40 C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 Membership notes Neil Clare (EA) Mike Daniells (SW) Neil Elliott (EA) Tom Flanagan (NW) John Gould (SW) Ian Gracie (SC) Gillian Gray (WM) Mike Hall (SO) Christopher Hesketh (WM) Nigel Howard (SE) Gary Hubbard (SO) Bob Johnson (WM) Dolores Keane (LO) Sharon Kelly (RI) Jane LeCocq (YO) Barry Lee (SE) Iain Long (LO) Donald MacKenzie (SC) Mo Mant (SO) Catherine Marsh (NO) Matthew McKeague (LO) Timothy Murphy (EA) Richard Nares (SW) Frank Olding (WA) Dafydd Owen (LO) Michael Palmer (WM) The following members were voted in at the council meeting on 28 May 2009.Welcome to you all. Full members Amy Longford (WA) Andrew Minting (SW) Cordula Zeidler (LO) Upgrades from affiliates to full members Gail Broom (EA) Emma Gibbens (SW) StaceyWeiser-Jones (EA) Affiliate members Christine Anders (NW) Peter Ashley (NW) Andrew Benjafield (EA) Stephen Bielby (YO) David Borthwick (SC) Michael Broad (SC) Brigitte Buss (SW) Alison Buxton (YO) Rob Cannon (SW) Rob Chambers (NW) Nigel Churchouse (WA) Blair Poole (NW) David Reid (YO) Colin Riches (YO) John Sanders (SC) Joanna Sanderson (LO) Andrew Scott (EM) Lauren Shephard (LO) Richard Sheppard (EM) Paul Simons (SW) Simon Smalley (NO) Dav Smith (YO) Sarah Smith (NW) William Stanwix (YO) Lewis Thomas (WA) Kevin Toner (SC) VirginiaWedgwood (YO) GemmaWild (SC) Alexander Woodcock (SW) Nicola Xuereb (LO) Associate members Janet Beggs (NI) Kevin Dunne (SO) to the direction of our council. As it required both an entirely new field on our membership database, as well as independence from our NewsBlog, the speedy turnaround was no mean feat. Devon DeCelles, our membership services officer, and Joanna Theobald, our website manager, worked long and hard with Peter Badcock, our IT consultant, to develop a system that people could join or avoid, as suited them, and sit beside the NewsBlog rather be part of it. Once again the medium (the electronically communicated letter) needed extensive massage to make sure the message (continuing internal issues) reached the people that wanted it, and avoided being noise for those who did not. Activities and networking Even given the resource implications of these communications systems, the most important way we communicate our corporate messages is through the activities of our elected officers and volunteers. They work through our committees and branches, increasingly with support from the national office (as in the annual schools, or larger events) as well as through dedicated national office activities. Here we try to provide the infrastructure for voluntary, personal communication from the IHBC. Our advocacy is the most obvious means through which we communicate with the sector. Consultation responses are managed with the support of our central consultations consultant, James Caird, who also supports the consultations and policy volunteers in the devolved administrations. We are also about to move forward some softer communications initiatives, notable the idea of Friends, previously reported, and a new interface between volunteer and the national organisation, the IHBC’s CapacityBuild, which should be on the website by the time you read this. In all this our key resource is, and will continue to be, our members, current and future. Members best understand the importance of conservation, transforming the ethical and environmental principles of their professional body into hard realities. The membership remains the key route to extending our activities over the period of the next business plan. Supporting volunteers while progressing core corporate objectives is always a challenge, not least with our limited resources. The answer lies in ensuring that volunteers are fully engaged with the challenges faced by their professional body. The closest partnership between individual members and the national body will help minimise the need for oversight, while facilitating local and personal initiative. Getting the message right is essential, but we have to get right our communications systems, our media. The challenge This brings us to the challenges faced by the IHBC, and which our council, supported first by the communications and outreach committee, must address. • How can we best integrate our communications to maximise efficiency and effectiveness as part of our corporate objectives and our wider membership services? • How can we best enhance common purpose and awareness across our membership and stakeholders? • How can we communicate our aspirations and achievements, in all their complexity, to the wider sector, the myriad of stakeholders that play a role in managing, enjoying and benefiting from our historic places? All suggestions, proposals and thoughts on these challenges are welcome.We won’t rely on the happy accident that helped McLuhan highlight how the medium massaged the message. Simply fill out our volunteering survey linked from our home page, or email me. Seán O’Reilly, [email protected]
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