Dear Colleague,
It is my privilege and pleasure to succeed Charles Morlham as your Regional Chairman for the next two years, all things permitting. Charles has put his heart and soul into the task for the last two years and he will be a hard act to follow. On your behalf I would like to offer our thanks for his sterling efforts.
For those – the many – who don’t know me, I retired from the Ministry of Defence in 2002 after 11 years with the DCA. Prior to that my time was spent in Industry. I like to consider myself as a young at heart senior citizen who is always open to new challenges. I married for the first time 2 years ago! I am a Science and Engineering Ambassador for Bedfordshire, having been a Neighbourhood Engineer before and have served the North Herts Area in several roles since 2000. I am also a Benfund Visitor.
I have no set agenda for my term of office, though I would like to try to improve the style and form of communications between the committees and the members, particularly the e-mail methods. I realise that the content is paramount but a pleasing image does help. This we are not achieving through the Institution’s systems.
For those of you who are receiving this letter only in printed form, may I ask you to consider giving the Institution your e-mail address if you have one. This you can do through your membership page on the Institution’s web site. If you already do – please ensure it is up-to-date. Why? One of the major costs associated in communicating with members is printing and postage and as we are strapped for cash anything that can reduce this bill is in all our interests. E-mail is much cheaper.
If there is anything you would like me to take up on the membership’s behalf, please feel free to get in touch and I will see what I can do. However a magician I am not!
The Annual Dinner for 2010 is presently scheduled for Friday 24th September in the Great Hall, Jesus College, Cambridge. We are actively seeking the attendance of the incoming President and an interesting speaker.
Please contact Bill Tripp 01223 353533 if you would like to attend. We have had a very good evening these past few years. Details will be shown, in due course, under events.
Yours sincerely
Andrew K W Powell OBE PhD FIMechE CEng CITP
