IFE Board Meeting Update (July 2007)

The week commencing 9th July 2007 was an especially busy period for the Board members and staff of the Institution. With two meetings of the General Assembly, two meetings of the Board and the Annual General Meeting, all alongside an excellent and well attended conference and social events, the week was very demanding, full and fruitful. I would like to thank fellow Board Members, General Assembly Members, the wider membership and the staff of the Institution for all their efforts.

It was a wonderful opportunity to hear reports of the enormous amount of voluntary activity occurring around the world and all aimed at improving the profession of fire engineering. It certainly gave me a real buzz to see so much international participation and enthusiasm for our work; it bodes well for the future.

The future for the fire engineering profession is to be the subject of a period of extensive consultation over the next twelve months. The Board of Directors have agreed that the role of International President Charles Chu, will be to work with myself to develop and conduct a consultation process with the membership and our stakeholders around the world to identify the key issues facing the fire engineering profession. We hope to draw from this consultation some strategic themes that will form the vision for the future of fire engineering as a profession and be built into our strategic planning for the Institution over the next decade.

The work to develop the consultation process is already underway, but if members have any views on how the consultation process should be developed, or thoughts about the major issues facing the profession, please e mail Charles on mcchu@netvigator.com or myself on john.judd1@ntlworld.com. We will both value your input.

The Board dealt with a full agenda in their meetings, including monitoring progress on the Business plan for 2007 and financial performance. Membership figures are looking promising for further growth this year and there is considerable activity in examinations, registration activity and a growing number of partnerships with the wider fire industry.

For the staff and board members, there will be a period of considerable activity before the next Board meeting in November 2007, as we work hard to deliver on our ambitious plans.