Dear Members,
With many thanks to all those who have supported our events in any way during the past year. So many of you we know, work really hard behind the scenes preparing our educational and training activities, writing articles for our magazine and social media postings, encouraging new members, raising new sponsorships and generally helping to grow the institution. We are a unique and very personal organisation that aims to support industry and corrosion professionals towards achieving the best they can in corrosion prevention and corrosion career development.
Our institute has seen many changes this year, with accelerated training provision, new courses being offered and developed, and most importantly, a progressive return to our in-person activities. We shall be careful, however, to retain some hybrid and online event options to continue to engage with our increasing overseas and student membership. The final weekly Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection UK Government update was published on March 24, 2023, almost 3 years exactly after the pandemic was officially announced. It is fair to say that since then, our ‘Face to Face’ calendar has been pretty much in full swing, with many branch-led events and also our key CED/YICorr and CSD Conferences / YEP launches in London and Bristol, respectively, along with our most recent AGM and Science Council events in Birmingham. October 30, 2023, was a very significant milestone in the ICorr calendar with our three-yearly HQ audit for ISO 9001 recertification, for which we are indebted to HQ Staff, Chris Williams our QMS Lead, Bill Hedges who instigated our new Document SharePoint and for Auditing Guidance to Kevin Harold, our CORREX (ICATS Training Arm) Managing Director.
Most recently Brenda Peters and Paul Lambert greatly assisted us with our Science Council Audit. Earlier in the year we welcomed into our fold, of course, Dr. Shagufta Khan as our new Corrosion Management Editor and George Winning our new Treasurer and wish them continued success in their respective roles. This year, we are sadly saying goodbye from the ICorr Council to David Harvey, our Engineering Council Lead/CEng Direct Champion for so many years, and Anthony Collins, our Honorary Treasurer for nearly 30 years. It is rare to see such long and generous service in the voluntary sector, and we wish them both well as they enjoy a well-earned rest with their families.
You will see Dr. Yunnan Gao, our Vice President working increasingly with me over the coming 12 months in support of Events and for taking forward our development plans for the Institute. Also of course, Anthony Setiadi, who will be our new Engineering Council Lead going forward. We do hope you all have a well-earned rest when it comes and ready for the busy new ICorr year ahead. Wishing you all every success in all you do in 2024. Stephen and Yunnan.
