Institution news
Dear Member,
The early morning mists of late autumn and the first falls of snow in the north tell us that time is marching on towards the shorter daylight hours ahead. Timely for me too, as I complete my first 100 days since becoming President again, with my thanks for the many messages of support and kind words I have received.
Since the 1 August, the Institution has been heavily engaged in dealing with a wide range of matters, including two Council meetings and two Trustee Board meetings. These included the formulation, approval and issue of the Terms of Reference for the Finance Review and the Governance Review as determined at the Special Meeting in May. Both teams have begun their work, with the first interim report from the Finance Review team expected shortly and being on the agenda for the 5 December Trustee Board meeting.
2018 is the Year of Engineering, which IMechE has been delighted to support with active participation at several events. This is a key programme to encourage young people to focus their studies towards the STEM subjects, which hopefully will lead to many of them choosing an engineering career. Discussions are ongoing to continue the initiative into a second year and possibly beyond that. To see some of the engineers we have profiled this year to showcase the diversity of careers in engineering, please visit our "Meet the Mechanical Engineers" webpage.
Whenever invited, I am visiting a range of events in London and further afield to meet with members on their patch and encouraging them in the great work they are doing in the active support of the IMechE. To date I have been to Dundee, Sunderland, Nottingham and Birmingham with Coventry, Warrington, Liverpool and Dublin to come in the next few weeks.
It is deeply rewarding to meet members who tirelessly work as volunteers, particularly in organising a range of initiatives that link engineering to society. In the North East I was privileged to attend a really delightful all-day event with 1,200 excited nine year olds. It was a fantastic and brilliant example of PEI’s, schools and employers working as one to introduce children and teachers to the exciting world of engineering- the following day another 1,200 14 year olds attended.
You, as members, can provide the life blood for our Institution through your active contribution in supporting regional, divisional and international committees and I would encourage you to do so. In recognising commitment and loyalty I would particularly like to congratulate Geoffrey Astin, John Fooks and Donald James, who I have been told, recently completed 75 years membership of our Institution.
This weekend saw us mark Armistice Day, which is also a time to pay our respect to our members who made the ultimate sacrifice in two World Wars. There were also many who suffered life changing injuries from these conflicts and others in more recent times, in both cases with serious consequences for their families. This weekend was particularly poignant as it marked the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War and the Institution has been working together with the ICE and IET to create "Engineers at War", a collaborative exhibition of our archive material which showcases the contribution of engineering and engineers to the war effort. You can find the "Engineers at War" exhibition along with the Honour Roll of those Institution members who lost their lives in the First World War on our First World War Centenary web page.
There are now less than 200 days until our next AGM and the end of this Presidential year, with a long list of things remaining to be done including the implementation of recommendations from the Finance and Governance Reviews. In addition the overwhelming message coming through is that the membership is up for reconciliation, particularly related to the differences of views that arose from the Special Meeting and other associated events. Resolution of these issues may be challenging, however based on the good will and support that I feel from across the breadth of our membership, I remain hopeful that compromise will win the day.
Tony Roche
President