Proposed Reciprocal Recognition with the HKIH In the General Council Meeting of 28 January 2010, a discussion was held among members of various Divisions and Boards in respect of this subject. Considering there is no precedent of reciprocal recognition being established between HKIS with a local professional institute whatsoever, the Meeting opined that direct membership entry (although subject to another EGM of the Institute) could be a more effective alternative way out. Any further dialogue with HKIH in this regard would have to be suspended for the time being. The above-mentioned GC's direction was subsequently confirmed in the PFM Division Council Meeting of 2 February 2010. Apart from putting forward a vote of thank to all members who had participated in the previous discussion, the Council requested me to provide a brief report in Surveyors Times for members information. The proposal can be traced back to some 10 years ago during the enactment of Housing Managers Registration Ordinance. Without sufficient consultation of HKIS opinion, the Ordinance was passed in Year 2000 disregarding HKIS member qualification from becoming a Registered Professional Housing Manager. Owing to a lot of internal debate among HKIS and with the persuasion of the then Property Management Committee (PMC), the Hon. P.C. Lau put forward a motion in the Housing Committee of the Legislative Council in Year 2002 with an aim to review the HMRO. Concurrently, the PMC took the opportunity to meet the Permanent Secretary for Housing and Chairman of Housing Manager Registration Board and did achieve a breakthrough such that the HMRB will accept HKIS members' registration through paper submission. It is noted that there are now several HKIS members being successfully registered through this arrangement. The PMC and the subsequent Property and Facility Management Committee of 2003 did not end its action at this point. Further discussion was held with the succeeding Chairman of HMRB. Direct registration waiving the requirement of paper submission was also set as one of the objectives of the EGM for the formation of Property and Facility Management Division in Year 2005. Continuous dialogue was held and an idea was subsequently awaken during one of the informal meeting with the HMRB in Year 2007 that reciprocal recognition between HKIS and HKIH could be further explored. Both parties considered that this could be an easier way for direct registration. Between 2007 and 2008, the Institute was also keen on reciprocal recognition with some China professional institutes owing to the CEPA motive. As such, a working group was formed to commence discussion with HKIH as a result of the decision of PFMD Council Meeting of 14 July 2008. The first Working Group Meeting was held on 10 September 2008 and several informal discussions were held between the WG and HKIH Council Members between September 2008 and October 2009. In order to gather opinions from other Divisions, informal discussions were also held with BSD, GPD and QSD between May and June 2009 before the proposed reciprocal recognition was reported at General Council Meeting of 23 July 2009. I must emphasise that there was no adverse comment on the basis of unequal treatments as noted in the meeting then. In the initial discussion with HKIH, the criterion of acceptance between the two institutes was an unequal one. A higher threshold was required on accepting HKIH member considering the varying professional assessment requirements of the two institutes. Discussion stagnated for a while and eventually a proposal of only accepting FHKIH as MHKIS and vice versa for FHKIS as MHKIH was brainstormed. In order to gather more members' opinions of this proposal, the PFMD Council decided in its meeting of 23 November 2009 to conduct an Open Discussion Forum. The Forum was held on 4 January 2010 with about 30 members attending the event. As there was no obvious inclination being noted in the Forum, the PFMD Council decided in its meeting of the same evening to conduct a member-wide questionnaire survey in order to collect member opinion before putting forward recommendation to the GC. However, before the survey, the GC discussed this issue on 28 January 2010 and directed as aforementioned. The PFMD Council agreed with the decision and discussion with HKIH would have to be shelved for the time being. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those members who have contributed their dedicated time and effort in this subject. They include Mr. Michael Price, Mr. Kenneth Chan, Mr. Dick Kwok, Mr. Charles Hung, Dr. Edmond Cheng and the writer. First Candidate Passing Final Assessment Since the formation of PFMD in year 2005, we have received the first lot of probationer members in year 2006 preparing for the Division's APC. After going through the test of "practical task" and "critical analysis", one of our probationer members, Mr. Pierre C.P. Leung passed the final assessment in January 2010. He became the first candidate who has successfully gone through the whole internal APC assessment process. This is indeed a piece of good news for the Division as well as to other current probationer members. Visit To The Hong Kong Polytechnic University A visiting team of the PFMD Council, consisting of Ms. Rebecca Lee, Dr. K.W. Lam, Mr. Kenny Chan, Mr. Ray Ng and me visited the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 23 February 2010. Members introduced HKIS and PFMD to the final year students of BSc(Hon) in Property Management program and invited them to join HKIS. There were quite a lot of questions asked by students concerning the Institute's affairs and market development in the future. Members also shared with students their working experiences and the job opportunities in property and facility management surveying profession.