We never thought it would happen to us! But it did, and we do not like it one bit. The well-oiled and smooth-running machine of the Jhb Committee seems to be misfiring on some cylinders with most of our committee members either out of town, on leave, wives having babies, busy negotiating huge contracts or generally just pre-occupied by the fascinating process of making money. Such is life in Gauteng.
However, because we are so good, meetings and activities are still taking place and events are still being organised by the die-hard skeleton crew. We had our AGM in January, the regular meeting in February and a special meeting in March at Gallagher Estate during the Electrex Exhibition. The April meeting was postponed to the third Wednesday of the month to accommodate our German speaker, Andreas Moller from Endress+Hauser, talking to us on TOF (Time Of Flight) measurement devices. Also during March we had our first site visit to the TSI Flow rig and our members had an interesting time.
Our first scheduled Golf Day of the year was torpedoed by our friends from Secunda by organising theirs on the day before ours was to take place, effectively forcing us to cancel ours. Last year they attempted to scuttle our Business Breakfast by pulling a similar stunt and now this. This pre-emptive strike by the Secunda Committee was obviously well planned and thought-out beforehand and we are unsure as to their motive for this one. We were looking forward to a peaceful existence this year, but obviously it is not to be, with the Secunda Branch and the newly formed Witbank Sub forming a united front to sabotage our activities.
Nevertheless, in an attempt to promote good and lasting relations between us and these boisterous new branches, we are not considering any retaliation at this time.
As usual, we would like to call on the hundreds of inactive Jhb members out there to come out from wherever it is that they are hiding, to join us in our monthly meetings at the Rivonia Country Club. If you do not receive invites with topics under discussion at this point, please send us your contact details to the address below. A call also goes out to the 'big five' instrumentation suppliers, all of whom are based within a 10 km radius of where we have our meetings: The SAIMC is looking after your interests too, why not show us some support in return?
Pop quiz: When was the SAIMC first established?
The first person to e-mail us the correct answer (to the address below) will win a bottle of Jameson Whiskey, compliments of the Jhb branch. The winning e-mail will be printed with the date and time on it and the prize will be handed over at the June meeting. See you all there.
Johan Steyn, Vice Chairman SAIMC Johannesburg
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