I have reccently finished my period as chair at IRPM and handed over to
Felix Keen from First Port who I know will continue to drive IRPM to further
success and deliver yet more for our members.
Whilst I will remain as immediate past chair, for me it is
the end of an era. I have been involved with IRPM from conception in 2000 and
creation in 2002 and it has been close to my heart ever since. I believe that
we have fundamentally improved the quality and skills of residential block
management practitioners and this is confirmed by the many job adverts I see
that mention IRPM as a desirable or necessary requirement.
IRPM would simply not exist without Janie Strange and Jeff
Platt who nursed it through difficult growing pains, tight budgets and
unforeseen obstacles in the early years. It is with regret that they too will
be stepping down at the end of the year when we will be joined by our new CEO Andrew Bulmer. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank them for
their relentless efforts to promote IRPM, to give us a real voice in the
residential industry and to make IRPM the go-to qualification for leasehold (and
factoring) managers. Their support during my tenure has been invaluable.
Excitingly, there are newer, younger, members coming forward
to drive the agenda at IRPM and their efforts can be seen in the Resource Hub
and other web led initiatives. Our membership is increasingly made up of under
35s who represent new smart ways of working, broader generalist approaches to
management and are full of ideas that we are hoping to harness.
My thanks should also go to the working groups, all
volunteers, who devote significant time and effort to delivering our promises
to members.
We are all supported by Sarah, Aga and Dipti who have
devoted their considerable talents to delivering huge changes in the last few
years. The member database has been modernised, we have entered the world of
social media and we have diligently managed our funds so that we can invest
carefully in some great new initiatives including specific Build to Rent qualifications and Trailbazer Apprenticeships both of which launch in the new year. We have a small but incredibly hard working team serving all of the
working groups and the executive. I thank them for keeping us on track and on
time and delivering incredible value for members.
During my time as chair I am proud to have experience more than 10% membership growth year on year, testament to the continued value of our qualification and
growth in all levels of membership. I
have hosted numerous road shows, training days, our free annual seminar and our
fellows' day and spoken to many members on matters as diverse as Brexit, Scotland,
LGBT voices and equality, MA/HA's and working together, the impact of mixed
tenure, higher education and the skills gap.
IRPM will continue to work on delivering apprenticeships and
the first PRS qualifications in the UK, as well as enhancing the Resource Hub
so that it becomes the first area our members search when advice and
information is needed in our complicated world. In recent years we have seen
more emphasis on mixed use and mixed tenure schemes and the advent of the PRS
build to rent sector further add to the skill sets that we need to prepare our
members for. It is an exciting time for us and there will be many initiatives
in the near future designed to broaden our offering, develop our members and
attract new faces.
Education and continuing professional development is crucial
to practitioners and it is important that we continue to promote our industry
to schools and colleges as a valid career choice so that employers have a
constant stream of new talent becoming available. These are the strategic
matters that will fill the days of our new CEO and chair in the coming year.
Janie, Jeff and I will remain available to assist where we can and we trust
that we are leaving a great legacy.
This article first appeared in The RPM magazine in August 2016
