As part of the general description of chapters, there is the possibility to define a chapter by country or by region.
Some chapters represent effectively a single country (e.g. USA, Norway), others combine different countries (Nordic, Benelux, UK+Ireland, Australasia).
Belgium does not have its own chapter, but is part of the Benelux Chapter. However, we have heard that the Nordic Chapter (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) was asked to effectively split into individual chapters per country. We are not aware of a similar request for e.g. Benelux.
At the same time, one of our active Belgian organisations (BBRI) has signed to also support “Forum Francophone” as a collaboration between chapters based on language.
https://www.buildingsmartfrance-mediaconstruct.fr/communaute/forum-francophone-openbim/
Having three national languages, this kind of collaboration is a necessity; both regional - for having comparable building sectors as based on shared language and culture.
Is there a change in policy? Especially for smaller countries, with upcoming BIM initiatives, this would seriously impact the organisation and financing.