Ruth Reed

Dear Jack.
Thank you for your words of advice and wisdom. If I succeed in my bid to be the next RIBA President I shall certainly bear them in mind.

It was very interesting to watch you fighting the helm to inch the RIBA vessel round to a new heading. I saw the frustrations. The Vice –Presidents have busy practices with limited time to push forward on all policy fronts. The hard-working staff are too busy to focus on your objectives because of their multitude of projects. There is too little money and too little time. I think you were more successful than you give yourself credit for. Like George before you and Sunand now you are a clear voice for the Institute, making friends and influencing people on behalf of the profession. You knew the Institute well before you were elected with long years of committee work behind you and could demonstrate that you understood the needs of the membership well enough to be elected.

The art of changing course is to know what is possible. What is needed is clear direction in strategic planning to make the Institute focus its efforts. It should ask of each initiative: ‘Is this what the membership needs from its Institute, is this what the membership expects the Institute to do on its behalf?’ Then it should let the membership know clearly what its programme is. The new President and her team need to expect the question ’What does the Institute do for me?’, and to know what the answer is and be reassured that is effective and appropriate.

Can the regional chairmen answer this question? They need to be able to. The RIBA should be as effective for a member in Ipswich as they are for one in Islington. The Regions are the underdeveloped strength of the RIBA. It is the envy of sister institutions for maintaining a network, but only just. The individual regions are frequently not strong enough to exploit the profession’s high standing at a regional level To achieve this will take commitment and investment of time, skills and money by the RIBA.

Is the RIBA being effective enough in promoting all aspects of practice? Starchitects and award-winning buildings get top billing but what about recognising the wider excellence in delivery. The RIBA is far too modest on our behalf. Clients and government need to know how effective we are at delivering buildings for our clients. No wonder we are losing ground to surveyors and project managers.

Is the RIBA being consistent in its message to the Schools? Are we all trapped in the dazzle of the starchitect? With a downturn in the economy should employability be on the agenda as well as thinking?

Dear Jack, you will not be surprised to learn that I think I can take over at the helm next year and address these issues. As you well know I am a time-served committee chair with attitude and I can deliver. With the membership’s support from across the UK and abroad I can swing this ship around.

Ruth Reed is a former President of RSAW and Vice-President of Membership
www.ruthreed.co.uk

Members from across the regions are disaffected by the centralisation of the RIBA. 66 Portland Place is a wonderful building, an international centre for excellence in architecture but the regions get little out of it. For a regional member it is difficult to get to the lectures and exhibitions and these rarely leave the capitol to tour the regions.

It is not a new problem, the RIBA has been London-centric for as long as I can remember. But the issue – one of both perception and delivery - has been building up for some time and has come to a head now in the low number of regional candidates standing for election to the RIBA Council. Architects are not going to give their time for an organisation that they perceive as doing little for them so they have voted with their feet and not put themselves forward for Council.

The RIBA is not very good at telling its members what it’s doing so it’s partly a problem of communication. Little is understood of the liaison with government and the central influence that it exerts. Consequently members feel that the RIBA has no relevance to their everyday working lives as architects. And it’s not just the sole practicioners who feel like this, the big regional practices are also vocal in expressing their disaffection with the service 66 Portland Place provides.

The RIBA needs to do more to support its regional offices to give an equivalent provision across the country, supporting architecture centres, lectures and exhibitions in all regions. The Institute needs to influence and engage regional decision-making bodies such as Regional Development Agencies and Local Authorities. Government powers have devolved, and the RIBA now needs to reflect that.

The RIBA should realise that it ignores its membership at its peril.

Making the RIBA work for all architects

Too many members question what they get for their membership of the Institute. The RIBA needs to:

• Focus on key objectives for all of the Institute’s activities making sure they are what the membership needs and expects the RIBA to do
• Draw up a clear programme of services and initiatives
• Tell the membership clearly what the RIBA does on its behalf.

Good Architecture: delivery as well as design

I will lead the RIBA to promote the best of Architectural practice as well as the best of Architectural design. The RIBA needs to demonstrate to clients and government:

• The value we bring to their projects through good design
• The value we bring to their projects through effective delivery
• The benefit of a ‘value’ not ‘cost’ basis for fees

A flexible education for a changing profession

I will put in place policies to deliver:

• An affordable and flexible education for architecture students
• Recognition of the roles and responsibilities of practice in architectural education
• The embedding of employability in the curriculum

Positive action to improve the planning system

I will lobby government to give architects a leading role in reducing the load on the planning system by:

• Extending permitted development rights for applications submitted by architects
• Introducing a test of ‘necessity’ on the requirements for supporting information with applications

CAMPAIGN DIARY
Details to be confirmed:

22 May      Birmingham hustings: 12.30 - 13.30 Austin Court
28 May      Nottingham hustings Cancelled
2 June       RIAS hustings Glasgow to be confirmed
3 June       RSAW and Wessex hustings Cardiff to be confirmed
4 June       Northampton Society of Architects
9 June       Liverpool hustings: 15.00 – 16.00 RENEW Rooms, Wood Street, Liverpool
9 June       Birmingham hustings, The Cube 19.00
10 June     Leeds and Newcastle hustings times and venues to be confirmed
11 June     Birmingham School of Architecture Year End Show
12 June     London, South, Southeast and East hustings: 18.00–20.00
Committee Room 10 House of Commons
13 June     Brighton hustings (provisional)