16 Y e a r b o o k 2 0 1 0 of news that might be relevant. It is always a matter of careful judgement, and our success in getting the right balance is confirmed by members’ keenness to subscribe to the service. Clearly, as we shape and articulate a common understanding of conservation through our NewsBlogs, our home becomes better appointed, and our members gain a clearer sense of belonging. As a home for a modern professional, the IHBC is now well equipped with every convenience that one might expect. As well as the NewsBlog, this home also offers many other services and benefits which together create that clear sense of a professional culture of conservation: • the extensive information resource offered through the website, and through the NewsBlog in particular, keeps members abreast of developments daily • five annual issues of the journal Context and one of the IHBC Yearbook regularly deliver the extensive range of information required, direct to each member • consultations on current initiatives ensure that all IHBC members get to be involved in shaping the infrastructure of the built and historic environment • regional branch meetings and national events such as the IHBC annual school, bring conservation professionals together from across the country, to learn from specialists and each other, to network and gain CPD. Some services are offered to members only, usually where costs require it, as with Context. However, many are made available to colleagues across the sector and to the general public as a whole, as in the case of the web service. So, where capacity allows, we welcome non-members to our training events, we offer bursaries to students to attend our schools, and we always do what we reasonably can to support and assist other educational and civic initiatives that, like us, suffer from limited capacity. Our open-ended support for the sector reflects our wider charitable duties. It also represents a core awareness in our membership: the need to support the broadest interests in historic places. It underpins the understanding that a proportion of members’ subscription fees goes to support these wider sector needs. The success of our support for both our members and the sector as a whole was clearly demonstrated by more milestone achievements last year. These include: • record membership • record attendance at training events, and at the annual school in particular • two new services; our professional listing (HESPR) and professional indemnity schemes • raised political profile, not only through contributing to a plethora of government reviews, but also through this year’s meeting of IHBC Council at the Cardiff conference • benchmark advocacy: we helped secure a remarkable response to the draft policy (PPS) for England’s historic environment. While 2009 was clearly a great year for IHBC, the achievements provide only a sketch of the potential of the institute. It is easy to forget that we were founded just 12 years ago: we are growing fast. Standards: the foundations of our home The care and conservation of the historic environment must, of course, be founded on the application of standards, and we have been working hard to articulate those standards more effectively. As the professional body for everyone working in this field, IHBC members come from a diverse range of disciplines; there is no single profile that fits them all. They are usually multi-skilled and often multi-qualified. Indeed we regard the Seán O’Reilly introduces Welsh Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones at the IHBC’s Cardiff conference in September 2009. (Photo: Fiona Newton) A packed meeting of IHBC’s South West branch listens to a presentation on HPR by the head of English Heritage’s designation team, Roger Bowdler in October 2009. (Photo: Jonathan Taylor)
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