Surrey Network Chairman's Introduction

  It is once again my pleasure to write the introduction to a new IET Surrey Network session.

What you again? I can almost hear the remark. There is a very good reason for this, which I will explain, as it encapsulates our aims for this coming year, and more particularly, the following years. The IET Surrey Network has established an excellent reputation for its events and organisation, of which we can all be rightly proud. However, as you all know, there is no such thing as “standing still”. You either go up, or down, and we intend to go even higher up. The committee recognised, and was concerned by, the fact that it is always the same small band who are doing the work, and that they are getting no younger. The majority of the key officers are retired. There is no problem with this at the moment, but it bodes disaster for the future, so the committee is determined to engage younger officers. I am delighted to say that Maria Longo has accepted the challenge of taking the chair in 2012/13, and in preparation for this, she will be vice chair this year. She needs a year to find out how it all works, and the deployment of the other post holders was such that I was the obvious choice to help Maria to find her feet in the coming year in preparation for her period of office. It is a big step for Maria to take, and I hope that you will all give her the backing that she deserves.

Over forty members came to our recent brainstorming event, at which we examined the activities of the Surrey Network. As a result we have some interesting ideas to apply in the coming year, and have recruited two new committee members, who are considerably younger than some of us! It should be an interesting and challenging year, and I hope will be the stepping stone to a younger and vibrant committee and an even wider range of events.

Our activities last year were all very well attended. Perhaps the highlight was the guest debate, which was attended by nearly 250 people, of which over half were non-IET members. The standard of presentation was excellent, and the most prevalent feedback comment was that it was a pity that it was not televised. In the other lectures, there seemed to be a preference for technical lectures, rather than general interest. Not surprising!

What of our activities this year? As you will see, we have an excellent variety of subjects, and many thanks to Mike Prewett our events organiser for this. There are some very interesting subjects, I think especially of the one about electric cars at the start of the year. We are considering experimenting with a new format, a “Breakfast Briefing”, to be held over breakfast, with a keynote speaker on a topical subject. At the moment, we have no firm plans, but watch the web site.

As well as the lecture programme, we have four ‘Lifeskills’ courses, which are proving more and more popular with our younger engineers, and also two professional registration events. These, combined with our active Retired Members section, complete a very rounded, and I hope interesting programme, and we hope to see even higher attendances in 2011/12.

This book, as usual, gives information about the web sites, committee members, meeting dates, etc. It also details the IET “career” services such as Career Manager, Mentoring, and Membership Advice. IET Connect has widened its activities, and is now offering more services to members throughout their careers. It is truly fulfilling its aim to be a service suitable for all stages of a member’s career. Career Manager has also advanced. It is now a powerful web based tool for recording details of one’s career, and is a real aid in preparing for application for C.Eng. You will find details of all these in the book.

Finally, on behalf of you all, I would like to thank our other core office holders, secretary Colin Cunningham, treasurer Ceri Evans, and of course the outgoing chairman, Michael Austwick, who has held the post for the last two years. It is my good fortune that, along with Mike Prewett and Martin Butterworth, who run the events committee, they are all available and working hard in this coming year. They are all looking for understudies!

It promises to be a most interesting and challenging year. I hope that you all enjoy it, and please cooperate to help us fulfil our aims.

I look forward to welcoming you at our events.

Malcolm Dudson