All news is not always good news, and we must accept also bad news as a challenge to what we can improve upon. The turnout for the October meeting was very disappointing, with only 17 attendees. Those that have missed it will have to live with their loss.
Ivan van der Walt from Endress+Hauser sponsored the evening and presented to us the pros and cons of Profibus. He answered several very interesting questions from the floor. It was very clear that members have learned a lot from the previous presentation by Alpret, and here they made an effort to expand on what they have learned then.
The challenge in this is to find the root cause why such a small group attended. We must then find a means to improve on the situation. We understand that we cannot satisfy the needs of everyone all the time and that other commitments of members can also have an effect on the number of attendees. We also believe that it should not be too difficult to achieve 30% attendance by our members. We will set this figure as an objective for 2001.
In November we hosted our year-end function, which turned out to be a very memorable occasion. Being our very first, we opted for a very informal spit braai. Attending as guests were, the President from council Dave Howcroft, who was also the guest speaker for the evening, and responsible for most of the sponsorship for our monthly meetings.
Dave congratulated the branch members with the growth shown over the past year, and presented our chairman with only the second of the new SAIMC ties. This tie will be worn in honour to carry the ideology of the institute out to all that has an interest in the field. He then had everyone hanging on his lips and left them speechless with his famous talk on Meteorites, Minerals and Merenski. Our chairman indicated that we call this an annual event like the golf day, which means that the Secunda branch is here to stay and to grow to become one of the best branches of the SAIMC.
On 25 January 2001 the Secunda Branch will have its AGM. Members will soon receive their notices for the meeting as well as proxy voter forms. The plan is that the new committee will have a completely new structure. To spread the workload and to give members on the committee responsibility each member will have a portfolio. Through this we hope to provide better management of our branch, organise better events and be of more efficient service to our members.
On the table already for May, is our annual golf day. Those interested must diarise the 25th if you want to take part. Last year's was a massive success. Very soon in the New Year more information will be available, be sure to watch this space.
Two other items on the list for 2001 are, to involve the three educational bodies in the area with the Negretti Award and to attend to our sub branch, to assist them to develop towards independence. The Secunda Branch would like to thank everyone who supported us towards our highly successful year. We may call on you again in the New Year. May 2001 be just as good as 2000.
Piet van Rensburg
Chairman Secunda Branch
(017) 615 2513
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