The AGM was held in November in Birmingham after a very successful half-day technical meeting, and my thanks go to Midland Branch for once again organising these events in such a wonderful location. Hence it has now been over 12 months since John kindly passed the chain of office over to me, and the time has flown by. I am not sure if that is because of the fun I have been having or how busy we have been!
During the year the ICORR and CORREX teams have continued to work hard on our behalf in our temporary home in Barrett House, and Trevor Osborne is continuing to search for a property which we can purchase to give us a more permanent home. However in the meantime, the lease on Barrett House has been extended until July 2018.
During 2017 we ran the first “Fundamentals of Corrosion” and “Marine CP 2” courses both of which generated a lot of interest, and we will run a number of these courses again this year. Part of our development plan for 2018 is the introduction of new courses to complement our existing portfolio and to meet the market and membership needs. There are plenty of opportunities on the horizon for further increases in corrosion-related activity both in the UK and overseas, particularly in the field of training.
The Route to Chartership Initiative has been a major piece of work this past year and we are now in the process of running the first pilot. If this appeals to any of you, please contact David Mobbs via head office.
As you will see later in the magazine, ICorr, through Correx Ltd, is hosting the CEOCOR Congress in May 2018 at the Crowne Plaza in Stratford-on-Avon. The congress programme is being prepared by CEOCOR and ICorr will host the event, and have already obtained sponsorship and arranged a supporting exhibition and an accompanying person’s programme
Individual membership of the Institute is up from last year and our Professional Members also continue to grow. Our student members have also grown, but we are seeing a decline in ‘Young Engineers’, which reflects the smaller number of graduate recruits in many of the Engineering Houses. However, during 2018 we will once again be running a Young Engineers course aimed at supporting and encouraging young graduates to flourish in the corrosion industry, and I attended the first evening session which was kindly hosted by CB&I in Paddington.
The level of volunteering within the Institute, which keeps it operating efficiently is very impressive, much of which is not publicised. However the pressure of day jobs is making volunteer work more difficult and ICorr is finding that it needs to pay for some of the tasks that need to be completed on its behalf if we are to continue to grow, as a result we have now appointed a part time Business Development Manager, David Mobbs, who started with us on 1st February.
Finally, It is with great pride that I get to visit our branches and see the strong and active organisation we are, and I hope to continue this in 2018, and thanks go to all the members who give us their time for these local events.
Sarah Vasey, ICorr President
