SAIMC: Witbank Branch
April 2002
SAIMC
First of all, congratulations to our mother branch which was awarded the branch of the year award. Well done to Piet and his committee, we will certainly look and learn! It sounds unbelievable but a quarter of 2002 has flown by! Luckily, the Witbank Branch was wide-awake and made full use of the first three months. It is with pride that we report back on the following events we hosted.
Our first branch meeting was held on 13 February and was sponsored by Endress + Hauser, which opened its new office in Witbank recently. The topic under discussion was 'Noncontact level measurement' and we thank E+H for a very interesting talk on the principles of radar and ultrasonic level measurement. Our second meeting took place on 7 March and was sponsored by Sarel Enclosures. Those who thought that choosing the right enclosure was a question of choosing an appropriate IP rating discovered that there was more to know. We were thoroughly educated on making the right decisions when choosing the required enclosures. Our thanks to Sarel Enclosures for a most enjoyable evening.
Well, it did not stop there, as you all know the Electrex exhibition was again held at Gallagher Estate from 13 to 15 March. The Witbank Branch made use of this opportunity to arrange a most interesting outing to Midrand. A bus was hired and we arranged ourselves a very interesting stopover at the SA Mint. The guys were impressed by the technology used in the SA Mint, we even had to 'duck and dive' a few robots that were going about their routine business. Unfortunately no instant millionaire dreams were realised. From the Mint we left for the exhibition, which was also thoroughly utilised for information gathering and networking. From feedback received, such an industry day is well worth the effort and the committee will ensure that the next one is not far off.
The Witbank Branch also has very exciting plans for the rest of the year. We will be represented at the next Penmac exhibition in Witbank, we would like to thank Malcolm Findlay for including us in the arrangement of this event. For those interested, please remember that we have branch meetings every first Thursday of the month! Committee meetings are held every last Tuesday of the month and you are welcome to contact the committee members for inputs/feedback. Look out for the announcement of our first SAIMC golf day in Witbank, feedback will be given at branch meetings and the local press.
We look forward to the involvement of all our colleagues from the various industries in and around the Witbank/Middelburg region. We can soon challenge our mother branch (Secunda) for the top spot!
Pieter de Beer, Secretary/PRO, SAIMC Witbank
082 6500 783
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