Annual Report 2009 - Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

Annual Report 2009Reports from the Boards, Committees and ExecutiveBOARD OF TRUSTEESChairman: Steven A CertilmanI am pleased to report to you a summary of the keyoutcomes of the board’s activities in 2009.First let me reference the review of Institute affairs preparedby our Director General, Michael Forbes Smith. In his reportsin 2009 the Director General noted that, though intended tohave been a year of consolidation, 2009 turned out to be ayear of innovation and significant results, produced by acommitted and professional team to whom is owed a debtof gratitude.Michael noted a number of enhancements in communicationsand information delivery within the Institute. These includethe new branch chairs’ regular update on Institute activitiesthrough the branch newsletter, the newly redesigned website(www.ciarb.org) which went live on 31 March and is beingregularly updated and upgraded with additional facilities formembers and the improved web-based news service. Theseadd to our valuable Resolver, Linex Alerter and NewsWatchservices.Two UK Branch Chair meetings were held at BloomsburySquare in March and September by members of the Boardof Trustees, the latter of which I had the pleasure ofattending. During the first of these meetings, the DirectorGeneral announced the reorganisation of the Executive, withthe handover of the Education and Training team to theResearch and Development Department, freeing up moreresources to focus exclusively on membership services.The training output from the restructured Education andTraining team increased significantly and the number ofcourses being offered worldwide appears to be at a recordhigh. To the satisfaction of all, this led to the achievement ofa long-standing goal, a strong financial return for Educationand Training, as well as a significant increase in newmembership. It is also encouraging that four new brancheswere either inaugurated or authorised in the last year,Caribbean, India, Mauritius and Singapore. Regretfully, I reportalso that the Northumbria Branch decided to close, and itsmembers were transferred to the UK’s North East Branch.Adding to the successes of the Institute in fulfilling thelearned society aspect of its mission, it is with pleasure that Ireport that the second Mediation Symposium and the reestablishedAlexander Lecture were both sell-outs, as wasthe successful Members’ Luncheon held at Butcher’s Hallwith Ms Cherie Booth (Mrs Tony Blair) as speaker.2009 also saw a dramatic improvement in the array ofcollateral benefits available to members of the Institute.Under the umbrella CIArb Advantage and launched on 31March, these benefits add additionaltangible value to the CIArb membership.One benefit, our new Personal Indemnity insurance scheme,makes worldwide professional liability insurance available toour members. Please login to the Member area of thewebsite and visit the Member Benefits pages for moreinformation www.ciarb.org/members.The time has come for the Institute to again select anorganisation to offer its mediation programs. This processhas advanced and by the time this reaches you, the detailsshould be in place. The use of outside professional trainingorganisations for mediation training is a short-term solution.In the not-distant future, we anticipate that the trustees’ statedobjective of delivering mediation using the same memberfacultysystem used for arbitration and adjudication will bemet. The Panel Appointment Certificate Scheme reached fullimplementation this past year, and the development of peerreview panels in the different regions is nearing completion.By relocating the personnel of our dispute resolution service(IDRS Ltd) to separate facilities, a large number of prestigequality meeting rooms have become available for alternativeuse in our Bloomsbury Square offices. These are being madeavailable for hire and I am pleased to report that the greatdemand for these rooms has been a factor in creating one ofthe most successful operating years for the Institute in memory.At the May meeting of the Board of Trustees, the principalbusiness of the trustees was a final review and approval ofthe draft Institute Strategy 2010-14. The draft presented tothe meeting received provisional approval and thereafter, on11 September, it was formally approved for publication. It isavailable on the website and I commend it to you. The Maymeeting is also the time when we establish Key PerformanceIndicators by which the Executive is measured. These reflectgoals for the implementation of the Institute’s strategy andother operational aspirations identified by the trustees.In November, the most significant piece of business beforethe board was to consider a detailed paper on membership,branches and funding prepared by the Executive. A subcommitteeconsisting of trustees Malcolm Holmes, DavidSimper and Nayla Comair-Obeid was created to look at thesubscription fees and funding aspects of this paper and toreport back to the next trustees meeting in 2010, when othermatters dealing with the relationship between branches, thegovernance structure and the Executive are to be discussed.I will have more to report on that later this year.Also at the November meeting we reviewed the performancePage 04CIArb Annual Report 2009: Reports from the Boards, Committees and Executive – Board of Trustees