Imad Eldurubi for the Office of the President of the World Organization of Building Officials
(Written by I. Eldurubi)
Dear Fellow Members:
Warm greetings to you all.
It is a huge honour to have been nominated for the Office of the President of the World Organization of Building Officials, and one which I am delighted to accept.
My family and I are extremely appreciative of the generous support I have received from our many Building and Fire Official colleagues, and friends and associates all the over the world.
It is also a tremendous privilege to have received the full endorsement of my nomination from such a large number of my Fellow WOBO Governors, as well as the International Code Council (ICC) - a global organization of over 50,000 members, the Japan Conference of Building Administration (JCBA) representing 571 organizations, the Subdirectora General de Fomento al Crecimiento del Sector Viviena, Mexico, the Saudi Building Code National, the Washington Association of Building Officials (WABO), the New York State Building Officials Conference (NYSBOC) representing 2205 Building and Fire Code Officials, the Virginia Building and Code Officials Association(VBCOA) , and the honourable delegations and leaders in the building code industry from the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Jordan , Australia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Falkland Islands, Egypt, Seychelles, and Mexico. I am sincerely grateful for their ongoing support and friendship.
For those of you I have not yet had the opportunity to meet, please allow me to take a few moments to humbly share my professional background with you. As many of you will know, I am currently serving my 3rd term as the Governor of the World Organization of Building Officials. In addition to this position, I am also a Building Code and Fire Official with 17 years of service; a Registered Building Engineer; a Certified Public Manager and Policies; a Fellow Building Engineer of the Association of Building Engineers (ABE), United Kingdom; a former Code Official for the Cities of Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona, United States; a former Chairman of The Arizona Building Officials Association; a former President of the Arizona Chapter of the International Code Council; and a former International Code Council Coordinator for the Accessibility Technical Committee for New York City.
I have also authored and presented numerous presentations all over the world on Building and Fire Safety, Architecture, Urban Development, Sustainability, Building Plan Review and Inspections, Building Official Roles and the Regulatory Perspective. It is has been an additional honour to be the recipient of a number of national and international awards including Trueblood Arizona Building Official of the Year Award, Building Officials Education Award, and Excellence in Building Safety Award.
In accepting this nomination, I’d like to share with you my thoughts on what I believe I can bring to the World Organization of Building Officials as the President:
- Implement the objectives upon which WOBO was founded: I am committed to ensuring that all of the organization’s objectives are carried forward including collaboration with well known international organizations, governments and educational institutes to promote the development and training of Building and Fire Code Officials. Furthermore, I will work tirelessly to promote the concept of state of the art standards, and building and fire codes for the construction of safe and sustainable buildings. We, as an organization, will partner with the world leading building organizations to achieve the above.
- Move WOBO positively forward in a new, yet carefully constructed, direction of responsive, caring action: In addition to working proactively to put life safety codes and enforcement methods in place in those areas where they do not exist, WOBO must be able to respond quickly when disasters strike. I will work very hard to make certain that WOBO Governors and members are present at all international Building and Fire Safety events around the globe.
- Build on what has already been established by WOBO: It was my great honour to witness the signing of the historical Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and WOBO, accompanied by the Founding President and Governor of WOBO, Mr. Omkar Channan, and Her Excellency Anne Kajumula Tibaijuka, Under Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat, during the 21st Session of the Governing Council of UN-Habitat in Nairobi in the Republic of Kenya. I will work and build on this significant milestone in our organization’s history to further strengthen WOBO’s Special and Consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and United Nations Industrial Development Organization. I will also strive to ensure that WOBO is represented at UN Special Council Meetings in New York and at the UN Habitat Conferences worldwide by either a Governor or an actively-involved member.
- Adopt an inclusive approach to expand and widen our membership: Our Members are the driving force behind our success and by working closely with the Board of Governors and the members I will endeavour to expand the Board of Governors to include more representatives globally, recognizing the need to seek the expertise and knowledge of other professional leaders in America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. Having been previously represented on the Board of Governors for many years; I will again seek representation from ABE on the Board. As an organization, we need to enlist new members around the world, so I will challenge the Board of Governors and the members to work on recruiting as many as 25 new members per country in the first 6 months, and 25 new members in the following 6 months. In addition, I will endorse waiving the annual membership fees for the next five years for any Governor or Member who can meet this challenge.
- Focus on keeping our Members engaged and informed: I believe our Members deserve much more of our attention, so as well as introducing an electronic WOBO newsletter that will be e-mailed to all members every four months, with a hard copy available upon request, I will also make sure that all Governors are accountable to provide articles and updates on the building industry in their country. I will also include a special career section in the newsletter which will advertise job opportunities as an extra benefit of our current and future members.
Most importantly, I will concentrate on making WOBO function as a strong, dedicated organization. Supporting this, we will seek the sponsorship of the newsletter from all respective building and fire code organizations and institutes from both the public and private sectors. In doing so, I am sure we will be able to better accomplish the widespread communication of WOBO news and the expansion of the membership. - Develop outreach programs to increase WOBO’s revenue: In the event that WOBO and any other organization collaborates to organize any conferences either locally or internationally, I will make sure that mutually acceptable revenue arrangements are made, with the intent of enhancing and providing for a revenue stream for WOBO.
In closing, if you believe in WOBO as a world class organization and are as committed as I am to seeing it carry its mission and objective into the next century, increase its membership and its benefits, strengthen its ties with the United Nations, outshine in the global arena, and know that much more is still left to be done, then I hope you will play a part in helping us to decide what happens next!
Please vote for Imad Eldurubi for the President of the World Organization of Building Officials.
Thank you for your time, may God continue to bless you all.
Yours faithfully,
Imad Eldurubi
Governor, the World Organization of Building Officials