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Finally it seems, the IDEA juggernaut is fuelled to the brim and ready to launch on the start of its journey to achieve global domination. With promises of paying DEAs the full market rate, certainly a number of the more vocal IDEA members are now in a frenzy singing its praises.

First up though is the appointment of a Committee comprising members and 13 people have stuck their arm up and want a piece of the action, here they are, voting is still open for another 2 weeks but you can see a few numbers anyway:

Nick Phillips
Colin Bailey 33 votes
Brian Blunden 14 votes
Driss Charrouf 12 votes
Haley Fairless 32 votes
Dave Halligan 32 votes
Meirin Jones 24 votes
Ian Macpherson 21 votes
Sarah Mason 36 votes
Mark Norris
John Oxley 25 votes
James Robertshaw 28 votes
Gary Ward 20 votes

Every one is a qualified and accredited Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) and none have the HI qualification. Perhaps this will assist in keeping the focus on the issues facing the majority of folk carrying out EPCs, namely, the DEAs.

A controversial way to commence proceedings

Each and every candidate has been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement pertaining to all discussions and information regarding IDEA. This is surely a unique move for committee members of an Institute, who are neither employees nor Directors of the company.

2 candidates have already withdrawn.

Just days into the voting process, 2 of the above candidates have already withdrawn their candidature. In a revealing comment, one of them said "I remove myself from the candidate list based on.... the requirement to sign a 3 year confidentiality agreement, which for me is too onerous for a voluntary position."

Will IDEA ever be run in a proper way?

Non-profit making companies would have a Board, containing members and invited others. IDEA however, proposes to have Directors who have full decision-making powers and are not accountable to the membership in any way. The Directors have the power to do whatever they like with IDEA, the members funds and so on. What price its tee'd up to be bought out in the future?

So sadly our list of 13, well minus 2 obviously actually have NO decision making capacity, they are simply there to advise and provide information to the Directors, who are the decision-makers.

I have commented elsewhere about the interest that those running IDEA have in making money: May 2008 17 ways IDEA are making money

What we have here for the committee is accountability without responsibility. IDEA has been run as a personal fiefdom up until now, but these elections were sold on the promise of changing that. Sadly they are simply going to provide a veneer. There are a number of individuals who disagree with me, but the one thing linking them all is that they are all IDEA members as opposed to being DEAs considering which, if any, members organisation to join.


IDEA lower their sights substantially by 75%

Not only have IDEA been obliged to set the membership fee at the lowest rate offered in a poll of members, now the actual number of members is less important than it was before when the target was 2000 members. In a remarkable move the self-appointed lobbyist/CEO/Chairman of IDEA has stated that "even if we only got 500 signed up initially this would still be more than the combined membership of IHI and NARHI..."

An astonishing U-turn indeed but it feels more like cutting the cloth according to interest level. With a potential membership of around 12,000, is 500 members, or just over 4% of the total of those in the industry really enough to be THE conclusive membership body?

All we can do in what is still a new industry is wish IDEA good luck, its got a history to be ashamed of, but with new blood on board, its got as good a chance as any. Let the voting commence! (well, continue anyway!)

Labels: What to do with a problem like IDEA? Confidentiality agreement