CONTEXT 183 : MARCH 2025 45 Director’s cut The IHBC’s volunteer support Readers will be familiar with my occasional updates on the opportunities, initiatives and support to help our busy volunteering members. They range from our open-access online COP26 CPD programme, which ran the full length of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, to our 25th anniversary celebratory funds for IHBC25 and the pandemic crisis funding uplift in branch funds. They also include what is now our CPD Branch Partnership. After many years as a pilot ‘local delivery’ service offering hard-to-access priority CPD, corefunded by the national body, this is now healthily up and running under the guidance of Angharad Hart. This present column takes the opportunity to summarise and update on some more recent developments, the most important being the local capacity and support offered by our recently appointed Branch Liaison and Support Consultants. The brief summary below is adapted from our recently issued ‘IHBC Branch Committee Bulletin, from the IHBC’s Director’. This service is itself devised to help leads in branch committee keep abreast of the huge breadth of matters of interest as they evolve. The Branch Committee Bulletin is an informal and consciously personalised thread of our internal communication, cast to offer early notice on plans and opportunities and, among other things, serving as a spur to join more evolving discussions. It has developed from the service established when Jude Wheeler was our branch support officer, though now reflects the wider and more substantial network of branch support. With a text adjusted a little to suit our cherished Context’s style, I have written to our branch committee officers as follows: I’m delighted to be able to update you once again on key developments, initiatives and opportunities from the IHBC’s National Office as we extend our support for our hard-pressed volunteers. Please feel free to circulate this bulletin to your committee, or more widely through your branch network and communications. As ever, more detailed updates will appear in our NewsBlogs service as they arise. Marsh Awards 2025: call for nominations, open to 31 March Perhaps the most significant opportunity for branches to raise profile and encourage membership across your networks is the chance to plan, promote, spur and submit nominations… [to the] Marsh Awards, as they reflect critical conservation issues. ‘Community contribution’ by retired IHBC members highlights the public benefits our members can bring even after retirement. ‘Successful learning’ in heritage-related skills spotlights the central role learning plays in securing future conservation successes. Prizes of £500 cash (which may go to a charity of choice) and free places at IHBC’s 2025 Annual School in Shrewsbury are on offer too. So please encourage nominations from across all your networks (digital and in-person) as a great way to raise the profile of your branch’s good works… Branch Liaison and Support Consultants: introductions and updates The start of 2025 was especially significant as, having met our newly appointed Branch Consultants, I was able to personally introduce them all (by email) to officers and leads in the branch committees that they will support. Each IHBC Branch Committee now has access to a dedicated consultant (contactable via a dedicated email address) to help and advise on how
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