I became a member of the Hawke’s Bay RMBA of the Registered Master Builders Federation in 1977 after completing a carpentry apprenticeship concurrently with a building cadetship for the New Zealand Certificate in Building.
Subsequently I gained a New Zealand Certifi cate in Quantity Surveying. To recently be elected as national president of the RMBF at our conference in Queenstown is truly a great honour, and I look forward to the challenges of the next two years.
I wish to pay a personal tribute to fine work carried out by past president Michael Fox during his time at the helm, and I was pleased to note that Mike has been elected on to the RMBF Board for a further two-year term.
The RMBF has been in existence for more than 105 years and was instrumental in setting up key industry bodies such as Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ), Building Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO), Construction Information Limited (CIL)/MasterSpec and Site Safe.
It is also the key advocacy body for the construction industry to the Government, and represents 65% by value of construction in New Zealand. This being my fi rst Building Today article as president, I thought it would be good to address the perennial question — “why join the RMBF?”
When I mention to a good builder that they should become a member, and the response is “Why?”, I reply “Why Not?” This is the typical banter that I became used to when my wife and I were travelling in places such as Cambodia and Vietnam, and encountered a “hawker’s” attempts to sell us something.
It can be fun when on holiday, but in our busy day-today lives I would like to think that builders who have set up businesses would realise the importance of belonging to the leading industry organisation that represents their interests, not only locally, but also nationally.
Many years ago, I entered the residential property investment market for the first time, and I immediately joined the local Property Investors Association because it gave me:
• immediate access to all the best practice forms/letter templates required for tenancy, termination, inspections etc,
• access to insurance specific for this investment, and • an immediate network of knowledgeable people who were willing to share experiences to assist the “new” investor from falling into the same pitfalls they may have in the past. I could have struggled through the first year or two thinking I was a smart cookie and that there was no way I was going to be caught out.
To me it was a no-brainer not to take advantage of what was available by joining and attending a monthly meeting. This applies equally, or even more importantly, to the construction industry because of its complexity and the wide and varying range of knowledge required.
The industry is in a state of continuing change, and it takes an organisation such as the RMBF to co-ordinate all the relevant information, set up and provide best practice documents to members via e-mail, meetings, the web site and the like.
RMBF members have ready access via the web site to information such as:
• guarantee documents,
• residential building contract documents,
• Construction Contract Act documents,
• employment documents,
• Building Act documents,
• newsletters and other documents,
• Association documents, and
• IRD documents.
Not only this, but there is a network of experienced people available to answer questions and/or assist in what may be a simple matter which is bogging you down. Do not forget, someone out there will have experienced your problem before. In saying this, unless you attend meetings and/or conferences to build up a network, people will be unwilling to share their knowledge freely.
So don’t just sit back — make contact on the numbers below.
