The IHBC’s most recent ‘Council+’ (‘Council plus’) – the institute’s twice-yearly, UK-wide forum for leadership, engagement and scrutiny, open to all IHBC membership categories – was held in London on 29 November, in the stunning setting of the listed Art Workers Guild, and offered a unique opportunity for all members to get more involved in the IHBC while also influencing our CPD (Continuing Professional Development ) provision.
The event focussed on how members could think about their own CPD needs, the availability of CPD opportunities, and how the IHBC’s strategic responses to CPD are evolving, as well as how it might be improved.
The morning included reports, notably a review of the new Corporate Plan 2020-25 consultation, on ‘CP25’ – where delegates especially welcomed the ‘outward facing’ approach continued from our current Corporate Plan – as well as an introduction to our pilot testing of the event polling and Q&A platform, Slido.
In the afternoon the IHBC’s Director Sean O’Reilly outlined the IHBC’s Institute-wide responses to CPD, developing our wider CPD focus across the whole of the IHBC’s operations, including Context and the Annual Schools.
IHBC Professional Development Officer, Ramona Usher then described the work she is advancing with the IHBC’s Membership Application Training Events (MATE), helping members work towards their full membership, and the plans to develop new MAGE (Membership Accreditation Guidance Events). Training Officer, consultant Sarah Chang, explored how to identify personal styles of learning, and so get the best from your CPD. The role of Branches in providing CPD events was outlined by Fiona Newton while Alison McCandlish gave tips on how Digital & Social Media can help with CPD.
Fiona Newton, Council+ lead and IHBC’s Operations Director, said: ‘We hope that Council+ once again met our aspirations to provide a simpler more welcoming route for members to get involved and volunteer with the IHBC. We were pleased to welcome both returning members and those many who were new to Council+, who all took the chance to think about their own CPD and how the IHBC provides training.’
Throughout the day there was a chance to try out Slido, a tool that may be used to expand the impact of IHBC Schools, with a further piloting planned for our Brighton 2020 School. Slido allowed questions to be raised throughout the day. Snapshot polls taken on the CPD theme had site visits coming out as the most popular way to get CPD and the Design and Finance IHBC Areas of Competence were the two that delegates felt they most needed CPD.
Slido or a similar platform may be useful for future IHBC CPD events such as the Annual School and a Slido Poll on the day had 84% saying its use should be investigated for the Brighton School.
See here for more on IHBC CPD
See the new Corporate Plan 2020-25 consultation, ‘CP25’
See IHBC NewsBlogs referring to CPD
