See also CIBSE Coronavirus advice page
A message from Stephen Matthews, Chief Executive
I am writing this message to you from home, in accordance to the UK Government guidance. The primary concern naturally is the health and safety of our members, volunteers, staff and, their families and communities. All Public Health England measures are being followed in support of efforts to contain the spread of the Coronovirus.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all those in the CIBSE family for your continued work on behalf of the Institution and Society as a whole. With the restrictions on travel and meeting together, we are looking to provide knowledge and training through webinars, and online learning and our membership team and interviewers are looking to conduct interviews remotely using various platforms; no doubt we shall find many more ways of keeping everyone safe and informed, trying to make the abnormal more normal in the days ahead.
The CIBSE staff are now mostly working from home and are quickly adjusting to our remote offices. Staff are connected to all our systems, including phones and Microsoft Teams. We are looking to support the work of our volunteer groups and networks through our recent investment in Office 365 to support virtual CIBSE activities in the coming weeks.
We are also reflecting on how we can help those around us, friends, family, colleagues and our community; if you have any challenges, issues or good news you would like to share please let me know.
A message from Laura Webb, Director of Membership
The Membership department continues to accept applications and April and May interviews will take place virtually via Microsoft Teams. All candidates and interviewers will get full technical instructions and an opportunity to postpone their interview if this isn’t right for individual candidates.
Upcoming regional, society and special interest group face to face events have been postponed, but we will be supporting our volunteer network to set up virtual meetings where needed. We will be moving to produce as much online content as possible so we can support members’ CPD needs.
We will also be increasing our regular membership briefing webinars to support individuals with the membership application process, as well as having pre-recorded webinars available to watch now at www.cibse.org/webinars
A message from Rowan Crowley, Commercial Director
CIBSE will continue to provide full customer support in the coming weeks so that members and the wider community can find the information, guidance and training that they seek, can keep up to date, and can maintain their CPD.
Face-to-face training is suspended for the coming weeks, but a full programme is available from mid-summer, and all customers will be kept up to date with changes as they occur. Online training modules are unaffected, please visit cibse.org/onlinelearning
The production of new guidance and knowledge will continue, and new outputs will be communicated regularly. TM40 Health and wellbeing in building services was published recently and has already attracted hundreds of downloads – watch out for further announcements.
The Programme for Build2Perform 2020 (24-25 November) is already in development; the Technical Symposium in Glasgow has been re-scheduled for 14-15 September when the full schedule of presentations will take place; expect entry details for the Young Engineers Awards (8 October) very soon. PLUS – a series of Briefings is being planned for the autumn to help delegates catch up with emerging, critical issues and developments.
A message from Hywel Davies, Technical Director
Technical activities are continuing, with meetings being held online rather than face to face. We will be looking to maintain technical updates and information on current activities whilst the current emergency continues. In that vein we can report that The Fire Safety Bill has today been introduced in the House of Commons and had its first reading.
The CIBSE Healthcare group is considering appropriate guidance relating to the current health situation. Public Health England has today published “COVID-19: Guidance for infection prevention and control in healthcare settings”, along with other relevant information.
CIBSE Journal will carry news and features on COVID 19. The European Federation of Heating and Ventilation Engineers, REHVA, has produced guidance and collected a bibliography on how to operate and use building services in areas with coronavirus outbreak to prevent the spread of the virus depending on HVAC or plumbing systems related factors. This is not specifically for the UK but may well be useful to members.
REHVA has also set up a COVID-19 guidance webpage to share information and plan to update the documents as new knowledge and evidence is available.
CIBSE contributions to British, European and International standards continue via online meetings.