Vice chair of West Midlands blog

There comes a time in everyone 's life when you realise you want more out of work, career and life. In 2013 when I got to this stage, I decided I wanted more and took a bold step to reply to an email sent to all Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) members about becoming a board member. You see at the time I was a customer services advisor and my first thought was to laugh at myself for even considering this as an option for me. I decided to take the step anyway and I applied, and to my utmost shock, I was successful and became a member of the CIH WM board.

And this is how my journey began and as the cliché goes the rest is history. I am now the vice chair of the regional board and I have been in post since January 2018 so about one year plus and enjoying every minute of it. My role consists of supporting the chair with ensuring that aims and the objectives of the board and CIH are met, deputising as required, helping to delegate duties and plan events and being a mentor to new board members and member champions, etc.

Whilst studying for my CIH Level 4 course, I discovered my attraction to housing policy and practice and when the opportunity arose on the board for a lead on policy matters, I put myself forward for this role and I have built a working partnership with the policy and practice team of CIH, supporting on projects, highlighting policy themes in the region, responses to government consultation etc. I also contribute to policy matters as an opinion panel member. I have been a member of the CIH for four years and I have just recently attained Chartered status via the Experienced Professional Route which I must say was a tall order whilst combining this with work.

I have been working in housing for 12 years in various roles - customer services (best training ground ever) housing officer, income officer, leasehold and sales administrator and my current role is within the income team at Trent and Dove Housing with a property portfolio of 6000+ properties with an ambitious development growth plan to triple this amount by 2022.

I am married with two teenage children (16 and 13) who keep me being thankful for what I have. I love singing and being part of a choir produced an album - yeah go me. Cooking is another passion of mine and I love to try foods from different countries, and I have even taken an Asian cooking class and I make a mean an authentic curry.

My advice to round this up is never to look at yourself as not being qualified for anything but give yourself the opportunity of choice. Take that jump of faith and just hope for the best.

My name is Oluwatosin Durojaiye and I am proud to be your vice chair in the West Midlands.