Dear Patrons and Members
We are now well into the year 2000 and a more productive year for the SAIMC lies ahead; a drive for greater coverage of all things control systems and instrumentation and an ever increasing expansion of membership. The greater the membership coverage the stronger and more influential the Institute will become in the industrial, educational and government sectors.
The number of new members and patron members is steadily increasing, indicating that membership of the SAIMC is being recognised as an integral part of belonging to the control systems and instrumentation discipline.
I appeal to all of our membership to influence your colleagues and persuade them to become members of the SAIMC. Remember being a member of the SAIMC adds to your status as a professional.
But what are we at the SAIMC doing to improve the Institute's viability and value in terms of adding more benefits for our members?
* A new and improved catalogue has just been received from the ISA and a list of the catalogue's content will be issued to members and patrons on request.
* The SAIMC library is undergoing an update of new material and a list will be issued as soon as possible.
However, as in all things financial, these new items will take time to implement.
What else has been happening at the SAIMC?
The new Virus Alert newsletter has now been published a second time. Please send me your views as to whether it is of any benefit to you.
The matter of registration with ECSA (Engineering Council of South Africa) has been causing much concern to the control and instrument industry. The concept of being registered as a Technologist has been much misunderstood in its definition and how a given level of engineering status is evaluated.
Although the registration process with ECSA is a little formidable, especially for those who are now much older, it is the sensible and most important way to go for your future in control systems and instrumentation engineering.
I personally know of C&I people who have applied to ECSA for registration and ECSA have very fairly addressed the transition from the existing C&I status to the new Technologist level. I am staying in touch with ECSA and will report on further news from this important area.
On the matter of education, the need for a much more strongly based procedure for formal education in our discipline will be best served by starting the fundamental education at technical, technikon and university level.
At present most control systems and instrumentation people's basic training is made possible by the generosity of the South African instrument vendors and user companies. Without their support, South African industry, as a leading cutting edge technological entity, would not exist.
John Crossland, the Chairman for the SAIMC education committee, has achieved much in making South Africa aware of this ongoing problem and is constantly offering and actively giving guidance and probable solutions to this dilemma. In this respect and in applaud to the tremendous work that John Crossland and his team are doing, your support of those efforts should be more actively pursued at all SAIMC Branches.
Remember no matter how small you may believe that your contribution may be, in the larger picture and to the education committee of the SAIMC, it will add more strength to the SAIMC drive for a greater and better education in engineering.
As the representative of the SAIMC I attended the inauguration of the new FEDSET organisation which will now replace the AS&TS. Although the old AS&TS has done a magnificent job over the years, the new infrastructure of the FEDSET organisation is very much up to date and dynamic. I will have much more to report to you all after the next meeting of FEDSET.
The ELECTREX exhibition is now over and was a success.
I wish to thank our Patrons who attended as exhibitors and sincerely hope that more of our Patrons will support not only the ELECTREX show but also the SAIMC by exhibiting at the next ELETREX show in 2002.
Speaking of shows, I attended the Cape Industrial Show from 9 to 12 May 2000 and signed up eight new members and solved a number of queries from existing members who approached me at the stand. Again in May, I attended the one-day Penmac Instrument show in Phalaborwa along with John Warburton, the main SAIMC member in Phalaborwa. For a small community like Phalaborwa the attendance was very good.
Penmac had an Instrument show in Secunda on 27 July 2000. However, due to unforeseen circumstances I could not attend and it looked as though the SAIMC stand would have to be cancelled. That was until Piet van Rensburg (Chairman) and Brian Edwards (Secretary) of the Secunda branch heroically stepped in to arrange to have the stand manned in my absence. A very big thank you, guys.
11, 12, 13 and 14 September brings the Electro-Mining show to Nasrec in Johannesburg where again the SAIMC will have a stand, with John Crossland from RBM and myself manning the stand. So come along to the show and talk to us, we would like to meet you. The SAIMC stand is stand 16 in hall 7.
At the same time show your support for Johan Steyn and his team at the Johannesburg branch by attending the show. There are a great deal of interesting things to see and evaluate at the show for C&I people in terms of process and control interfacing with electrical and mining technology.
The President, Council members and I, as the SAIMC Executive Officer, would like to hear more from all our Patrons and Members on what you all would like to see coming from the SAIMC to you. We are concerned not with that which we do right but what it is we do wrong. By knowing these issues we can, with your assistance, only improve the SAIMC for the future of its members.
You, as members, can communicate your views and comments to us in a number of ways. The use of the SAIMC web page, e-mail, fax or telephone directly.
The SAIMC web page is at: www.saimc.org.za
Talking about our web page, this is really a very useful way of meeting other members and exchanging information; also looking for old manuals or calibration instructions. So why not use the SAIMC web, it belongs to you.
The following list of contact numbers will allow you to reach me at the SAIMC office or at home:
SAIMC Office:
Tel (011) 487 3000, Fax (011) 487 3002, e-mail [email protected]
Home:
Tel (011) 609 1944, Cell 083 308 4207, e-mail: [email protected]
Our secretary Rhoda says 'Hello, everybody' from under the heap of paper she calls her desk.
So from Rhoda and your friendly Executive Officer,
Our very best regards
Mike Marshall
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