FORCE get the Ball Rolling

FORCE, the Forum for Constructing Excellence in Coventry and Warwickshire, has started the New Year with a donation of £900 to the Evening Telegraph & Mercia FM Snowball appeal.

The local networking and best practice group for construction decided to donate the money, which was raised at the FORCE Awards Dinner last year, to helping sick and disadvantaged children in Coventry and Warwickshire.

The Chairman of FORCE; Dhiran Vagdia, of Kenneth Holmes Associates, who presented the cheque said:

"Everyone gave generously at the Awards Dinner and we are delighted to be giving this donation to such a worthwhile cause.

The snowball appeal has helped lots of children over the years and it is important that the charity maintains a local presence."

Margaret Nelmes of the Snowball Appeal said:

"We are delighted to have received the donation which will enable us to continue our work"

FORCE will be holding their next Awards Dinner in early 2009 where they intend on continuing to support local charities such as the Snowball Appeal.

FORCE breakfast events, held on the last Thursday of every month at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, feature presentations on a number of industry relevant topics. For further information, please contact Steve Cathcart on 0121 688 4044 for an information pack, or visit http://force.wmcce.org/

BE the best!

Buildings and Estates Forum members are leading edge Clients, Consultants, Contractors and Suppliers.

Chairman Vaughan Burnand - Shepherd Construction

Vaughan Burnand has been Chairman of Buildings and Estates Forum of Constructing Excellence for 2 years. Under his leadership the work has gone from strength to strength with 6 new working groups starting last year and outputs expected from June onwards this year.

Environment - Chair Chris Gilmour, HBG
To develop practical measures on a company and personal level that will respond to the climate change agenda. The steering group decided that as sustainability is high on every company's agenda, a group was needed to devise tools and guidance to enable BE members to get beyond the barriers to sustainable development.

Better ways of working - Chair Brendan Morahan, Taylor Woodrow
Develop an understanding of the implications for member companies of diversity, flexible working and other new working practices.

Whole Life/Facilities Management - Chair Adam Tarling, ISG Cathedral Contracts
To develop the profile and processes to allow member companies to formulate responses and offering for work secured on a whole life basis. This working group has had a brief gap but was one of the six new working groups the Steering Group wanted to take up.

Design Management - Chair Tony Whitehead, Defence Estates
To produce a report entitled Design Management as a key to unlocking value from the supply chain. Tony Whitehead of Defence Estates saw this new working group as a valuable benefit for Defence Estates and other Buildings and Estates members.

Collaborative Cost Management - Chair Andrew Kane, FaulknerBrowns
To evaluate and recommend behaviours and processes in the area of collaboratively driving cost down for end user clients.

Procurement - Chair Murry Rowden, Turner & Townsend
A review of all aspects of procurement within the construction supply chain and to offer guidance and recommendation.

Our BE forum events are also going from strength - dates for 2008 are

• 12 June
• tbc September Members Convention
• 20 November

As well as the four free members-only conferences each year, membership to BE gives members 3 complimentary membership subscriptions at any of the 40 plus local best practice clubs which meet regularly.

Membership of Buildings and Estates Forum of Constructing Excellence offers something unique - we are the only industry-wide body dedicated to improving industry performance whose membership comes equally from clients, contractors, consultants, and specialists and suppliers. Customer focused, profitable, safe, and sustainable. Buildings and Estates Forum members believe that industry improvement will be driven by all sectors sharing learning, working together and driving innovation to deliver a demonstrably better built environment. Our goal is to drive a world class industry that is By supporting and promoting collaborative working and innovation, we are confident that we can reach this goal.

Join Buildings and Estates Forum of Constructing Excellence now -
contact Suby.snellen@constructingexcellence.org.uk Tel 0118 918 1408

CE Awards 2008

Following the success of our inaugural events in 2007, we are delighted to be able to invite you to participate in the Constructing Excellence Awards in 2008. This series of awards is designed to showcase excellence and reward achievement in line with the Constructing Excellence improvement agenda. These awards are being organised regionally, with regional winners going forward to a national final on 13th November.

The awards for London and the South East are taking place on 10th July 2008 at the Hotel Russell in London. The deadline for awards submissions is 5pm on Friday 9th May. This is the second call for submissions.

For details of the awards categories please visit http://www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/ceawards/

We also have a number of sponsorship opportunities which represent a fantastic opportunity to be associated with one of the construction events of 2008.

If you have any queries please contact Jon de Souza by e-mail at jonathan.desouza@constructingexcellence.org.uk

---

Speakers

• CE Staff Available to speak at events (FREE):
  • Don Ward - Strategy, Direction of CE etc & Buildings and Estates Forum
  • Ben Stubbs - Sustainability
  • Peter Cunningham - KPI's & Construction Clients Group
  • Shelagh Grant - Housing Forum
  • Jon DeSouza - Demonstration Program
  • Tim Embley - Infrastructure
  • Andrew Carpenter - Membership Benefits.
• NON CE Staff Available to speak (some costs may be involved):
  • Richard Saxon - Be Valuable
  • Paul Sweeney - Local Employment and Training (Contractors Perspective) & Community Development (Contractors Perspective)
  • Andy Spooner - BRE CLIP Programme & Sustainable Development Group
  • Nigel Crouch - Inspirational Leadership

---

National Members

There are still lots of clubs with members that are also National CE Members and are entitled to FREE membership of their local club (paid for out of their National Membership Subscription). Check the following link to see if you organisation is a National Member:
www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/membership/downloads/ce_members.pdf

If your organisation is listed then contact the CE Club Manager, Carl Turner who will be able to verify with your organisations main contact that you are able to use one of the FREE memberships.

If your organisation is a National Member it is also worth remembering that sector forums hold their own events, generally free to members, so if your company is a member at National level check out the Events or working groups to see if there are other ways you could be learning and sharing.

Contact

If you would like more information about the benefits of being a club member then please click on the link below:
www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/clubs/default.jsp

Carl Turner
Project Manager - Clubs
Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment

Mob: 07870 158626
Fax: 020 7592 1101
Email: carl.turner@constructingexcellence.org.uk
Web: www.constructingexcellence.org.uk

Warwick House | 25 Buckingham Palace Road | London | SW1W 0PP

Sponsor

If you want to be the sponsor of the next Club Link newsletter contact Carl Turner.

In This Issue

• Regional Clubs
  • FORCE
• BE Forum
• CE Awards 2008
• Speakers
• National Membership
• About Clubs

Club Events Near You

To see a list of the club events running near you please click here

RIBA CPD Seminar on IT & ICT for Construction

RIBA, in Accociation with the IT Construction forum, are holding a series of CPD seminars at various locations across the UK.

As part of their leading role in the building industry, Architects can play an integral part in the uptake and use of IT & ICT throughout the design and construction process. This seminar on IT & ICT for Construction is designed to inform you of current methods and techniques, raise awareness of issues and to enable you to engage more successfully with some of the issues.

To find out where your nearest event is, or to get further details then please click here

KPI Launch

To find out when the KPI Launch event is coming to you please click here

Energy Conference for construction

This conference aims to promote collaborative working in the procurement of new energy programmes, to deliver better value and whole life solutions of future energy provision in the UK. For more details please click here

Providing EPC Training ?

I have been asked to find out if anyone in the club network are providing Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) assessor training (Clubs or club members). If you are then please contact Carl Turner

Web Hits for Jan / Feb !

Well done to the following clubs for having the most number of web hits for Jan / Feb:

• Black Country
• Thames Gateway
• Bristol

Good luck to everyone else for March & April, start promoting your web pages everyone !

Unsubscribe

As a member of a Constructing Excellence Club you are entitled to receive a copy of the club newsletter - ClubLink. If you'd like to receive ClubLink in the future, you need take no action and it will be sent to you automatically.

If you would prefer not to subscribe to it please send an email by clicking on the link below and press "return" after "signoff ce" in the text of the message. Unsubscribe - ClubLink