The Society was in great shape when I joined. We had sound foundations laid down by my predecessor and the industry leaders that had served on the BCAS board. 

BCAS has been in existence since 1930 and has an enormous amount of strength. This strength lies in the sum of its parts. We have a dynamic board of directors –all senior people from leading businesses who give generously of their time to support our industry in numerous ways – from attending board meetings, to chairing committees, to working alongside our partners at Pneurop, to providing technical and business support to our members.

As part of our remit to be the independent source of information for vacuum and pressure, we naturally get asked a lot of questions – not all of them technical enquiries, but many about the value the Society can bring to their business.

Better engagement

It became clear to me in the early days that we needed to engage better with our members and end users, so we embarked on a number of activities. We attended more trade shows to enable us to meet stakeholders face-to-face and we also ran out first survey to poll end-users on the value of using a BCAS member.

The results demonstrate that industry places a higher value on using a BCAS member to support and maintain compressed air installations. In fact, many end-users and Government bodies are now specifying BCAS processes or mandating the use of a BCAS member as part of their tender processes and, clearly demonstrating the value that a trade association can bring to the industry.

Getting involved

With this increased emphasis on the value of using a BCAS member, we also saw an interest from many areas of industry on becoming more involved with the Society itself: How can I play a part; how are board directors elected; how do you become a committee chair; what is peer review?

These were just some of the questions we were frequently being asked by individuals keen to play a more active role, so we undertook a complete review of our articles of association to be more transparent and accountable. The outcomes are:

•  All committee chairs are now elected 

•  Each member of the Board of Directors assumes a business role such as Finance, HR, Marketing, Technical, etc. 

•  The Future BCAS Board will have elected members in 2018

•  There are now additional seats available on the board for distribution members

•  A clarification and strengthening of the membership admittance process

Strengthening the team

To ensure the Society remains strong and sustainable for the future, we’ve also invested in the team. This includes a re-invigoration of the technical team, with the appointment of Tim Preece as technical officer, with a key focus on strengthening our work with the ISO committees and managing our technical library and publications. Roy Brooks also joined the team in a newly-created role as technical development officer. He has a wealth of industry experience and a focus on training. For the first time, we’ve created a new graduate placement with Samuel Omojola joining the society to manage the day-to-day administration.

With a strengthened training and development team, this has meant we could start to focus on more value-added activities, including:

•  Ongoing development of a standards-based apprenticeship for the industry

•  Delivery of more courses such as the BCAS Competent Examiner – to ensure engineers are qualified to carry our examination of pressure equipment in line with the PSSR 2000 legislation and, the introduction of a written scheme course for industry and end-users to understand the legislation

•  The modernisation of the industry-renowned Diploma in Compressed Air Management (DipCAM)

Looking ahead

With a fully strengthened team in place, and following a strategic review in March 2018, we will continue to look at how we provide best value. Engaging with our members and listening to their requirements will be a key focus in our voice of the customer program – as we work jointly on the improvement of our industry, its safety and compliance.