Page 24 - The Constructor A5V24 V1

The Company

OUTREACH AND FELLOWSHIP

The Company is particularly focused on its outreach and fellowship activities. Indeed, one of the key
points that Vicky Russell wished to make in her year as Master was that of our fellowship both
within, and looking outwards from, the Company.
In addition to the fellowship extended at our many events we always make a particular effort to hold
a Networking Event each year, and this year, through the excellent auspices of Westminster
University (and our fellow constructors, Jane Wright and Henry Lamb), we also held a New Members’
Evening where future and younger members of the construction industry were able to talk to more
experienced members of the Company over a glass of wine and some canapés. This followed a
most informative illustrated talk by another Constructor, Court Assistant Andrew Hornby, on the
2015 changes to the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations.

We were particularly pleased to have many of the TeamBuild participants present as they will no
doubt form the backbone of the construction industry in the years to come. TeamBuild itself is
another fine example of how the Company reaches out to the wider industry. We work closely with
the CIOB on it and our Master is one of the judges.
This year’s Networking Event was again successful although for various reasons we had to hold it on
a Monday, and that seemed to reduce the number of people attending. 44% of booked attendees
attended last year’s event, which was very creditable and our subsequent survey showed that many
of the attendees wanted to attend the event if it was held again. Unfortunately we were unable to
find a sponsor this year so although we were able to donate some £840 of entrance donations to
the Charitable Trust, of which £800 was Gift Aided, the cost of the event was borne by the Company.
Whilst we hope to hold a Networking Event next year that will, to a large extent, depend on whether
we can find the necessary sponsorship, which has now been promised by Butler& Young.

Event Feedback

As those of you who attend our various events will already know, we always seek your opinion on
how well the function meets your requirements and wishes. We have now been doing this for about
three years, but whilst we have reported regularly to the Master and our Court we haven’t shared the
results with you, our members. This article aims to rectify this obvious omission.

Firstly, it is probably a good idea that we tell you how we manage the survey process. We use a free
web-survey format provided by fluidsurveys.com®. Whilst this is fairly basic, it does seem to serve
our purpose, albeit that it is not perhaps as “polished” as the equivalent “paid for” service would be –
we cannot for instance “brand” our surveys and we are not able to condition survey questions as a
result of previous answers.

All members who have attended an event are sent an e-mail after the event giving them access to
the relevant survey on the fluidsurveys® website. They can then complete the survey on whatever
device they prefer to use. The completed surveys are anonymous (unless you decide to put your
name on the form) and are collated by fluidsurveys® in such a way as to give us a report that is then

24 | Autumn 2015 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors