THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE FOR 2004

May I first of all wish all members, both Individual and Sustaining Company Member Representatives belated best wishes for a successful 2004. It is entirely my fault that the magazine is running late since the publishers were insistent that I got a “Presidential New Year” message in the first issue of 2004.

It is now thirteen months since I set out my New Year message in the January/February issue of 2003 and with an increasing problem of memory retention I have re-read the article I put in that issue of Corrosion Management to see what has happened over the past year.

The theme of the message last year was consolidation, belt tightening and control of the finances, since we were facing a difficult financial time in the first 6 months of 2003. As you are aware from my second article in the 2003 May/June issue, the belt tightening was more severe than anticipated and it resulted in the Trustees having to cut all the permanent staff and to introduce a team of contracted out administrators under the leadership of Eddie Field, our then Executive Secretary. I am pleased to say that this move not only saved the Institute a significant amount of money on the overheads, over £10,000, it also resulted in a reasonably reactive membership service and administration rather than proactive, as it had been in the past. This arrangement was put in place to the 31^st December and was successful in getting us through the difficult months of 2003.

Eddie Field has now stepped down as Executive Secretary but the same administration personnel and service will be provided through the Institute’s new commercial trading company, Correx Ltd, which was approved by Council and the AGM last October and is now in hand and will be holding it’s first Board Meeting shortly. The use of contracted out administration has meant that the space at Corrosion House has been more carefully re-allocated and this has enabled us to sub-let some more of the space at Corrosion House, thus bringing in increased revenue to assist the reduction in overheads and this will take effect from the 27^th February. The increase in rental income will assist us in controlling the costs during the difficult time between March and June when the subscription renewals are due out yet again.

I also talked in the New Year message last year about the importance of “preaching the corrosion gospel” outside those who already know, and in particular to tackle the bigger Institutions and Associations dealing with engineering projects. I am pleased to say that the Steel Construction Yearbook 2004, which contains over 450 pages of technical and advisory information to fabricators, steel suppliers and those generally involved in steel fabrication and supply, has a 2000 word (2 page) article entitled “Helping Engineers to Prevent Corrosion”. In this article I was able to set out in detail the main aims of the Institute of Corrosion and to talk about the benefits of membership to the steel industry. I was able to refer to two major Sustaining Member companies, the Environment Agency - Thames Barrier and the Forth Estuary Transport Authority who had seen the benefit of joining the Institute and using members of the Institute to assist them in their corrosion control projects. I was delighted that Dr Graham Owens, the Director of SCI, who was the Institute’s personal guest at the 2003 Conference and Exhibition at Harrogate in October, has supported the Institute of Corrosion in this way.

The announcement that the railway network refurbishment will be costing billions of pounds of investment over the next few years has prompted me to write a second article which will be included in the March issue of Railway Strategies, a journal which is sent specifically to senior rail management, responsible for this refurbishment programme. This ICorr article, again of 2000 words, has given us the opportunity of extolling the virtues of Institute membership and also information on the services of Sustaining Company members and Individual members. I was able to illustrate this article with a number of impressive structures, including the Forth Rail Bridge refurbishment, the Gateshead/Newcastle High level bridge and the first of a series of over 90 bridges in Central London, which are currently being refurbished at Vauxhall.

The refurbishment of all these four structures, including advice, ultra high pressure water jetting, painting application and the supply of coatings is all going to Sustaining Members of ICorr and they were picked from the Corrosion Management source guide for these projects.

In addition I’m delighted, as I go to press, to find out that the major consulting engineers, W S Atkins Consultants Plc and their associate, Atkins Rail, are joining the Institute from March 2004 onwards as Sustaining Company members. The Atkins Group will be covered in more detail but they have over 15,000 engineers at numerous Branch Offices throughout the UK and overseas and will be using the services of members of the Institute on a wide range of diverse projects.

There have been a number of activities by various ICorr committees going on behind the scenes to achieve the aims of the Institute and to bring in funds to support a number of projects. At the time of writing, a significant application has gone in for European funding for a specific coating project and we are still in discussions with the Inland Revenue regarding the benefits of Gift Aid funding. I will be writing in the next issue to inform members of the outcome of these discussions and hopefully I will be able to be the bearer of some good news – for once.

There have been a number of changes in the various committees both at Branch and Divisional level and most of these changes have been reported in previous issues of Corrosion Management. These changes include the appointment of a new Chairman of the Aberdeen, Scottish and Yorkshire Branches, where Mike Purcell has taken over the Aberdeen Branch, George Wheatman has taken over the Scottish Branch, Bob Akid has taken over the Yorkshire Branch, Chris Atkins has taken over the North West Branch and Damien Larroumet has taken over the Young Persons Branch. I would like to thank and wish all these individuals success and support during the coming year and thank their predecessors for the help and support that they have given in the past.

In addition to standing down as Yorkshire Branch Chairman and handing over to Bob Akid, Roger Hudson has also finished his term of office as Chairman of the Governing Board, his place as Chairman of that committee has been taken by Lucia Fullalove of the Highways Agency and I am particularly delighted that Lucia has got the support of her Government Department in undertaking this period of office, particularly with the plans that Roger has put in place over the past 2 years which will be coming to fruition during the next 2 years and which the Highways Agency will play an important role.

It was clear that although the UK Corrosion 2003 Conference and Exhibition was relatively successful, technically, socially and also moderately financially, it is difficult to continue to run an event of this size on an annual basis. The Trustees have therefore agreed that the UK Corrosion 2004 Conference and Exhibition will be held in conjunction with the British Institute of Non Destructive Testings (BINDT) in conjunction with their annual Conference and Exhibition, which this year will be held from the 14^th to 16^th September at the Palace Hotel in Torquay. I put forward to BINDT the main themes of UK Corrosion 2004, as being Corrosion in Water, High Temperature Corrosion, Transportation Corrosion, Cathodic Protection, Corrosion Monitoring and Coatings for the various industries and other relevant topics.

You will also recall that we have a major three day Conference in conjunction with the Surfex Exhibition, which will be held in the GMex Centre in Manchester from the 22^nd to 24^th June this year, we have a full programme of papers and I am hopeful that this will produce, at the most appropriate time for our financial cycle, a welcome cash boost before the subscription income comes in in July and August.

I hope that all of you have a successful and prosperous 2004.