IHBC25 - marking IHBC's silver anniversary

IHBC25 anniversary hub

What’s the plan?

A programme that extends across our new subscription year – from April 2022 to March 2023 – to mark the 25th (silver) anniversary of the IHBC’s role as a professional body supporting and accrediting built and historic environment conservation specialists. We started with the NewsBlog post launching an outline plan and a call for suggestions. We have since set up a digital web page platform https://ihbc25.ihbc.org.uk/ , barely a microsite, to serve as a hub for what will be our #IHBC25 anniversary presence in the world of social media and the link across news, events and projects.

How long did that take to sort?

It took a little more than a fortnight from the first draft plan in late March to the NewsBlog in early April, and less than a week after that to design and launch the web page hub that hosts the programme. All told, it occupied less than a week of work by our top-notch IT team, led by Joanna Theobald and Peter Badcock, and me.

But how much?

Cheap of course, given that it is the IHBC, and cheerful too, we hope, so pragmatic rather than sophisticated. Indeed, this investment in IHBC25 perfectly reflects our entire anniversary strategy.

This approach continues our own legacy, being a small charity established in 1997 with no more than the pennies in our then members’ pockets, alongside our volunteers’ time and effort. Since then, too, the IHBC has grown by supplementing those resources, developing services, benefiting from hard work, and undertaking careful stewardship of, investment in and growing of our niche operations. This approach means that today, after inflation and despite the huge expansion in our member support and advocacy, IHBC members actually pay less than when the national office was established in 2004-05 through the formal appointment of its director. In terms of investment returns and growth, clearly we are not Warren Buffet, nor cryptocurrency either, but it is not a bad record, given what has been added to the services. Our approach to IHBC25, and especially its digital hub, captures well our heritage of tight money and resource management.

Future costs?

Most plans will operate within existing and agreed budget projections. That includes opportunities for branches and others to bid for extra funding for their own IHBC25 projects. That should give us a rare local locus alongside options for an international programme, adding further value to the voluntary efforts of our members.

The caveats, there are always caveats!

The high speed and low cost may well show in places, but we are a charity with bigger objectives than the sheen from celebration. For most, and for a one-year anniversary programme, the breadth will impress enough. More important, and especially given the challenges our pandemic and war-ridden world faces just now, we want the quality to be judged first by the outcomes, not the chronological coincidence that first tied them together.

What do people say?

Although it is still early days, so far we have had a big thumbs-up for the logo, which evolved across about half of the IHBC25 inception period. We will have to see about the success of the web page and hub, so readers will know more on that. As the model has been shaped out of a familiar and successful IHBC antecedent (our ‘IHBC@ COP26’ model, the same digitalhub-listing approach that we used at COP26), we are hopeful.

How does that work?

The ‘IHBC@COP26’ initiative offered a platform that tied together a huge diversity of IHBC and partner events and more, creating for our members and networks a flexible and coherent presence tied to a global stage. It underpinned the longest, most substantial and most complex CPD programme the IHBC has ever hosted. Our anniversary IHBC25, although at 12 months many times longer than IHBC@COP26, is simpler in operation, in part because of how it can be delivered, and in part because we need not coordinate partner contributions before the launch.

Operationally, the IHBC25 digital hub centres on three main areas – of News, Events and Projects. The first two use our #IHBC25 hashtag to link across to anniversary reports and updates listed in our core services: the IHBC’s NewsBlog service for News; our digital calendar for Events. For projects we use both News and Events links together, alongside a system of managed posting.

Do try it out, and let us know where we might have missed gaps or opportunities. The platform is functioning as I write, despite our tight timescale. It is well branded, with the IHBC’s core colours and design memes; well-connected too, linking into our wider tools and services, from the social media to the main website, the 2022 Aberdeen school; our nifty Toolbox; and so on. And it is tied into our low-cost but high-reach social media feeds.

And the IHBC Board?

Our chair and president – who under our new articles represent respectively the IHBC Board (our charitable and corporate body) and the IHBC Council (our membership, and their independent voice to the Board) – said for the NewsBlog launch: ‘We’re delighted to welcome the launch of a year of activities and events’; that the programme will ‘look at our future as much as our past’; and that we can now better ‘push ahead with our modernisation, informed by our unique heritage’.

Our vice chair Lone Le Vay set our plans in the context of the wider membership and – as she is our network lead for branches – she led the call for their input, thoughts and suggestions. The connections to the Branch Reconnection Day last November, and the extra pandemic-recover branch allocations, were also highlighted.

Are there risks?

Treasurer Jill Kerry and IHBC secretary Jo Evans outlined the risk management strategy in the launch. It ‘makes the most of the institute’s proven digital skills and hard-won resources’. This included running the anniversary across the subscription year rather than the calendar year – which meant that we could spread costs evenly across two financial years – working within pre-existing budget lines.

What are you actually offering?

As director, at its launch I described the core plan for a platform to support the communications infrastructure and legacy. I signposted the new strategic capacity on offer to branches, as so many are still in recovery mode. I pointed out that to help that recovery we now had a new dedicated branch support officer, Jude Wheeler, to help garner voluntary contributions.

As members and friends, where should we start?

The #IHBC25 NewsBlogs included some background references to inspire awareness, suggestions and ideas.

Will it work?

We want to mark a year dedicated to ‘Learning from our heritage, building on our legacy and documenting our history’. To achieve these aims we need to understand where we were in 1997 and how we progressed from there – remembering the achievement represented by our charitable incorporation as the IHBC in 1997, and again under our new constitution. We can only do that with your help and input. Does it work? You will need to let us know!

This article originally appeared as ‘Looking at IHBC25: marking our silver anniversary, when less is more again’ in the Institute of Historic Building Conservation’s (IHBC’s) Context 172, published in June 2022. It was written by IHBC Director Seán O'Reilly.

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation