The President Writes.
It has been a busy two months since I last wrote, with a Council Meeting, Trustees Meeting and Correx Board Meeting. I have also attended two workshops organised by the Science Council, one on Disciplinary Procedures and one a Pre-review meeting to prepare for our Science Council Review next year. As a Licensed Body for the award of Chartered Scientist we are audited every five years. The take up of the Chartered Scientist Qualification has been rather low, so if you think that you might qualify, why not apply, it can open up a whole new level in your career. Application forms can be down loaded here from the website .

This issue is dedicated to CP (Cathodic Protection), so it is quite appropriate that I should meet up with one of our sustaining member companies - Cathodic Protection Company Ltd albeit in most unusual circumstances. In fact I spent the night with Andrew Arnold and his colleague Ed Sparks. We were travelling to the 6th Libyan Corrosion Conference and initially met up at the check-in desk at Gatwick Airport. Their trip was destined for disaster from the word Go, as Ed had picked up the wrong folder on leaving the office and arrived at the airport with no ticket. At this point we didn't know each other. On arrival in Tripoli only six people got off the flight as the plane was continuing on to Ghana. Our passports were immediately confiscated and we were told that we would be sent back to London when the plane returned from Ghana the next morning. Apparently after we left London an old ruling had been reinstated in that all passports had to be translate into Arabic and stamped by the passport office. I genuinely believed that mine was OK as, although I don't read Arabic I could clearly see that all my passport details were in Arabic on my visa. Our flights were quickly followed by one from Paris and one from Rome, swelling our numbers. Frantic phone calls between myself and our friends at the Libyan Corrosion Society were of no avail despite all their efforts. The Italian Ambassador arrived with a translator and an official European passport stamp to translate all the EU passports, but, it was not permitted. The next to arrive was the French Ambassador, then an attache from the British Embassy who promised to have us out before nightfall. He later reduced this to 60% chance, then the Ambassador himself arrived to tell us "no chance". So we Brits set up camp round a table and pooled our resources, which amounted to one box of After Eights bought at the duty free shop at Gatwick. Luckily one of our number worked for the airline and got them to open up the 1st Class lounge, so we moved camp into a corner and settled in to some comfortable chairs. The Libyans provide us with unlimited food and drink throughout the night, and our afore mentioned friend even managed to wangle us an upgrade on the flight back. I'd like to thank Andrew and Ed for their company and good humour throughout the night, and our friends at the Libyan Corrosion Society for all their efforts to get us 'out without success. I would also like to apologise to them for missing the conference, and thank Dr David Scantlebury for standing in for me at very short notice as the official representative of ICorr.

Brenda Peters President - Institute of Corrosion