The trip to the UK, Croatia and Bosnia at the end of October 2011 was in a way an eye-opener, particularly the technical visit to the headquarters of RICS and the session with RISM (UK Chapter) members.
We had in the session with RISM (UK Chapter) met up with the office bearers, members and potential members (about 30 of them altogether). At the same time interviews were carried out (by Dr Wan Maimun Wan Abdullah) of applicants who wish to become members through the special route. This is the case where the graduates – in particular, the quantity surveying graduates – didn’t have the required number of years of experience to become members of RISM.
In conjunction with the meet-up session to provide for both the delegation and the RISM (UK Chapter) the opportunity of getting to know each other better apart from giving an ear to their problems, we also hosted them to a dinner. During this gathering, I had briefed them on current developments of RISM as well as attempted to motivate them through my address as the President, so too with Dr Wan Maimun Wan Abdullah who had subsequently delivered a special dinner talk. Personally, I am very much impressed with their deep interest which is apparent during the discussions, as well as the activities that they had carried out under the banner of RISM.
One rather conspicuous issue raised by them is the significant number of institutions of higher learning that were not included as recognized universities by RISM. This leads to the possibility that the list of recognized universities was not being updated by RISM. If it’s true, it is imperative then this has to be done soonest possible to ensure that qualified and competent surveyors are not denied their chance of becoming RISM members. At the same time, certain requirements that have to be met, especially in the case of the quantity surveyors, have to be reviewed, considering that they are more of meeting the needs of the Board of Quantity Surveyors (BQSM). Although fulfilling those needs would facilitate the registration of QS members with BQSM, it should however be viewed as a separate matter in the light of RISM’s endeavour to have its membership considerably increased.
The visit to RICS Headquarters was a revelation as well. We were treated to a briefing on the operation of the renowned organization by Sr Ong See Lian - the President himself - apart from 3 presentations touching on aspects of quantity surveying, valuation and construction. Evidently, to have looked up at RICS as a model professional survey organization is the right thing to do; the hard fact is that we are decades behind them. With more than 160,000 members in over 140 countries, it’s clearly an amazing achievement. The lesson that could probably be learnt is that we need to improve our quality of professionalism and market that throughout the world. This could lead to an increase in our membership and along these lines internationalization efforts become imperative.
It’s true that RICS started very much earlier than RISM, as some would say, but we cannot carry on sitting tight with this consolation and should endeavour to leap frog if we are to reach their level of achievement. We certainly need to also find niche areas in our development – not necessarily following the business model of RICS. And this would certainly make the need for a first-rate strategic plan more exigent.
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