RICS Lincolnshire chairman, John Templeman, gives his quarterly update on the latest successes of the local association and shares some helpful advice with members and businesses trying to survive the current economic climate. 

Firstly, I’d like to apologise to Lincolnshire Local Association members for being unable to attend the last Regional Board Meeting on your behalf. Unfortunately I was called by a client with some urgent business. It would have been easy to leave the office and attend the meeting, but at what cost to my client and would they have understood?

The moral of this story is that although each client is very important, in the current market perhaps we all need to go that little bit further in order to keep our existing clients happy. What one surveyor can add to a project in a fee bid might mean the difference between success or failure and possibly the company’s survival.

Just over a fortnight ago my fiancé and I moved house. I had been a little sceptical about the HIP process, but it worked for me. If only switching my telephone and internet services had been as easy. Having no internet connection for nearly a

fortnight meant spending a great deal of time on the phone to clients whilst unpacking boxes. This brings me back to my earlier comment that if a client needs assistance they often expect a response regardless of where you are and what you are doing.

Thank you to all of those who attended the York Handmade Bricks tour. We had a marvellous evening and I will try and arrange something similar in Lincolnshire over the next year.

The next date for your diaries is the Lincolnshire Association Annual Dinner on 9 October, at The County Assembly Rooms, in Lincoln.  Marianne Suhr, who co-presented BBC2’s ‘Restoration’ programme, will be our guest speaker. She has also fronted the Discovery series ‘Project Restoration’ and works part-time for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

For more information on future RICS Lincolnshire events please contact Henrietta Bettison, at the regional office, on 01636 677184, or visit the RICS East Midlands events section of the website.

John Templeman
RICS Lincolnshire chairman