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22 October 2007

THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF ARBITRATORS

EAST ANGLIA BRANCH

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

Wednesday, 9 April 2003

Introduction

As I finish my final year as Branch Chairman, it is satisfying to note that the Branch’s finances under the stewardship of our Honorary Treasurer and (hopefully!) this coming year's Chairman, John Riches, are very healthy.

The Branch’s administration during this past year has been handled excellently by our Secretary, Bob Juniper; my thanks to him and his staff for his efforts.

Events and Seminars

Since the last AGM, we have held our usual array of evening meetings, seminars and a social event:

Annual Seminar, June 2002, Downing College, Cambridge

Subject: "Dispute Resolution - Violence to Avoidance"

Speakers:

Don Hutchinson, Chartered Engineer and Divisional Director or Mott MacDonald

Bob Juniper of Daniel Connal Partnership and Mediation Norwich, Chartered Surveyor and Mediator

Paul Leigh-Morgan, Barrister of Fenners Chambers

John Riches of Henry Cooper Consultants, Construction Consultants

David Simper, Chartered Arbitrator, of Simper Bibbey & Associates, Construction Contract Advisors

Neville Tait, Chartered Arbitrator, of J N Tait Associates, Construction Consultants

Peter Tunstill of Breeze & Wyles, Solicitors

A thoroughly enjoyable day covering a wide variety of dispute resolution methods attended by 31 delegates.

We were disappointed that Harry "Nosher" Smith was unable to talk to us about the 'violence' aspect, but he was otherwise detained (at Her Majesty's pleasure)!

Annual Dinner, July 2002, Jockey Club Rooms, Newmarket

An excellent dinner in wonderful surroundings with a move from our traditional Cambridge base. The Club's John Robinson gave us a whistle-stop tour of the Rooms before an excellent Dinner for the 35 diners present. Our Guest of Honour was Branch Member and Institute President Tony Canham who revealed some disturbing 'truths' about the Chairman's vines...

"Marketing for Arbitrators", November 2002, Chelmsford

A first Joint Meeting with the Chartered Institute of Marketing, our speaker, Patrick Forsyth, gave us an excellent presentation on how arbitrators could and should market their services.

In different surroundings at the County Hotel, 23 delegates enjoyed the talk.

"Legal Update - The Changing Face of Dispute Resolution in the UK", January 2003, Cambridge

Continuing the theme from last year's talk on legal matters, Dominic Helps from Shadbolt & Co. brought us up to date with a number of legal issues from the Courts.

A lively debate on the rights and wrongs of Edmund Nuttall -v- R G Carter was, for me, a highlight of the question and answer session that followed Dominic's talk.

Unfortunately, the arrangements for a joint meeting with the ICE fell by the wayside again - despite our best efforts - and the ICE ran their own legal update the same night: indeed, Dominic shared a train up from London with Nicholas Gould from Fenwick Elliott (the speaker for the ICE)!

Nonetheless, it was a good turnout with 29 delegates.

"Adjudication Update", February 2003, Ipswich

With a change of venue from Norwich to Ipswich, John Riches brought us up to date with the latest developments in adjudication, including a new comparison between disputes and contract law.

Whether it was the subject matter or the speaker, we cannot be sure (I'm sure John will agree it was the latter!), but the attendance for what is usually our least popular venue was up to 29 delegates.

"Extensions of Time", February 2003, Hatfield

Our speakers for the evening were John Keane and Tony Caletka, both from Keane Associates.

John took us through a variety of methods of ascertaining extensions of time together with the ways in which disruption can be demonstrated. Tony, one of the drafting panel for the Society of Construction Law's EoT Protocol, then took us briefly through the Protocol and its benefits.

The talk and the lively question and answer session mean the evening went on for longer than usual although I believe this was a 'pro' rather than a 'con'!

The venue was packed with 48 delegates.

Annual Surgery, March 2003, Cambridge

This year, the Annual Surgery was led by Tony Bingham and dealt with practical problems faced by arbitrators and adjudicators.

Although the Branch only needs to run these surgeries every two years, the excellent atmosphere and benefit to arbitrators makes this a popular annual event.

A superb event as usual at a great venue and with excellent food and at a bargain-basement price – what more could you ask? 21 delegates thoroughly enjoyed the day and the Branch was left with a vast store of superbly knotty problem questions to explore at a later date.

I have to say that given the number of members in East Anglia, the turnout to your Branch events (with a few exceptions) is very disappointing, in the region of only 2% to 5% of the membership. Given the requirement for CPD for most institutions including our own, this is all the more difficult to understand.

Whilst I am personally always pleased to see so many of the same faces at our events, I would be more pleased if we had many more of you along.

It is also discouraging for our speakers to travel long distances to talk to only a dozen or so delegates.

Web Site

Our Branch Internet web site at http://www.anglian-arbitrators.org.uk gives details of our Committee, the Branch and notice of our events, together with papers from some past meetings when our speakers are able to provide them for us.

I always found it awkward to lay my hands on a booking form and a pain in the backside to actually fill one in, put it in an envelope and post it to confirm my attendance. The web site helps make this so much easier: all the free evening meetings can be booked online using the form.

Related Associations

Progress is being made to foster good relationships with other professional institutions in East Anglia.

The Branch has a large proportion of its membership working in or around the ‘built environment’ or construction industry and the Construction Industry Council set up CIC East a year or so ago.

CIC East has an Executive Committee made up of members from the RICS, RIBA, CIOB, APM and other similar organisations and this Branch has also recently joined. Initially representing the APM East Anglia Branch, I continue to represent our Institute and Branch on this executive committee.

As well as a voice in the EEDA, the local regional development agency, CPD/education is an important element of CIC East. I am pushing for all the CIC East organisations to publicise relevant CPD events to their members so that we have a more varied events programme and perhaps more delegates from other institutes to the benefit of all. It is hoped to develop this further over the coming few months.

Membership and Committee

Membership of the Branch is of the order of 550+ members and I would hope that more of you would put yourselves forward either as speakers at events, organisers of events or as potential committee members. I certainly would be pleased to see more of you at our regular meetings.

Your Committee has done a sterling job once more this year and it is truly a pleasure to work with them. Peter Hill and Michael Buck who have served your Committee and Branch very well over the years are both stepping down this year and will be sadly missed. We wish them well for the future and look forward to seeing them again at some of our events.

Please don’t be backward in coming forward if you would like to be elected or co-opted onto the committee for specific functions: we always need new ideas and new views and if you can help organise a meeting or two in our area, all the better.

Conclusion

My two years representing you as Branch Chairman have flown by and have been 'an experience'! I will now put my efforts into representing the Branch as its Regional Representative on Council for the next two years and will endeavour to serve the Branch well.

Richard H. Morris DipArb FCIArb MACostE MAPM
Chairman
East Anglia Branch
April 2003