NEWS
Article from Honorary SAIBD Member, Margaret Nicol
Margaret Nicol, 89 years old, originally from Pinetown, now resides in Gauteng with family on 8 acres of mostly indigenous bush where she enjoys the bird and small animal life and spends some time painting, usually birds and wild animals

Feedback from AGM held 30 June 2010

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Article from Margaret Nicol

With two aspirants to the architectural design field among my grandchildren I was curious to know if the South African Institute of Building Designers still existed...the Institute that saved my livelihood so many years ago. Having retired aged 74...way back in 1996...I did not have much hope as I called up Google. The result was excitement and praise for all the enthusiasm and dedication of many loyal members over the intervening years. To have been remembered and welcomed has been both exciting and humbling...of course I am a woman and I remember only one other at the last AGM I attended!

The birth of the Institute is worth remembering and noting as it saved the businesses of all who answered Dereck Petersen's call. I seldom bought a Daily News, but that day I did...I seldom tarry in the ads page, but that day I did. Maybe the same Angel who has solved a design problem, after hours of fruitless pondering, was already on duty for ALL designers, for I read the call to attend a meeting of all affected by the South African Institute of Architects' decision to ask for a murderous law to be introduced to be introduced to restrict all 'outsiders' from submitting plans for buildings over 200 sq metres! Thank you, once again Dereck! I do not recall the number of designers who met in Durban that evening to discuss our predicament but it was unanimously decided to form a body to protect our survival.

We only asked to be considered apart from those who were submitting plans of poor quality to the Municipalities. The South African Institute of Building Designers was born to fight a long battle for our livelihood, the result one knows and appreciates.

Way back then? Metrication was young and we wobbled for a while on a measurement for a standard brick! Keartlands' Metric conversion was my bible and I made a table of all the most used sizes in building design. A brick was 114.3 x 228.6! That changed...I even once saw a plan using 200mm for a brick length! 'Someone' decided that the decimal point should be a comma...that looked dreadful! (pre computers!) The timber merchants stubbornly stuck to lineal sizes...but the buildings were built. I have always had a deep regard for a good tradesman in the building industry and I guess they saw us through!

Calculators were converted by enterprising typewriting salesmen and I found a LARGE machine with a winding handle but NO paper record of figures entered! One can 'see' a mistake when adding the inches mentally but just a lot of numbers with dots or commas, here and there could be confusing and dangerous! I made a stick on paper conversion for my survey staff to be used with my small Japanese device that had a reliable bubble and line but no telescopic help...amazingly accurate it was for even a sewer connection. Of course my drawing board was the space consuming 'mind your eye' type and pens were at that time Graphos (a great improvement on the old Wrico which I had used in Mechanical drawing in the Air Force). After that the pens with refills arrived...and electric erasers...and COMPUTERS! There I halted and still prize and use my original retractable pencils...using my laptio for writing boring letters! I now look forward to keeping up with the Institute news.

Best wishes to all,
Margaret Nicol.

Feedback from AGM held 30 June 2010

Dear Members

This letter serves to give our members feedback from the result of our Annual General Meeting of 30 June 2010, at which 27 members were present:

Dhanashwar Basdew was re-elected as our National Executive President. Dhanashwar sits on the SACAP Council Committee, a huge advantage for all our Members! Dhanashwar's Report is available from me on request

The Board elected at the AGM met on Wednesday 7 July to vote in Office Bearers and these are as follows:

The KwaZulu-Natal Regional Committee was created and Dave James elected as Regional President. The Boards' intention is to re-establish all Regional Committees and ask members to come forward and offer their time

CPD point lectures, headed by Barry Upton, are planned and I will keep you informed as soon as I have the schedule

Graham Braum heads the Liaison Portfolio with regards problems experienced at the various Local Authorities

Barry Upton, Architect and University Lecturer, handles Education RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) as well as PP (Professional Practice) /Office Administration

Dave James manages IT and Website communication

Dhanashwar Basdew is our liaison with SACAP and Registration/Communication and Risk Management

Dereck Petersen, a Founder member of the SAIBD, has the Portfolio of Public Relations and Marketing

Anyone able to offer assistance please make contact with me

Note our new address, officially operative as from 1 September 2010:

Physical:
117B Musgrave Park, 18 Musgrave Road, Durban 4001

Postal:
Postnetsuite 149, Private Bag X504, Northway 4065

Land line:
031 202 4726 Tuesdays to Fridays from 8am to 1pm

As discussed at the AGM Subscriptions have increased to R500 pa.

Kind regards
Cheryl Fuller
Secretary
Cell 083 2269145

Dhanashwar Basdew, elected National Executive President for 2010 to 2011	Dave James, KZN Regional President for 2010 to 2011	Joan Seirlis, Architect, specializing in Accessible Environment gave a talk on Universal Design
Barry Upton	Stephen Daniel	Michael Douglas
Cheryl Fuller SAIBD Secretary

EVENTS

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