IHBC Yearbook 2012

20 Y E A R B O O K 2 0 1 2 EJSFDU DPNNVOJDBUJPO BOE IPX UP read a budget and a balance sheet. As a professional working in conservation, membership of a professional body such as the IHBC brings many benefits, some passive such as the journals and the information and training resources, designed to provide support where needed most. Other benefits are participatory and active, giving members the opportunity to contribute to the conservation of our heritage and the work of others, as XFMM BT UP HBJO GSPN UIF FYQFSJFODF If you are not already a member, it is high time you joined. And if you are a member, one of the most positive voluntary ways in which you can support the institute is by encouraging others to join. Why not get a dozen membership leaflets and email or hand one out each month to someone you come across in your professional work who you know not to be a member but who you reckon would be a solid, enthusiastic addition? There aren’t too many folk who have specialised only in building conservation, so cast your net widely in other professions. IHBC IBT B SJDIOFTT PG FYQFSJFODFT BOE backgrounds: it takes a broad kirk to embrace architects and archaeologists! Don’t forget Joe and Jo Public either. He may care passionately about building conservation and be prepared to engage with no intention of ever becoming a full member. She, on the other hand, may not ever have thought about building conservation but may recognise some of its plusses when things like climate change or Tescopoly are mentioned. You may not be so much a volunteer in such cases, more a missionary, but hopefully one whose position will never end up going to pot. In your professional life you will gain from voluntary activity in CPD terms, and from the e"orts of professional colleagues going the FYUSB NJMF 5IF NPTU JOUFSFTUJOH things happen at the margins, in the overlaps and on top of thin ice, where such activities will often be inspired, kicked o", persevered with and eventually cherished by significant voluntary e"orts. Don’t forget to create and market opportunities for such energies to be applied. Issues of potential bring me to those starting their professional careers. We old hacks have a professional responsibility to train those under our wings, those we manage or lead. One of my more enlightened old bosses insisted we put five per cent of our working time into cognate bodies, on the basis that we gained just as much as we gave. But today that sort of relationship may be rarer, and indeed work opportunities may not be that easy to come by as firms shrink and FTUBCMJTIFE QPTUT BSF VOmMMFE PS BYFE If you are standing at the foot of this long career ladder and the way up is obscured by writhing, slippery TOBLFT XIZ OPU FYFSDJTF WPMVOUFFSJOH TLJMMT UP CVJME VQ FYQFSJFODF JEFBMMZ in building conservation of course, CVU BOZ FYQFSJFODF JT CFUUFS UIBO OPOF UP TDBďPME VQ UP UIF mSTU SVOH by any means that maintains your TFMG SFTQFDU 5IJT NBZ CF UISPVHI volunteering for an environmental /(0 TUJMM UIF SFDPHOJTFE SPVUF UP CFDPNJOH B DPVOUSZTJEF SBOHFS 0S what about producing a contemporary photographic record of your neighbourhood’s building character, and lodging it with local and national record o!ces? You may not always be master or mistress of your own destiny, but you can help it along. Social media mean we are all GSPOU MJOF WPMVOUFFST JO QSPNPUJOH our beliefs. This can be hard for us auld yins to comprehend, and sometimes it is di!cult not to be shocked by the things people are prepared to share on Twitter, LinkedIn and especially Facebook. But here are huge opportunities to communicate IHBC values, concerns, and commentaries. While they may not involve the sweat of the brow like many of the processes of the past that we building conservationists love today, social media will set the scene for tomorrow’s architects, artists, and craftsmen to flourish within. Hopefully they will be able to do so in a world where climate change and other environmental concerns have been satisfactorily addressed, but where there still remains that sweet joy of achievement through judiciously applied voluntary e"ort. An IHBC East Midlands branch visit to Creswell Crags on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. Getting involved in organising branch events, or indeed in running your local branch, is a great way to share and develop skills and expertise. Contact your local branch for more information. (Photo: Fiona Newton)

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=