It all began with The Architects' Journal, when Paul Finch asked me to take over the late Ray Cecil's column. I established a routine of commenting on topical issues on a week-by-week basis - subjects ranging from Continuing Professional Development to fee agreements, from new construction legislation to employment rights, and from Professional Indemnity cover to the then new adjudication laws. Articles which were intended to be informative and entertaining in their own right, spiced up with anecdotes from my own life in practice. My AJ experience did three things which led directly to my becoming president. Firstly, the process of research and writing on a weekly basis gave me a tremendous insight into practice-related issues, providing a good platform for later political engagement; secondly, the opportunity to 'talk' to the profession transformed me quickly into an 'officehold' name; and thirdly, my writing brought me to the attention of David Rock who, as president, had the power to co-opt additional members to council. The rest is history: I remained in that post during Marco Goldschmied's subsequent presidency, and was myself elected president in 2001.
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