at the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland. He has written, contributed to and edited numerous publications in architectural history and conservation.
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