Wow, so we have reached that time of the year again.
It is December and the festivities are well under way, with the numerous year-end functions already completed and the majority of our members taking a well earned rest before tackling 2006 with renewed vigour.
The SAIMC has been extremely active over the last year, with a large number of member focused activities having taken place all over South Africa and Zambia. Activities ranging from technical presentations at branch meetings and educational institutions to social events like golf days, dinners and the Annual Council Banquet, were extremely well run and attended.
I am sure you will agree that 2005 was an extremely busy year, with a variety of industry sectors shrugging off the cobwebs and kicking off ambitious expansion projects in efforts to meet the growing demands of our fast growing environment. One only has to consider the events in industries such as transportation, power generation, petrochemicals and the local automotive industries, to clearly see the effects of the strengthening rand and lower interest rates boosting consumer spending.
South Africa has truly become part of the global economy and we have grown in leaps and bounds in developed world areas such as communications with broadband Internet connection becoming a real part of life using 3G, ADSL and iBurst to name but a few. (Let us hope that the local providers are able to cope with the upswing in demand by offering more bandwidth at reasonable rates.)
The dark cloud in this otherwise positive picture is the continuing lack of skills in the measurement and control environment due to the broadening of scope for M&C practitioners, the high technology curve and what appears to be a slow uptake of industry on large scale development programmes as we became used to in the '80s and '90s. Not only are we not developing future skills to adequate numbers, but we are still losing skills to other countries.
The institute is desperate to assist with the reversal of this trend, and calls on employers to partner with us in order to grow our local skills base. As an institute, the SAIMC continued our efforts to add more value to our members and via our branches stepped up our efforts to interact with industry and concluded numerous technical presentations to our members as well as students at many tertiary institutions.
Our branches - in conjunction with our valued sponsors - also handed out many awards to students who performed well over the last year. Membership is showing strong growth primarily in areas such as Johannesburg, Zambia and on the coast, and we have again been able to count on strong support from employers and Patron members during the last year.
I would like to offer my sincerest appreciation to our council members and branch committees for their selfless efforts during 2005. These are 'big-picture people' who do not hesitate to throw their weight behind the very important efforts of the institute.
Here is wishing you a safe and restful festive season to ensure that we all return safe and energised to tackle another exciting year.
Have a fantastic December - and remember: a certain Measure of Control is always important!
Cornu Perold, president,
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