The 121st meeting of the CIB Board took place on October 19th – 21st by zoom, rather than in the beautiful city of Budapest as the guests of Péter Tóth of EMI, as had been planned. As ever we are grateful for the commitment of our Officers and Board members in governing and driving forward CIB’s activities.
The theme of the meeting was “re-energising”, and a number of new initiatives were approved, including the following:
- Approval of funding for Student Chapters in 2021, including for the re-purposed Gyula Sebestyén Award in for Outstanding Student Chapter, a new Best Dissertation Award drawing from the winners in each Student Chapter, and the opportunity to bid in collaboration with other Chapters for a share of €10,000 for special initiatives.
- Early Career Researchers – a new programme of work to develop and support a global network of members’ researchers in the first five years of their career. This will include a series of online meetings and events, complimentary membership for ECRs if they are not employed by a CIB Member, and the development of a mentoring activity.
- CIB in Conversation– this series of informal interviews with high profile guests has been launched with an in-depth discussion with CIB President Keith Hampson. Proposals for future guests, eg high profile academics or from governments or industry, whether within the CIB network or outside it, are invited from all CIB members.
- Third-Party funding strategy to diversify our funding and avoid over-reliance on membership subscription levels. Chaired by Mark Hastak of Purdue University and CIB Vice Chair, a sub-committee has been established to engage potential third parties to discuss potential opportunities to fund or sponsor the work of CIB, its Commissions and Student Chapters. Our first priorities are to approach the United Nations and related bodies (eg UNEP, UNESCO, Habitat), Canadian funding bodies (linked to our recent relocation), global Foundations and global industry firms. Proposals for a ‘CIB Alumni strategy’ and a ‘CIB Giving Day’ will be developed as part of this programme of work.
Other business conducted over four 2-hour sessions included:
- Consultation sessions with our active Student Chapters and Commission Coordinators, reported elsewhere.
- Re-approval of the 2019 CIB accounts, confirmation of a letter to be sent to members regarding this outcome, in line with the resolution passed at the 2020 General Assembly in June, and approval of the budget for 2021.
- Review of CIB Task Groups and the closure of four, extension of one, and the upgrade of TG59, People in Construction, to become a full Working Commission.
- Progress with a review of CIB’s relationship with its Partner Journals, ie the 3 Recognised and 26 Encouraged journals.
- Progressing the organisation of World Building Congress 2022
- Michael Lacasse New Board member in succession to Michel Dumoulin.
