June 2020/edition #11

Message from the CIB President Keith Hampson
Dear Colleagues and Members,
Thank you to the more than 100 people who attended last week’s Board meetings, joint
sessions with Working Commission Coordinators, or General Assembly. The upside of
our necessary decision to hold all the sessions as online meetings was that so many
more people were able to participate than usual, and I am most grateful to Thorkild Ærøand his colleagues at Aalborg University in Copenhagen for hosting us and doing such afine job with the technology.
I would not like to see all our meetings revert to this format, of course we lose thebenefits of the relationship building and side conversations which can take place over 2-3
days of face-to-face time. But we showed that we can be efficient in dealing with
important but relatively routine business to free up face-to-face time for strategy
sessions and other value-adding activities which are not as effective when online - andlet’s not forget, there was a significant saving of cost and time for everyone. So, we areleft with some important thinking to do, to contemplate ‘hybrid’ meetings in future where
we can seek to gain the benefits of both approaches. I look forward to working withPéter Tóth in Budapest, Hungary, and our new Vice President Mark Hastak in Purdue
USA, who have kindly offered to host our next two meetings. In partnership with anumber of our Commissions, between now and October we will be holding webinars orsupporting other conferences using similar technology, see for example the Salford
University event on June 29th referred to here, so I think we will find the standard forsuch meetings moving forward at a pace.
In the rest of this newsletter you will find reports on all the key sessions last week,including the joint sessions with Coordinators to improve communication andcollaboration between Commissions and the Board, the new Membership & Marketingstrategy, and ideas for developing more ‘Student Chapters’ as early career researcher oryoung professional groups around the world. The tone of all these sessions wasoverwhelmingly positive, enthusiastic, and supportive, and I hope we can work together
to do justice to the energy and commitment that was shown by so many. Here’s to an
exciting second half of the year!

1|PageFrom Don Ward, CIB CEO
New Membership & Marketing Strategy
One of the key papers discussed and approved at theCopenhagen Board meeting last week was a newmembership and marketing strategy developed by Ron
Wakefield, as Chair of the Membership andCommunications Committee, and myself.
Our starting position is that our members pay an annual
subscription, govern our activities, provide our resource engine in terms of unpaid input
to working commissions, board etc, and in return you expect benefit and value from thisparticipation. We recognise that members add value in a number of ways
including intellectual input and effort to develop products and services, most notably theoutputs of the Working Commissions; access to data for research; active governance;and brand value, credibility and influence with external stakeholders.
A strong CIB requires a strong membership, recent years have seen a decline and weneed to turn this around. During the formulation of this strategy, the effects of the
global Covid-19 pandemic led to serious revisions, and to focus on the retention ofexisting members by improving our membership proposition and its communication andtrialling some new services. The target that we originally had in mind for growth has
been reduced, not due to a lack of ambition but reflecting the view that our membersand prospects face challenging times ahead. Our strategy focuses on the next 12months, with retention as the priority, with the aim to move to a second phase ofrecruitment and hopefully growth.
The 2020 members’ survey informed the new strategy, thank you to all who responded,
the results are reported below but it is worth noting the extra comments made at theend. I hope you can see where these have been addressed in the strategy to help us
improve or add to our marketing messages.
Extra comments in the members survey April 2020
• Importance of publishing, in indexed/refereed journals (6 mentions)• Rationalise commissions, new themes/'challenge-led not discipline-led'(5)• Better engagement with Student Chapters• More activities, more opportunities to engage• Too many members with the “wrong motivation”• Value of network/accessing ideas also relationships (6)• Value in conferences – but now need to rethink (3)• Improve website and communications (3)• Competition from other organisations and structures, CIB differentiation(4)• Fee too high/value too low (6)• Focus on a supporting/ facilitating role
• Opportunity for a lobbying function• Help access research funding• Increase CIB profile• Engage industry not just academics
In the next year we will:
1. Improve communication of benefits and value ‘internally’, starting with a new
improved CIB website.

2|Page2. Focus on retention, with customer relationship management and engagementwith each existing member, particularly Full & Associate Members.
3. Trial new services say 2-3 and assess impact and value for our members.
4. Limited new recruitment, targeting organisations who existing members feel
will respond to the current membership proposition.
External PR will also play a part in 2021 to improve the profile of the organisation, its
work and benefits and value for members ‘externally’, which will support both continued
retention and a planned recruitment campaign. But let us address priorities 1)-4) first
and then we will have some good success stories to promote.
The Programme Committee working with our Commissions and the ‘Student Chapters
Committee’ (possibly to be renamed) both have important roles to play in developing thenew added-value services to be trialled, and we will prioritise this work over the summer
so that the trials are well underway by the time of the next Board Meeting in October. I
look forward to working with you all on this.
We welcome feedback on these and any other aspect of this strategy at any time, andany comments should be addressed to me in the first instance, I can then discuss withthe Membership and Communications Committee.

From Michael Behm, Programme Director
CIB Coordinators and Board Session
Thirty CIB Co-ordinators attended virtual meetings with the CIB
Board on June 3 and 4. The overarching aim was to set inmotion better communications and collaboration between CIB’s
Working Commission Co-ordinators and the CIB Board. Thiscollaboration is not a one-off activity but seen by all as the startof an ongoing process to improve the value added for Working
Commissions and Members.
The first session focused on brainstorming and discussing ideas. Co-ordinatormeetings on May 11 and 12 guided the discussion. The implications of the post
pandemic / covid19 world on Commission research activity was a topic frequently
discussed and woven into many topics brought forward. Six major ideas came to theforefront. On Day 2, after reflection and group emailing on Day 1 meetings, morediscussion ensued; eventually meeting attendees were asked to choose three as
priorities from the list of six. Developing outcomes, Key Performance Indicators andmeasures of success were viewed as a need across all the ideas.
The ranked order of priority was:
1. Initiate a programme of activities focused on debating and producing athought leadership report on the implications for the post covid / pandemic
world in: 1) Built environment industry sector;
2) Commissions’ research/innovation agenda; 3) CIB members’businesses; and 4) CIB’s priorities and working methods.
2. Establish a more diverse CIB Publishing strategy and options for open accessindexed publishing of CIB proceedings (this is in process).
3. Initiate new methods of achieving cross–commission collaboration/integrationand involving other research disciplines, e.g. medicine. Review the CIB’s 3priority themes: Sustainable construction; 2) Integrated design and deliverysystems; and 3) Resilient urbanization.
4. Initiate mechanisms for enhanced communications internally – YouTubechannel, wikis

3|Page5. Create suite of programmes focusing on early career researcher and young
professional value, and better research matchmaking across the world –workshops, short courses, funding opportunities, etc.
6. Create a ‘relaunch’ of our social media, branding, and communication activity,
starting with website overhaul in the summer.
Continued collaborations will be viewed as successful as will the pursuit of funding
mechanisms for Commission Programmes. Interested members should contact their
Commission Co-ordinator.
Student Chapter Board Discussions“Let’s embrace early career researchers and young professionals!” That was the theme
that embodied discussions amongst Co-ordinators & Board Members.
CIB President Keith Hampson affirmed his commitment and vision seeking novel ideas
and new members to reinvigorate CIB research and students as a foundation for thatvibrant research. Growing and enhancing student value amongst CIB member
Universities remains a core value and is seen as a foundation for the future of CIBresearch.
The Board expanded its vision to include early careers scholars, such as postdoctoral researchers and newly minted faculty, and young professionals in industry andpractice. Board members recommended renaming the Student Chapter Committee toEarly Career Researcher Committee embracing this new philosophy. Professor AlbertChan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Professor Srinath Perera, Western Sydney
University, spearhead this effort.

CIB – Coming Together/Apart in Copenhagen
In the beginning of June, Aalborg University had the pleasure ofhosting several successful CIB meetings: the general assemblyfor all members, joint meetings of the CIB Board with CIB
Working Commission Coordinators, and a board meeting overtwo sessions.
The Copenhagen meetings were meant to be conducted
physically, and we were looking forward to seeing all participants at our lovely campus by
the harbor side in the city center. To the planned mini seminar: a hackathon with theconstruction industry, our researchers and students battling in innovation andsustainability. To dinners and drinks on warm summer nights here in lovely June.
Unfortunately, in March, the COVID-19 situation forced us to cancel the planned activities
and replace parts of the programme to be hosted online. The CIB Officers, Secretariat
and the University worked hard to facilitate this – especially to make it work with all thedifferent time zones. Tired of not being able to meet physically and worried about whether
we could do it effectively online, our conclusion after the meetings was clear: the online
meetings were a success.
We had no breakdowns and only very few reports about invited people having difficulties
logging on to zoom, missing sound or video. Most attendees shared high quality video
pictures and sound. The form was a bit formal in the online version, however, we hadtime for laughs, personal greetings, and chats.
CIB were together but apart, and in an efficient and constitutive way. Conclusive proof
that CIB can surely benefit from the positive experience of holding meetings online. One
scenario could be more frequent meetings – efficient, with more participation and4|Pageengagement. Fewer physical meetings - but more appreciated. Indeed, a more costeffective and climate-friendly practice and a growing necessity for the construction sector
as well as CIB members. On that note, I am looking forward to seeing you all
online and physically again – the latter perhaps here in Copenhagen?
Thorkild ÆrøVice Dean at the Faculty of Engineering and Science at Aalborg University
CIB Board MemberMembership Survey Report
We would like to thank the 146 people who responded to our membership survey inApril. Please find attached a copy of a short report on the findings, this has provided thefoundation for a new Membership and Marketing Strategy to be considered by the Board
at its meeting in June. We will also feed in the results to the ongoing work of theProgramme Committee with the Working Commissions and the Student Chapters
Committee, as the survey reinforced the value placed by members on both activities.
With thanks once again, please feel free to direct any further comments to Don Ward,
Ron Wakefield as chair of the Membership & Marketing Committee, or indeed any other
Board member if you prefer.

For further information on this newsletter or any other aspect of CIB’s work, please contact Debbie
Gray, Membership & Marketing Manager, at debbie.gray@cibworld.org or +1 (613) 727 1481
x100.

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