The launch of a new strategy for the association is a chance to look at the work we have been doing and to shake it up fresh for the coming period through to 2031. The strategy has been produced with input from members throughout, and via an extensive programme of interaction with stakeholders over ten months, and we are pleased to share it with you today confident in our belief that it is a realistic response to those many preparatory conversations.

Thinking about our future plans for this purpose gives us a chance to reflect on our work as an association, and the things we choose to prioritise for action. During a period in which the financial sustainability of the sector has become headline news it is inevitable that the new strategy places high priority on the practical tools AUDE can provide to help you become ever more efficient in your operational delivery. We’ll be working under themes including ‘Sustainability and Net Zero’, ‘Risk and Resilience’ and ‘Innovation and Digital Evolution’ to make sure we are focused on the high-impact work we can do to support you in every role across busy and stretched estates and facilities teams.

It's important to us that the new strategy doesn’t become a dusty document only looked at next in late 2030 as we prepare to produce its successor. Extensive conversation within the AUDE Executive Group – volunteer members of the association trying to steer us all onto strong long-term paths of real benefit – checked and validated that the draft work on the strategy, and the final version itself, met our collective needs. If you want to know what AUDE will be doing in this coming period, then these ideas are the things we’ll be working on.

Six themes to keep us focused in our work

Net zero and related sustainability issues. What do we need to do and how do we afford them?

Efficiency. How do we support institutions with a focus on the effectiveness and efficiency of every estates process?

Digital campuses. In a world of rapid technological change, how can AUDE help universities reach a higher level of digital maturity?

Risk, resilience, and optimisation of estates operations – from space utilisation to crisis planning for estates disruption.

Professional development to meet your team’s needs. What can AUDE do to ensure the talent pipeline is strong?

An inclusive association – inclusive design, and an association that welcomes and supports contributions from everyone.

We hope you’ll be able to reflect on and support the new AUDE Strategy, which can be downloaded from the website now.

AUDE: Who we are

In support of this we have also produced a statement ‘AUDE: Who we are’ which backs up the strategy by reminding us not only what we want to do, but the way in which we want to do it. It matters to us that the professional standards of the colleagues we work with are high. Please read this statement and we hope you’ll commit to it alongside us.

Ideas around working culture can feel a bit difficult to grasp and hold in our hands. As very practical people a phrase such as ‘values statement’ runs the risk of not feeling concrete enough to land well in our community. But in pinning down our expectations with this statement we give ourselves a standard against which to judge our own work. How did we behave? How did we speak, and listen? Getting ‘the culture’ right can be a powerful foundation block for all the things we want to deliver as estates and facilities professionals.