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My IMechE volunteering journey begins in Manchester in 2013 when I was at university running the Salford University Engineers Union.
As a part of this, I figured that we should be collaborating with the local IMechE Young Members Panel and so started to attend their regular meetings. I quickly saw the benefit of the Panel’s activities and wanted to support it as best I could, as I reckoned that it could open up opportunities for the members of the Engineers Union, so when the opportunity arose I volunteered to become the panel’s secretary.
Whilst I volunteered with the Panel, we organised visits to industrial facilities and hosted lectures on a wide range of subjects. It was during this time that I had my first contact with the IMechE Young Members Board (YMB). They were having their first Strategy Weekend in Manchester and wanted to invite someone from the local Young Members Panel to be involved in the proceedings. It turned out that no one else from the Panel was available and I was keen to find out more about this intriguing group (about whom I had heard little of previously).
At this weekend I first met some now familiar faces: faces which I have since worked ever closer with and now count amongst my friends. This was a taste of the wider workings of the IMechE, and showed the Institution’s commitment to ensuring that the voices of its Young Members, who actually make up a significant proportion of the membership, are heard.
I was particularly impressed by the opportunity for the members of the Board to present their ideas for initiatives to promote the Institution and develop the young engineers within it. This strength of the YMB hasn’t changed throughout my involvement with it. I came away from that weekend with a feeling that I was part of a much bigger organisation, with young engineers like myself working towards something bigger than themselves. It was around this time that the idea of CHAIN was conceived.
The Salford University Engineers Union was a multidisciplinary engineering society, which organised lectures on civil engineering.; I always learned something new and relevant to my own development from these talks. So, what other lessons might the other engineering disciplines have for each other? This sparked the idea of a multidisciplinary event, including all of the institutions in the local area, an event telling inspirational stories and bringing young engineers together. Together, the institutions launched CHAIN Manchester in 2016.
Since its inception, the YMB has been a staunch supporter of CHAIN, helping it reach Bristol, London, and Dubai, and putting together the CHAIN Toolkit for people that want to run their own events. After leaving university and moving to the world of work in Bristol, I remained on the YMB as the Mechatronics, Informatics and Control Group (MICG) Rep, whilst also getting involved with the Bath and Bristol Young Members Panel with its normal diet of lectures, visits, and socials.
I’ve since been involved in organising the Apprentice Automation Challenge, am a judge on the Formula Student AI competition and our Young Member Awards and have continued to champion CHAIN across the institutions. For my volunteering efforts I was jointly awarded the 2019 Volunteer of the Year Award with Roshni Wijesekera.
As I write this, the YMB is producing podcasts, creating videos to help other Institution volunteers, running competitions, blogs, and promoting the views of all Young Members in the Institution. This year I was elected as one of two Vice Chairs of the YMB and am now working with the IMechE Implementation Group, who are implementing a wide range of initiatives to improve the organisation and operation of our entire Institution. My involvement in the Implementation Group has shown me that, even in the early stages of my career, I can make a difference and benefit my fellow engineers, which is deeply rewarding. In addition to this benefit, whilst the career, networking and development opportunities are the most obvious rewards of volunteering with the Institution, the element of greatest importance to me is the new friends I am always making. I love meeting new people and have met so many inspirational young engineers throughout my volunteering journey. It is this which keeps me involved.
As I hope you have read from my early career story, there are plenty of ways that you can get involved and benefit from volunteering with the IMechE, if you would like to know more please don’t hesitate from getting in touch and finding out more. We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas for engineering a better world.