Season 4 Episode 7: Paying It Forward - Leading the Institution Through Member Volunteering

Impulse To Innovation

During the first week of September the Institution hosted Volunteer Week. A back-to-back week of committee meetings and networking, enabling members from all over the world to take part in a wide range of activities.

As a Chair of a Division of the IMechE, this was a great opportunity for Helen to meet up with not just her division members but members from across the Institution. Helen personally always find it a fulfilling and enjoyable time, meeting new members, seeing a few old faces in some cases, ones she had not seen since covid.

Catching up with old friends - Volunteer Week enables international members to share their experiences

Helen decided, as she was going to be there for 2 days, she would take the opportunity to record some interviews for the podcast. Helen spoke with members about why they were there, what they hoped to gain from attending sessions and what got them excited about being a volunteer.

On day 1 of her visit she attended Council. As a divisional chair Helen has an ex-eficcio seat on Council which enables her to represent the over 3000 members who identify as Biomedical Engineers in the Institution. In the last few years, the structure of Council has changed significaly, with a much more streamlined membership.

Council in its simplest form acts as both a sounding board and mirror for the trustees, reflecting the views and ideas of members, to help the Trustee Board make informed decisions on behalf of the whole membership. Its work however, is much more nuanced than that, with small task and finish and sub-groups being formed to ensure every aspect of a topic is analysed and agreed.

To some of you listening that might sound like your worst nightmare; sitting in lots of meetings, it's something we do at work all the time. Of course, it can be laborious at times, but surprisingly it is an excellent forum in which to test your negotiating and management skills, as well as listening abilities, and learning new ways to view opinon, ensuring that everyone has a voice and that a well-reasoned outcome can be agreed upon.

Taking a break - Council Members chat over coffee

Despite the hectic Council agenda, Helen was able to sit down with Council Chair Martin Robinson to ask him about the structure and purpose of Councill and how Council’s decisions flow down to the grassroots members. They also discussed the impact of the newly released strategy and why members should consider getting actively involved in the operational and governance committees at HQ.

Helen spoke with Emil Tschepp, Chair of the Young Members Board. Emil has been actively involved in young engineer’s activities for many years, with various roles on the YMB committee, taking up the position of Chair of the Board just a few months ago. When Helen caught up with him, he was just coming out of his first Council session. She asked Emil, what was the value of having young member representation on Council and what he hoped to achieve as YMB Chair in the coming years.

Sylvain Jamais has been an active volunteer for many years, both at regional level, being Chair of the BmED Cambridge centre and at board level as a Trustee, Vice-Chair of Council and CLC and several strategy sub-groups. During a quick tea break, Helen asked Sylvain what being on Council meant to him and what impact the new strategy would have on the future of the IMechE.

With a short overnight rest, Helen headed back to HQ for Technical Strategy Board. The TSB is one of seven operational boards. Its role is to represent members across their industrial sectors and technical specialisms, which are divided into eighteen divisional boards and groups.

Inclusive Discussion - IMechE IT enables members to dial in and be part of the conversations

TSB's purpose is to develop and support the engineering and technical activities across the Ds and Gs as well as advise the Trustee Board on technical issues facing industry and coordinate strategic development by producing reports and advice to Government authorities through the IMechE’s policy team.

Earlier in the year Helen spoke with the then Chair of TSB Paul Jones about the work TSB had been doing in the development of the Instituion’s strategy document. In June, Paul finished his tenure and James Collinson, past-chair of the railway division, took up the post.

Just before they went into the TSB meeting, Helen caught up with James to ask him why he felt driven to volunteer on the Technical Boards and how the members of TSB engage with the wider membership to ensure they have a voice within the Institution.

Useful Links

If this episode has got you keen to find out more about volunteering within the Institution then check out our web page www.imeche.org/get-involved

You can also find out more about the structure, operation and governance of the Institution at www.imeche.org/about-us

If you would like to speak to a member of staff or ask a question about volunteering then email the Member Engagement Team at [e-mail]

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this episode. If you would like to get in touch, email us at [e-mail]

You can find more information about the work of the IMechE at www.imeche.org