Five Year Strategic Plan Announced by RIBA

The Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) Council has approved a strategic development plan setting out where the Institute aims to be by 2012, and the priorities that need to be addressed in order to meet the five year goal.

The outcome is intended to be greater impact for the Institute and better service for members.

The RIBA Plan for Success is partly a response to two surveys - of RIBA members, and of external partners and opinion formers - recently conducted by the RIBA to measure how the Institute is perceived, plus a fund-raising study. The surveys identified a number of areas for development, which were then combined with other priorities that had been identified in an internal strategic review.

By 2012 the RIBA should be:

• Known for its successful campaigns and advocacy in the UK
• A leading source of knowledge and expertise in prime areas of interest
• Harnessing members’ increased involvement to best effect
• Striking a marketing balance between ‘b2b and b2c’ (business to business and business to consumer)
• The partner of choice in all relevant cases
• With the RIBA Trust established as a leader in its field.

In order to achieve these goals, the Institute has identified a number of priority areas to be developed. These include:

• Policy and campaign development: expansion of research, policy development, and lobbying and campaigning
• Knowledge management: creation of a development programme, initially in six areas: sustainability/combating climate change, planning, conservation, education, housing and health
• Communication with members: further address members’ differentiated needs, especially those of younger members; and build a more responsive communications network
• International membership support: development of services for overseas members and a supporting network.
• Fund-raising capacity: expertise and resource, principally to support the Trust’s outreach programme for the RIBA.

The overall plan has been endorsed by the RIBA boards and was approved by the RIBA Council on 28 June. Implementation is already underway, including new posts which will be advertised shortly. The majority of the new arrangements will be in place for the start of 2008.