FOCUS INTERVIEW
Rory Murphy FRICS, Commercial Director, VINCI Facilities, chairs the RICS’ new member
engagement, experience and value (MEEV) working group. Here, he brings Sara Bean up to
date with the ethos and progress of the group
Launched in 1868, the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is one of the
leading institutes within the built environment,
representing 140,000 members operating out
of 146 countries. Over the past year it has been
hit by a governance scandal that led to the
resignation of four senior figures, including CEO
Sean Tompkins and President Kath Fontana.
This followed the publication of an independent
review by QC Alison Levitt that found four nonexecutives
who had raised concerns over an
audit in 2018 had been wrongly dismissed.
40 APRIL 2022
Now operating under a new interim team, the
RICS is awaiting the results of an independent
review being carried out by Civil Servant, Lord
Michael Bichard into its governance and purpose.
One of the most eye-catching comments from
Bichard’s summary of responses so far was
that many members felt that power has shiž ed
from members to senior sta§ at RICS to such an
extent that “RICS was no longer a member-led
organisation”.
He has also referred to the survey ‘Defining
our Future’, carried out prior to the governance
crisis, which pointed to a decline in member
engagement in recent years. The RICS had in fact,
already taken steps to address this issue, and now,
running separately to the Bichard review, has set
up a Member Engagement, Experience and Value
(MEEV) working group. It is chaired by Rory Murphy,
Commercial Director at VINCI Facilities and a fellow
of RICS who has long been associated with the FM
group at RICS.
He explains he was approached to take on the
role before the governance crisis hit: “The Bichard
review is looking at governance and purpose
which doesn’t really cut across what we’re doing.
Our group is absolutely focused on membership
feedback. And it isn’t about us coming up with our
own ideas, it’s more about responding to specific
issues that members have raised and working with
the management team within the RICS to help
develop solutions which we then road test. We’re
very much a working group.”
Defining our futures was carried out in early 2021
and comprised round tables and consultations to
gather feedback on the Institute.
Says Murphy: “What came through was how
di§ icult it was for members to become engaged
with RICS. Membership experience was another
issue, including transactional challenges like
renewing your subs or contacting the call centre
and there were concerns about transparency.
“If you wrap all those issues together and it’s in
the heart of a pandemic, people were starting to
question the value for money. ‘I pay my fees and
what am I getting for it, what’s in for me? If the
experience isn’t great and the engagement isn’t
great, what am I getting?’”
WORKING GROUP
Murphy was approached to chair the Member
Engagement, Experience and Value (MEEV) working
group by the exec team who’d noted his previous
successful chair of the responsible business in real
estate report.
He says: “I’d helped the RICS for over 12 years on
the FM side and I’ve got so much time for the team
there. I did genuinely want to come and help so it
wasn’t much of an ask, though I wasn’t 100 per cent
sure what I walking into.
“I think they knew I’d take an honest, pragmatic
approach as I’m not interested in the kudos of
doing it but just wanted to help make things better.
I was delighted but slightly terrified to be asked but
I was aiming to help shape it to make a di§ erence.
The group is fundamentally about the membership
and addressing very real concerns about
Engagement, Experience and Value but I also want
to help the teams that work at the RICS be proud of
the institution and the tireless work they do.”
The group is made up of three members of the
governing council from Germany, the Caribbean
and Australia and five world regional board chairs,
hailing from UK & Ireland, Europe, Asia, the
Americas and the Middle East. There are also three
UK national board chairs and three board chairs
from around the world, including Poland, Hong
Kong and UAE along with a representative from