CIOB Fellows Forum

Summary

The idea for a Fellows Forum grew from the Senior Women Internal Working Group, set up by Sandi Rhys Jones when she entered the CIOB Presidential chain as Vice President in 2021. In her last few months as President, in 2024, she became concerned that only 3.5% of CIOB Fellows are women and overall, that there are only 2,475 Fellows in all. It was agreed to invite the 80 current women Fellows to a virtual meeting in International Women’s Week to identify whether there was interest in developing a community for exchange of experiences and professional topics.

The initial meeting revealed that very few women Fellows knew more than one other but enjoyed the opportunity to share experiences and topics of interest. The resulting blog revealed that there were valuable exchanges on topics from recruiting and training offenders, development of net zero technologies, recruitment and retention initiatives, research into industry image. Three more meetings took place, and outputs include interviews of individual Fellows in CIOB People and Construction Management, support for academic research, collaboration between individual Fellows on specific topics.

In discussion with CIOB CEO Caroline Gumble, it was proposed that the Fellows Forum should continue for two years under the chairmanship of Sandi Rhys Jones in her role as Past President. Terms of Reference were to be drafted, including widening membership to include all CIOB Fellows.

Contact:

Anna Cole, Member Engagement Supervisor: [email protected]