To accomplish what above we have planed what follows:

• Starting from the Forum of November 2005, the yearly forum will be offered free of charge to the AICE fellows. In November 2005 the free charge was possible because the forum was sponsored by AQUILIO SRL (a consulting company on project management) and by ONAMA SPA (the catering company operating in Bocconi University).
• The seminars programme will start in March 2006.
• The network is under construction.

Concerning formative action, the main activity remains the Course in Total Cost Management organised by Bocconi University in Milano and Roma (30 days – 240 hours course, ICEC accredited, whose sessions are held in Milano every Wednesday from March to January and in Roma on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning from September to June), a shorter course in project finance was organised in cooperation with ABI (Italian Banking Association) in 2005 and will be proposed in 2006 too.

Gianluca di Castri
President
AICE

Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS)

Number of members (as at 6 February 2006)

New President

At a meeting held on 30 March 2006, the Board of the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS) appointed Prof Gerhard Brümmer as President of the ASAQS.

Quantity Surveying Profession Act

The statute presently governing the quantity surveying profession in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) is the Quantity Surveying Profession Act 2000 (No.49 of 2000). Under this Act, the Council is the statutory body setting out the statutory requirements for registration, setting educational and research standards, identifying work for quantity surveyors and negotiating with the Council for the Built Environment (the over arching council for all the built environment professions). The Association is the supportive voluntary association attending to the ongoing needs of the practicing members and to provide support and assistance wherever required. The Code of Professional Conduct ensures that the required professional standards are maintained.

Launch of new CDP web site

The Association is now offering members the opportunity to participate in continued professional development (CPD) through the medium of a newly formed electronic web based programme called GoLearning. This programme holds great promise and will encourage continued professional development to be maintained from the comfort of ones home at the time of ones choice. It also promises another source of revenue for the Association.

We are further pleased to announce that the RICS has also given permission to the shared use of some of their articles which may be downloaded from the RICS web site for use on the GoLearning programme.

Commercialisation of the Association

In an attempt to move away from the requirement for the Association to be mainly dependant on membership subscriptions for financial stability, progress is being made to place more emphasis on the commercialisation of the Association. Alternative revenue sources such as commercial advertising, web page advertising, product marketing, sale of documentation, etc. will assist to reduce membership fees and hopefully encourage more members to register with the Association.

BEP: Medical Aid Scheme

A closed medical aid scheme has been in existence for a number of years for the Built Environment Professions (BEP) incorporating Quantity Surveyors, Architects and Engineers. Membership is restricted to members, and their staff, of these professional bodies. This alternative scheme is open to all members and is known as the BEPMeds Medical Aid. The scheme currently boasts approximately 1700 principal members and is financially secure and operating profitable. By introducing more recognised brokers to market the scheme, it is nevertheless hoped that membership will increase to around 2500 principal members in the not too distant future.

PIQS Insurance Scheme

A professional indemnity insurance scheme has been in existence for a number of years for practising quantity surveying member practices of the Association. This scheme is underwritten by Santambank and the scheme managers are Marsh (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd. It should be noted that this scheme was introduced to provide another viable alternative to the other more established companies providing this service to the profession.

Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS)

AIQS membership growth hits 10%

The membership of the AIQS grew by just under 10% (9.81%) in 2005. Total membership stands at just over 3,700. The increases were across all membership categories, with the main ones being Students up 26%, Affiliates up 9%, Probationers up 6% and Associates/Fellows (full members) up 6%.

These figures reflect the continued success of the free Student membership offered by the AIQS and the good conversion rate to Probationers and Associates. Given the continuation of such growth the future for the AIQS looks excellent.

AIQS to establish a benevolent fund for members

Following the cash donations by the AIQS to victims of the tsunami in 2005 and to the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, the AIQS National Council approved a proposal to establish a benevolent fund for AIQS members. When established, the fund will be used to provide immediate short term cash relief for AIQS members who are victims of both natural disasters or personal tragedy. The fund is being established as a separately operated company and will receive an initial donation from the AIQS to start its activities. Donations from members, bequests in wills and contributions from QS firms and others will be encouraged and gratefully accepted.

AIQS President speaks at Indian Conference

The AIQS National President Mr Peter Cox FAIQS, was invited to present a paper at the IPMA Conference held in India in November 2005. In addition to funding Peter’s attendance and presentation at the conference, the AIQS also sponsored two young Indian QS as delegates to the conference. Peter’s paper was well received and the AIQS sponsorship widely acknowledged.

ICEC note: Mr Cox also represented ICEC at that Conference. Click here to download a copy of his report to the ICEC Council.

AIQS Past President receives high honour

A past National President of the AIQS and a great contributor to both the Institute and the QS profession over 40 years, Mr Michael F Hodgetts LFAIQS, has been named in the Australia Day Honours list for the award of the Order of Australia. This follows his nomination by the AIQS and an extensive qualification assessment by Government House. Mike’s award is great recognition of his contribution to the AIQS and also helps to promote the QS profession to the public.

Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS)

Number of members (as at 31 December 2005)

New initiatives / innovations

Issues where co-operation with other Member Organisations are on-going or desirable

Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (Quantity Surveying Division)

Number of members (as at 31 December 2005)

Mainland China

On 20 March, HKIS(QSD) representatives participated in an Exchange Forum jointly organized by the Guangdong Province Trade and Economics Commission, the Hong Kong Government Guangdong Province Liaison Office and the Hong Kong Coalition of Professional Services in the Guangdong Hotel.

Following the 5th CEPA Consultation Meeting for the Construction and Related Engineering Sector on 28 February, the HKIS(QSD) wrote back to the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau advising various difficulties in establishing quantity surveying enterprises under the CEPA arrangement. It is hoped that the ETWB will bring up our views and requests so expressed with the Ministry of Construction in their next meeting.

Following the announcement on those CECA members passing our assessment to become HKIS members in Surveyors Times last month, CECA has also informed us that 173 members have passed their assessment. The HKIS(QSD) office bearers will fly to Beijing on 31 March 2006 to participate in the 8th Joint Meeting with the Ministry of Construction on Mutual Recognition of Professional.

Visit from International Cost Engineering Council

The ICEC Secretariat, Ms Robyne Nash visited HKIS on 24 February 2006. We have exchanged views on various local and international issues of mutual interests.

Paul Ho
President
HKIS (QSD)

Parts of this report were extracted from Dr Ho’s report in the March Issue of the Surveyor Times

Instituto Brasileiro de Engenharia de Custos (IBEC)

Number of Members by Category (as of December 31, 2005)

ZERO paying members

IBEC has no member who pay membership fees, because we have not yet implemented the membership value policies. The culture in Brazil deals with engineering organization as the Engineering Council. The engineer pay for Engineering Council but not to IBEC. IBEC have more than 5 000 (five thousands) engineers and students as listed members but IBEC has ZERO member who pay the membership fees

New initiatives / innovations:

• Short duration courses in Cost Engineering, in the city of Rio de Janeiro;

• Studies and lectures / presentations about new concept of BDI-Budget Difference Income, developed by IBEC with 400 professionals, in Headquarters, Rio de Janeiro. RH State, Brazil; and

• Groups of Study in joint activities with the Rio de janeiro State Government.

Training / Certification Issues

Other issues

• IBEC has now its own headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, one complete storey in a great building in Rio de Janeiro City;

• IBEC continues to be soponsored by Rio de Janeiro Regional Engineering Council; and

• IBEC is now sponsored by the Federal Engineering Council.

New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NZIQS)

Recognition of Membership

Following a Council initiative Certificates of Recognition are being prepared for members which recognises in Decade steps length of NZIQS membership of qualified members. Therefore there will be 4 x Certificates representing 10 - 40 year membership. Council is still determining how to properly recognise those hardy and worthy souls who have been member in excess of 50 years including the two who exceed 60 years membership since joining.

Registered QS nomenclature

The New Zealand Intellectual Property Office has accepted the NZIQS application for the trademark "Registered Quantity Surveyor NZIQS" and it is expected that final approval will be gained for the trademark in 3 months time. The Registered QS Logo trademark and any term including 'NZIQS' in it is already registered to your Institute so that only approved NZIQS members can use these terms in the marketplace.

Slovenian Project Management Association (ZPM)

Number of members (as at 31 December 2005)

Potential Future Events under Consideration

The Slovenian project management Association will start with a new project, the Slovenian Project Management Award, in the year 2006. Slovenian PM Award is awarded to the project team that achieves the best result among selected organizations, making them the most successful representative of project management. The criteria are compatible to EFQM PM Award model. Application announcement will be made at the ICEC & IPMA Global Congress in April 2006. The first award will be presented at the national project management forum, ZPM Forum in June 2007.

Any New Initiatives/Innovations

ZPM is active in education process of project managers by its programme EDUCa, but also in achieving the recognition of the project manager profession within the government administration of Slovenia. The recognition of the project manager profession should be of great importance for development of project management in Slovenia.

We already managed to include the lowest levels (sub-project leader, project leader) in Standard Occupational Classification so people can get the professional qualifications. The next phase of the project is the inclusion of higher levels - project manager and director of projects.

ZPM’s Young Crew MPM has developed a programme working on three fields: Companies/Corporations, Science and International Co-operation. There were organized several successful meetings with the representatives of outstanding Slovene companies (Gorenje, Sirius, Intera). MPM is very active at the moment with organization of the Young Crew Meeting, which will be implemented during the 1st ICEC&IPMA Global Congress in Ljubljana. Second thing, which occupies greatly our MPM Crew, is preparation of international summer school, which will last for 7 days in the July this year and the programme will be concentrated around project management field. During the last six months they also very successfully prepare some applications for special founds, which our government destine for activities of the best youth organizations.

Training/Certification Issues?

Certification programme SLOCERT is running since 1998 and each year we have about 10 applicants for certification on different IPMA level form A, B, C and D.

The certification programme consists of:

• some specialized seminars given to the applicants;

• submission of a paper describing applicants project from all the relevant points of view considering the IPMA ICB baseline Body of Knowledge PM BOK;

• The examination which is discussion about the written paper between the applicant and the examination body, including also questions and answers related to the project management body of knowledge.

In the year 2005 we have had 14 applicants, we organized 4 workshops for them.

Any issues where cooperation with other member organizations are on-going or desirable

ZPM proposed and started SENET (Central and South East European Network) forum in November 2000 with basic idea to foster co-operation between project management associations in the Central and South East European countries. It is an on-going cooperative forum by which delegates meet at least once per year – mostly during some national or international congresses or similar – and exchange new ideas about cooperating activities. There is still a lot to be done in order that the SENET idea revives all its possibilities.