North West Branches
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and I hope you are all set for a successful 2012.
This is an exciting year for fbe as we celebrate our 65th Year. We have seen many changes to the establishment over the years with us evolving from the Faculty of Building to The Forum for the Built Environment, but one thing that has not changed is our position in the industry and our commitment to providing a forum for you to meet influential people who you want to do business with. We have grown significantly over the years and now have 31 branches across 15 regions providing a varied calendar of events across the year.
I have lots of plans for fbe nationally this year and want to continue to make sure the organisation and its members are recognised as being influential within the industry. With lots of speculation of uncertainty across the industry at the moment, I believe it is important that the fbe keeps helping you to make connections which keep work opportunities growing.
I would like to remind you all that it's that time of year again when we will start asking you to renew your fbe membership. As of the 1st March all of our members will need to renew their subscriptions and pay in full for another year. It has been necessary to make an inflationary increase to the susbscriptions of Fellows and Members. This is a reflection of the increase in costs experienced over the last 12 months, also to provide additional funds to cover the costs of the 65th Anniversary celebrations and events mentioned above. An email will be sent to you and all you need to do is follow the link to renew. I would recommend that you log on to the members area of the website to check that we have the correct details for you. Failure to renew your membership will result in your membership becoming lapsed which will mean you will no longer receive fbe member benefits such as discounted event prices.
May I also bring to your attention that, with effect from 1 March 2012, it will become necessary to charge VAT on our subscriptions. This is because, over recent years, the nature of the business has changed such that we can no longer be classified for VAT purposes as a "learned society" which had enabled subscriptions to be chargeable without the addition of VAT. We anticipate that the vast majority of members will be able to effect recovery of this VAT via their employing organisations such that the effect will be cost neutral. Even though we have reached our 65th year, member satisfaction is still very important to us and we always make sure our services are best suited to your needs. We have recently sent out a member's survey to receive your feedback to ensure we are doing this. If you have not already completed the survey then we would appreciate if you could spare a few moments of your time and follow the below link.
I would like to thank you for your support and let's hope for a prosperous 2012.