Welcome to the South Eastern Counties Branch

SOUTH EASTERN COUNTIES BRANCH
(ESTABLISHED IN 1985)

The Branch was created in 1985 according to the Institution's policy to have local branches in areas where they could be well supported by members. An inaugural meeting was held in Croydon in 1985, to demonstrate such support. It would seem that the members were right at that time, since the Branch has continued to serve them year after year with technical meetings on various subjects, CPD courses, Chartered Membership Professional Development Interviews and representation on key committees at 11 Upper Belgrave Street.

The Branch has Croydon as its nucleus of activities, as far as technical meetings, training courses and committee meetings are concerned. In the past, some meetings were held at other venues, e.g. Chatham (University of Greenwich) and Otford Village Memorial Hall (near Sevenoaks).

East-West public transport links across Croydon are limited. Many members, therefore, would tend to prefer technical meetings at the Headquarters, especially those employed in and around London, unless the Branch meetings were to offer something special. These factors appeared to influence attendance at our technical meetings during the early years. In the year 2006-07, we had good attendance at our technical meetings (60+) - thanks to the good quality venue (Fairfield Halls, Croydon), excellent speakers, and emailing facility and efficient issue of flyers from the HQ. (At Professor Malcolm Bolton's presentation in January 2007, there were more than 120 members and guests.) Experience gained during this year led the committee to seriously consider the influence of a good venue and its accessibility. Accordingly, the committee decided to continue to have all technical meetings at the Fairfield Halls, which is easily accessible from East Croydon station. This decision has resulted in sustained improvement in attendance at the technical meetings, an average of about 60 and exceeding 100 on some occasions.

In keeping with the IStructE policy of establishing closer contacts with our membership, we have set up three regional centres with the help of our local members. They mainly hold discussions on common and general issues, compared with lectures on specific subjects presented at Branch technical meetings and CPD seminars. The local groups are called Bromley Forum, East Kent Group and Kingston Discussion Group. The group meetings are held at Bromley Civic Centre, Canterbury and Kingston University (Penrhyn Road Campus) respectively.