Valete

Citation

Poole, A.L. (1998), "Valete", Structural Survey, Vol. 16 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ss.1998.11016daa.001

Valete

Valete

Having decided to retire from Editorship after this issue I looked up "retire" in Roget. Amongst other synonyms and the like I find depart, disappear, runaway, relinquish, resign and lastly be concave. Why I should suddenly change shape after retiring is something which will remain a mystery but I will keep you posted. I was on the Editorial Board from Vol. 1 No. 1 and took over the Editorship when MCB purchased the journal in mid-Volume 11. I have enjoyed it. It is one of those jobs where there should be a change in Editorship every now and again ­ some of you might well say some time ago. You meet many people and hear from even more from all corners of the globe, from the inveterate scribes whose works, usually lengthy, are totally incomprehensible and certainly of no possible interest through to those many who write well about a subject of interest (that is a good start), go through the evidence, the facts, the problems and then come to a conclusion. I sincerely hope that this journal will continue to contain articles of interest and use to practising professionals as well as academics. In this issue I have included an article which I have had standing by for some time which is really the musings of a practising surveyor who carries out many surveys of all types of property in the outer London suburbs on the basis that a high proportion of chartered surveyors are engaged in exactly this sort of work in relatively small practices.

We also need research and you will see that I have now included an update on the research being carried out by the RICS, some of it being supported by the Educational Trust. Most of us want to extend our frontiers by finding profitable niches, interesting and satisfying work. For this reason we try to include articles which are known by the Editorial Board as "what is a brick?". It is all very well to read about the chemistry of carbonation and innovative daylighting systems (see Newsbriefs in this issue). It is still important to remember how to measure bricks and to know precisely what is a stock brick ­ you remember the excellent article by Gerard Lynch in Vol. 12 No. 4. G.K. Chesterton said "Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." You can certainly do that with brickwork.

Mike Hoxley, a chartered surveyor in the Department of Surveying at the University of Salford takes over as Editor from the beginning of the next volume. I wish him well. It is a job which can be immensely frustrating and yet satisfying as I am sure he will find out for himself.

Finally I thank the Editorial Board and my many contributors and authors for their support.

Anthony L. Poole