As a TRADA regional officer for over 20 years it was good to read Andrew Abbott’s article The new language of construction speaking of TRADA’s “personality change” allied to website visits and “enjoying a live dialogue with architects, engineers and other industry professionals”.

From 1963-84 as western counties regional officer in a team of seven covering Britain and Northern Ireland, dialogue was the hub of our work. We created and maintained regular contact with architects, engineers and surveyors, local authorities, technical colleges, universities, National House Builders Consortium and the timber trade. This was achieved by personal visits supplemented by seminars, lectures, exhibitions, overseas trade missions, introducing and selling or supplying gratis technical literature. Most professional offices in my area purchased copies of our technical information binder which was regularly updated.

Additional regional officer duties involved acting as arbitraters and expert witnesses.

Supported by Canada’s Council of Forest Industries’ Bill Townsley, we encouraged the introduction of timber frame construction and its acceptance by insurers and building societies without premium excesses. During the mid-60s and onwards, the western counties had thousands of examples resulting from this initiative. The exhibition erection of one house in a day, before an invited audience from London (conveyed by plane), further emphasised what TRADA had achieved.

Today we are justly proud to have been an integral part of those early years of TRADA when we brought the organisation to the eyes of so many professional and construction industry businesses – and gained their respect.

The 80s saw the decline in trade support and TRADA’s rapid reduction of the regional officer team. The resulting loss of their dialogue naturally evolved changes of direction in the revised organisation.

Latterly, references in TTJ suggest changes that feel familiar to those of us who remain fiercely supportive of TRADA. They are closely allied to the explosion of IT, which has brought its own advantages. I, for one, wish the organisation success in its future.

Dick Middleton