President’s New Year Message

I am delighted and honoured to have been asked by Council to take on the role of President for the period 2003/4 and hope that I can serve you, the membership, as well as you have been served over the past two years by the Immediate Past President, John O’Shea.

I have now been a member of the Institute of Corrosion for 35 years (or the Institution of Corrosion Science and Technology) as it was in the days of my joining and I have therefore served, with 18 different Presidents in that period of time. All of the Presidents have been impressive during their period of office in their own particular style and all have contributed to the development of the Institute in many different ways.

It was agreed at the merger of the British Association of Corrosion Engineers (BACE) and the Corrosion and Protection Association (CAPA) when the Instituie was first formed, that the Presidential office would be initially a "figurehead" role. with the Chairman of Council acting as the Chief Executive Officer. This changed in 1988 when the two positions were combined The presidential pattern has also been agreed from the start, that an academic would alternate with a commercially orientated corrosion engineer, reflecting the combination of the two formative associations, BACE and GAPA. This has been followed until my current appointment, when an academic should be taking on this role.

The purpose behind this alternating pattern, Is that it was thought that Ihe commercially orientated corrosion engineer would make changes and active developments and would then be followed by an academic who would consolidate the changes and provide a period of relative tranquillity. Well I am not an academic and after the hectic activity, investment and changes that John O'Shea has put in place over his two-year period of office, the Institute really needs a period of relative consolidation.

TTpe considerable changes, which John has put in place over the past two years, include the purchase of our own offices. Corrosion House in Leighton Buzzard, a significant financial investment and one that a number of Past Presidents have attempted to achieve without success.

Again, with this magazine, John has made it his mission to improve the magazine for the benefit of members and I am sure you will all agree with me as you read this latesr issue that there have been significant changes and improvements in the Corrosion Management magazine.

In addition to the building and the magazine, John has also been active in forming new Divisions. Geographically, he has been involved in all of the UK Branches and in addition he has formed a new Branch in Dublin and is in the process of reviving the original Cork Branch.

As well as the geographic Branches, he has also created the national Young Persons Branch, which again is a significant contribution to the longer-term future of our Institute. The recent membership questionnaire, sent out in the beginning of John's Presidency, showed that 90% of our membership was over 35 years of age and there was only 2%, which was under 25. The development of the Young ICorr Branch, has already significantly increased the percentage of younger members joining the Institute and I intend io carry on the good work John has started by keeping closely involved with Young ICorr, to gain from them [heir views and requirements from our Institute to attract yet more young people into the industry and membership.

There is no doubt that John O'Shea, as I said at my inauguration at the AGM, has achieved more in his period of office than probably any other President before him. As with all things in life. the expansion of the Branches, together with the improvements, changes and investments, they can only be achieved at a cost. I! is therefore going to be necessary to have a period of consolidation and "belt tightening" to allow us to re-build our financial base, especially since our last conference did not meet our projected financial targets.

My period of office will not be totally inactive, or indeed a period of total consolidation, since having been Vice President three times (a first) and Chairman of Council in 86/87, ! have a number of ideas which I hope we will have the funds to put in place during my period of Presidency or soon after I hand over the baton to my successor,

Those who know me will not be surprised that the main theme of my Presidency will highlight protective coatings activities. My backgiound summary was featured in the January/February 2002 Issue of Corrosion Management (squeezed in between photo's of John) and that fully outlined my career details, qualifications, experience and background.

Initially I qualified as a paint technologist whilst working with British Aluminium in 1963 and following periods wiih BISRA. Castrol/Burmah and the Albright Wiison Chemical Group, I started in consultancy and inspection in 1971, Since that time, I have been involved with a number of major projects worldwide.

Two of my current projects, the re-painting of the Forth Road Bridge (now over 40 years old) and the maintenance of the Thames Barrier in London (now over 25 years old) are two of the more significant ones. Interestingly, my clients on those iwo projects have both become sustaining members of our Institute and,their involvement is much appreciated.

I have already had preliminary discussions with the Oil and Colour Chemist's Association

(OCCA) regarding the possibility of working with that body on mutually beneficial joint events.

I also propose to work closely with the major Engineering Associations and Institutions to spread the corrosion control message and the associated cost savings to the country, lo the bigger engineering organisations and make their members aware of the services, products and expertise that our sustaining and individual members can provide, in our specialist area of corrosion control.

The UK Corrosion 2003 annual conference, which wili be held in Harrogate on the 23th, 29th, 30th October, wili ha'/a a major coatings theme. This event, will include an Exhibition, social events, the Institute's Annual Dinner and the Annual General Meeting, all under one rool. These three days are important dates to put in your diary particularly if you have a coatings interest.

In addition, we have had discussions with OCCA regarding a joint seminar in Manchester, 26th and 27th June 2004, which will be held alongside the SurFex Exhibition. This exhibition is held every two years and attracts over 150 paint related exhibitors.

During my period of office, I will be endeavouring to keep in close contact with !he various Committees and Branches to obtain feed back from the membership "frontline". I would welcome any suggestions and ideas for the development of the Institute from any member who would like to take the trouble to contact me via the Institute's Leighton Buzzard office.

Finally, I would like to wish all of you the very best for 2003 and hope that both you and your company have a very successful year.

David H. Deacon, President