During the month of March, the Institute celebrated the end of an exciting and successful year with the Annual General Meeting generously hosted by the Johannesburg Branch at Rivonia Country Club, on 8 March.
During this event we spent time on reflecting on the past year and shared the events and achievements of 2005. Also during this event, the Institute bid farewell to the outgoing council and welcomed the incoming council which will lead the Institute during 2006.
I will be using this, my final column as president of the Institute to share these achievements and events.
Continuing with the innovation initiative kicked off in 2004, the Institute spent an enormous amount of time and effort in further developing previous initiatives as well as starting new ones aimed at growing the presence of the Institute and the value it adds to our members and the industry as a whole.
Education and training was again at the forefront of our activities with the branches actively supporting the various tertiary education institutions across the region.
Highlights here include:
* Numerous technical presentations done at universities.
* Presenting of several awards to deserving students at these institutions, kindly sponsored by Groupe Schneider and Apollo.
* Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mufulira Technical Training Institute (MTTI) in Zambia.
* Agreement reached with the Copperbelt University (CBU) in Zambia on the development on a C&I diploma course, potentially to be kicked off in 2007.
* The fantastic achievement of the Durban branch through Prof. Ed Boje and Prof. Ed Eitelberg in piloting a scholarship programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), which, should it prove to be successful and adequately supported by industry, we hope to roll-out to a variety of other institutions.
Along the same vein, we were fortunate to have received a number of high quality submissions for the Negretti Award, congratulations goes to Prof. Ed Eitelberg of UKZN with his winning paper titled: 'Water circulation control during once-through boiler start-up'.
Congratulations to Ed and our sincere appreciation to the other authors for their submission and a special thank you to Rodney Glatt of Negretti and Zambra for their on-going support in sponsoring this prestigious award.
The Annual Banquet hosted at the Indaba Hotel stepped up a gear and was widely credited as being the best banquet hosted by the institute to date. Congratulations to the team on a job well done.
Branch activities throughout South Africa and Zambia again proved to be the mainstay of the Institute's activities with site visits, technical presentations and others members' events actively pursued by the various branches.
One of the most exciting events was the re-constitution of the Vaal Triangle Sub Branch under the able and enthusiastic guidance of the Johannesburg Branch. On a sadder note: a decision was made to close the Witbank Sub Branch and the dwindling activities of the Rustenburg Branch which could lead to the closing thereof, should local support not improve.
The historically well contested Branch of the Year competition was as always a hard fought battle, and concluded with the Zambia Branch walking away with the laurels. Congratulations to Jones Kalela and his team on this fine achievement.
The Institute has been active in Zambia for a number of years in an un-official guise thanks to the support of Potgietersrus-based businessman Phil Liebenberg who provided on-going support in collecting membership certificates and delivering magazines to the members on a regular basis. Council and the Zambia Branch would like to extend our sincere appreciation for this selfless support.
Since the official launch of the SAIMC in Zambia in November 2005, the branch has gone from strength to strength and currently boasts:
* More than 120 members.
* Three sub branches.
* A full time secretary hosted in the SAIMC offices in Kitwe.
With the above list of achievements, it is not surprising that the Branch of the Year banner will be spending 2006 in Zambia.
On a special note, the Institute wishes to thank Chris Sessions of Mitech and Konkola Copper Mines for their support of the Zambia Branch with the deliveries of the magazines.
In November 2005 the Institute contracted a new secretariat located in Ferndale, Randburg. The new SAIMC Secretariat is a collaboration between StarSign Systems and Tony Holme and has delivered the desired results as is clearly evident in the vastly improved administration of the Institute. Benefits derived from this move include:
* Substantially improved service delivery to members as a result of the database clean-up and consolidation and professional approach of the team.
* Increased collection of annual subscriptions due to a proactive and friendly approach.
* More efficient processing of new membership applications due to the intelligent use of technology and the hands-on interacting with new applicants as well as old and previously not processed applications.
The SAIMC website received substantial attention over the last year or so and now boasts a more modern look and feel as well as features like:
* On-line membership applications.
* Self service member data administration.
* Open discussion forums where application and technology discussions can be conducted.
* On-line booking of SAIMC events.
* On-line purchasing of SAIMC merchandise.
The success of the website development (also conducted by StarSign Systems) is clearly evident when one considers the number of on-line applications and independently produced statistics like:
* 9000 hits/month.
* 600 regular visits/month.
* 150-200 regular visitors/month.
Appreciation to Kenneth Jones of StarSign Systems on his fine work in the development of the site.
Membership of the Institute has shown excellent growth with 98 new applications processed in January and February 2006 alone compared to 127 and 142 for the complete 2005 and 2004 respectively.
During the first quarter of 2006, the Institute embarked on a Strategic Review to gauge the changing needs of our industry and members to ensure that we adjust where required to continue to add value. The process included a data gathering which consisted of on-line questionnaires aimed at individuals, companies and other institutions as well as the Bosberaad held on 3 and 4 March.
Day one focused on receiving input from industry with end-users, suppliers, education institutions and other institutes providing us with valuable input as to their specific requirements and ideas. Day two was an internal session where the team took the information gathered during day one, and formulated them into the new strategy. As a result of the tremendous amount of input and potential new projects that the Institute could embark on, substantial work is still required in delivering a comprehensive strategy. The salient point that came across loud and clear however is that the Institute is very much seen as an important body in industry and that our current vision and mission statements are still valid and will be retained.
A special mention must be made of the efforts and commitment of the outgoing council which served the Institute and its members during the past year. These individuals are:
* Vivian MacFadyen (vice president and general secretary).
* Paulo da Silva (treasurer).
* Paulo da Sousa Gomes.
* Johan van Jaarsveld.
* Eric Carter.
* Peter Roos.
* Pieter Zietsman.
* Tony Vis.
* Branch chairmen.
* Vivian Macfadyen (Jhb).
* Dean Trattles (Dbn).
* Derwyn Oxley (CPT).
* Jones Kalela (Zambia).
* Piet van Rensburg (Secunda).
Congratulations to the incoming council executive on its election and the best of luck in continuing the good work done in the past. I have no doubt that you will be very successful considering the commitment and work ethic displayed during the past years.
The incoming council executive is:
* Vivian MacFadyen (president).
* Eric Carter (vice president).
* Paulo da Silva (treasurer).
The balance of council will be published as soon as it has been confirmed.
On a personal note, serving as president of council over the last two years has been an honour and a privilege as I could only aspire to build on the excellent work done by my predecessors.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the council and branch committee members of 2004 and 2005 for their support and efforts during very tough, but exciting times. I will certainly look back at my term of office with fond memories.
Have a fantastic April and remember: a certain measure of control is always important!
Cornu Perold, president, cornu.perold@honeywell.com
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