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Further allegations and examples of the behaviour of IDEA were published today on the Home Inspector Forum. Without wishing to tread along lines that may be regarded as libellous the volume of examples is becoming significant and already there are some asking for the self-appointed Chief Executive to stand down. Probably a good measure of the situation is the fact that the Steering Group have almost disappeared, almost en masse as its turned out- with at least 2 recent resignations causing the Steering Group to teeter towards a situation where it no longer has a quorum for decision making.

As one of the Steering Group members now expelled for speaking out with concerns over the management of IDEA commented earlier today:

As l have stated all l want to see is an organisation that will represent the interests of us all without expecting too much in return.

Although the bulk of the attention has been focused on the behaviour of the managing team, others have stated concerns over the way IDEA raises its funds. Certainly IDEA behaves like no Institute/Association I have ever been a member of (which include IQA, IET, APM, NAEA and RICS) in the way it goes about its fund-raising.

IDEAs Top 10 revenue streams!

In order to bank-roll IDEA, it has put fingers in almost every conceivable pie. It can earn income from:
1) HIPs, a deal to supply HIPs to DEA/HI members pays IDEA a fiver for every HIP
2) Conveyancing, the latest newsletter details a method for DEA/HIs to promote conveyancing services. Fee paid to IDEA is not in the public domain
3) Telephone call. IDEA intends to earn a small amount of money from the HIP helpline that DEA/His may call by having a small surcharge on each phonecall.
4) Sponsorship- both as main and subsidiary sponsors of the Institute but also for sponsorship for newsletters and other items
5) Annual Conference- exhibitors have been asked to pay 750 pounds for a stand and of course attendees are paying 30-50 per ticket (max 250 members)
6) Accreditation Scheme- a deal with ECMK means IDEA could receive a fe for every EPC lodged through the IDEA/ECMK deal
7) Virtual Exhibition Hall- an online exhibition hall that sponsors pay to advertise in. One of the original ideas from New Blue Media but not implemented at this time.
8) Business Unit (a panel)- Not only does a professional body wish to accredit its members, it also wants to compete against them by pitching for work, pocketing the management costs of panelling the work (typically 15-20% for a lean panel) and actually encouraging less money reaching the overall DEA/HI 'pool'.
9) Membership fees- out to a members online poll at the moment, a figure of 150 has been mentioned. With 1600+ 'members' who all joined for free, it would be reasonable to assume that 300-400 members may actually pay an annual fee of 100-150, total 30-60k
10)Insurance, being sold with the HIP, insurance introducer fees are typically pretty good, any fee being paid to IDEA remains unknown.

So there we go, it all seems to be about income right now. I think even the wisest DEA/HI recognises that you get nothing for nothing, but was it really wise to introduce such an array of fee-earning facilities without getting the basics right.

IDEA at the moment needs to ensure it gets its own:

a) Constitution
b) Code of Conduct
c) Disciplinary Procedure
d) CPD Guidelines

established soon, since at least 3 of the above documents have in fact been copied from third party sources and in 2 cases the copying has gone on without the knowledge of the document (and Intellectual Property/Copyright) owner.

Of course there will be more twists and turns to come- and no doubt more casualties will become apparent shortly, but for now, this is the blockbuster news of the industry and it is using a huge amount of bandwidth whilst being discussed by many DEA/HIs nationwide.

Labels: IDEA in trouble copyright income accreditation fee Steering Group members expelled suspended