48 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 Director’s cut Another busy quarter The past few months have probably been one of the busiest periods in the history of the IHBC. Members, and the wider public, can find out much of what has been happening through the news‑blog links from our new home page, and the website is as good a place as any to start. Many will be familiar with the progressive web-based booking system that we have adopted for the forthcoming annual school.We will have a comparable system in place for the 2009 annual school in Buxton, so if you have not seen the site, do look at the new one when it is up. The system is not simply to make the process more efficient and accessible. Although these are crucial benefits, they could not have justified the effort by our esteemed web management team, Peter Badcock and Joanna Theobald, who have patiently responded to the many comments from the national office and branch volunteers that shaped the final product. The real impetus for developing the site is the need to provide training fit for the modern CPD needs of our members. With CPD compulsory for full members, and centred on a personal assessment of specific specialist needs, the institute needs to provide a personspecific dimension to our training services. As our annual school is the key training opportunity for IHBC members, we have started here. The second part of the day school offers a wide range of educational opportunities – our ‘classes’ – which members can select from.With some 10 classes running simultaneously and covering a range of current topics, members can access training most suited to their individual CPD needs across the wide range of our Areas of Competence. Explaining this kind of choice in a printed programme is not only forbidding, but inflexible. Instead, by providing a web-based booking system, a delegate can easily click on their preferred option at the point of booking, and even scrutinise it in more detail through links. This resource enables the IHBC to set a new standard in serving the CPD needs of the sector’s key professionals. While we have been working on the website and the programme for the annual school, we have also been progressing a huge number of initiatives in partnership, both inside the institute and outside. In this, two days (29 and 30 April) must rank along our most challenging. The national office has been working for some time, alongside other partners, to inform research sponsored by the National Heritage Training Group (NHTG) into the skills needs of built heritage professionals. The report, including a stakeholders’ action plan, was launched at a two-day conference at the end of April in London – the reports are posted on our website. Organised by ICOMOS, hosted by the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment and the Carpenters’
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