Strange days indeed

Just what is going on within the construction industry’s various trade associations?

In 1979, shortly before his untimely death, former Beatle John Lennon wrote the song “Nobody Told Me”.  The song was originally intended as a gift to Ringo Starr and was scheduled to appear on Starr’s 1981 album, “Stop and Smell the Roses”.  But when Lennon was murdered by crazed “fan” Mark Chapman in New York on 8 December 1980, Starr decided against recording it.  

Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono ultimately saw the recording of the song through to fruition, and it eventually appeared on the posthumous “Milk and Honey” album in 1984.

The song contains the line: “Nobody told me there’d be days like these.  Strange days indeed”.

Yoko Ono told Uncut in 1998: "I think that especially around that time he [Lennon] felt that again, the world had lost its course, its direction.”

That line and that sentiment seems oddly prescient for the construction industry of today and, more specifically, for the trade associations that purport to serve it.

The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) is currently without a chief executive following the resignation of Stu McInroy in December after just six months in the role.

Likewise, the Construction Equipment Association (CEA) currently finds itself without a figurehead after CEO Suneeta Johal suddenly left the organisation this week, just over two years after taking up the role. 

Completing the troubling treble, Lighthouse Club CEO Bill Hill leaves the charity later this week after more than a decade in the hot seat.  

Admittedly, Hill’s successor - Sarah Bolton - has already been named and hopefully the transition will be a smooth one.  But three trade bodies losing their head honcho in relatively quick succession feels like more than a coincidence. And let’s not forget that it is just three months since Howard Button departed Resurgam House where he had been CEO of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors for the best part of 20 years.

Are trade bodies feeling the pinch in the financially uncertain post-COVID world?  Are companies and individuals spending their membership money elsewhere?  Do members actually need highly-paid executives to bring people together when they can do it themselves for free online?  And is there actually a place for trade federations, associations and bodies in the remote-working, constantly-connected Internet age? 

The reasoning behind these successive departures is uncertain. But one thing’s for sure.

“Strange days indeed,” as John Lennon sang. “Most peculiar mama!”