52 CONTEXT 185 : SEPTEMBER 2025 date. This includes complex steps like un-incorporating our current business and re-establishing ourselves as a new legal entity controlled by Royal Charter. But if a ‘no’, while that might seem a disappointment, it is hardly a crisis. Both our achievements to date, and our potential, are demonstrated not simply by the potential in a petition, or even the prospective grant of a Charter. Rather it is firmly rooted in the case we have already made for a Charter, developing our Memorandum. Reflecting that, most importantly for the IHBC, is that developing the Memorandum has brought us all a more substantial understanding and valuing of our own history, heritage and achievements, especially since our momentous incorporation as a charity and company in 1997. ‘Momentous’ is not hyperbole, as its crystallisation is a direct consequence of our Charter work. The Memorandum’s development has clarified the distinguishing character of our role in representing standards in the uniquely personal interdisciplinary practice of conservation. We will soon be rolling out new guidance underpinning that position, centred on a more accessible statement of the role that the IHBC’s Conservation Cycle plays in our standards, as well as later, across all our work. That big-picture framework is also reflected in the ongoing renewal of the more familiar infrastructure of our processes, centred on our Competences (now updated) and accreditation; on our Conservation Professional Practice Principles; and on a more efficient ToolBox service. All this, as well as our own history, heritage and help for conservation, has been drawn together within our Charter work. It will remain there too, whichever side of ‘Charter… no Charter’ we find ourselves. And of course, all those Memorandum-linked mandates from partner bodies remain as a proud legacy of our work and future. So, a ‘no’ simply means that we do all we planned from our Memorandum exploration, but without all the administrative convolutions chartering demands. We maintain and improve all existing services and support. We also add those new initiatives that tie to our re-energised aspirations, including developing the CREATIVE Conservation Fund; building the longer-term sustainability of the IHBC and our National Office so it is fit for purpose in our newly confident world, while also expanding our resources and lifting our standing across all our networks. Our incorporation as the IHBC was momentous, as argued above, because the impact has been so huge, not just for us but also for the heritage and development sectors. A bona fide discipline, profession and professional body got itself started in 1997, with its foundation and future funded only by the aspirations, goodwill, hard work and fees of its members and volunteers (there are no easy solutions for the IHBC, as ever), and now we are able to make a truly substantial case for the crown of regal recognition, at least in our eyes. For us, that award would not just be the metaphorical crown, as it would bring formal endorsement of our place in the landscape of professional practice: the royal imprimatur of a Charter also brings with it a unique confirmation of government recognition. So even if it is a ‘Charter… no’, we know that members fully support us to be the professional body for their practice; value our services beyond the fee; respect our standards; appreciate our understanding of their unique practice; and recognise our urgent advocacy on behalf of conservation and the public benefit it brings. We also have the softer but no less substantial wider sector mandate, from the diverse endorsers and ‘non-objectors’ to a Petition, to those many quiet backers who, due to understandable pressures on time, could not send more formal confirmations of support in time for the submission of the Memorandum. So, if it is not ‘Charter’ now, I cannot see us failing to build an even stronger case somewhere down the line. Often, as any conservation professional knows, the triumph is in the process. In all this charterled process, for us the real crown is that we have both the confidence and the evidence to understand our potential as a chartered and uniquely interdisciplinary profession, whether we are asked to petition for a Charter, ‘… or no…’. Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk
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