As I move into my second year of Presidency and plan the way forward for the Institute during 2004 and beyond, I hope to be able to report back to members in the January/February issue, the changes that have been implemented by the Trustees, following the last Trustees meeting in December. Some of these changes were outlined in my Presidential report in the September/October 2003 issue of Corrosion Management and others were put to the membership at the AGM at Harrogate.
Firstly, I am delighted to report that the Harrogate
Conference, UK Corrosion 2003, was without doubt a technical, social and
probably a financial success (we should know shortly). However, we did not make vast sums of money
from the conference and the exhibition, but at least this year, we covered our
costs and did not make a loss on the event, but over 35 delegates have now
asked for membership forms of the Institute following the three-day event.
There were 37 papers given at the conference during
the three days and all of them were of a high technical standard and together,
more than adequately covered the Conference theme The Protection of
Structures with Coatings, for both Steel and Concrete. In addition to
the high standard of papers and speakers, all of the Chairmen handled the
various sessions and the sometimes, lively discussions with considerable tact
and their contribution helped the success of the event.
I was delighted that so many companies and
organisations sponsored the event and although the exhibition was small by 1981
standards when the first Conference and exhibition was held, also at the Cairn
Hotel, the quality of displays and technical information provided by the
exhibitors was of a very high standard.
Over 100 people attended the annual Institute
Conference Dinner at Harrogate and I was pleased to be able to make a number of
awards at the dinner, for recognition of various outstanding contributions by
individuals and team efforts. It was nice to recognise two of the young authors
in their early 20’s, Fabio Sennini and Frederick Wacogne, who had put so much
into their Young Authors Award competition, organised by the North West Branch.
They were both able to receive their “cash prizes” as guests of the Institute
at the Dinner.
In contrast, to the young generation, I felt it was
appropriate to recognise individuals who had put a lifetime of effort into the
Institute’s activities and I was therefore delighted that I was able to present
President’s plaques to two Past Presidents, who were both 50 years older than
the young authors and had put almost a lifetime into the Institute’s success
and development. These two were, Derek
Bayliss and Fred Palmer.
Derek was President at the time the very first UK
Corrosion event which was held at the Cairn Hotel, Harrogate in 1981 and as
Past President from that time, over the past 20 years, Derek has remained as
the UK’s nominated expert in surface preparation, representing the Institute
and helping to control and shape ISO standards and in some instances putting in
a little common sense. On the first day of the conference Derek was able to
give an interesting paper and to take delegates through a number of these more
interesting experiences in this surface preparation work.
The second President’s plaque was presented to Fred
Palmer and although he wasn’t President until 95/96, it was more for the work
that he had put into the Institute since joining me on the original technical
committee in 1977, shortly after he had joined British Petroleum as their
coatings “expert”. Following the
formation of the initial Joint Venture (CCEJV) and then the Corrosion
Engineering Association (CEA), Fred was actively involved in building up those
two very successful ICorr/NACE activities. He was Chairman of the Conference
Organising Committee and the reformed London Branch, which both also became
such successful ventures under his early guidance.
I was also pleased to be able to recognise Bob
McGibbon and present him with the Ken Griffiths Memorial Award for the sterling
work he has carried out for the Institute, as, in his own words, “just a foot
soldier and not an officer”. Bob did a
tremendous amount of work behind the scenes in helping to get speakers and in
particular, the golf tournament organised at Panal Golf Club, which drew in a
very select number of golfers from all over the country. He has also been
active in his quiet contribution to the Yorkshire Branch.
The golf trophy was also presented at the dinner. Now
sponsored by Ameron Coatings, it re-introduced the silver tray originally
presented by Bill Meakin and John Bourne of Mebon Paints in 1984. This silver
tray now has a new engraved plaque recognising the Ameron name and I hope that
this will become an annual event. The
winning Captain of the successful team was Professor Bob Akid and his team
comprised, Howard Chambers, Stewart McDonald and Brendan Fitzsimons.
It was a great privilege to present an Honorary Life
Fellowship Certificate at the dinner to immediate Past President, John O’Shea,
who has put so much effort into developing the Institute over his two year
period of office and particularly since he has given me so much support during
my first year as President.
I said in my New Year message, in the January/Febuary
issue of Corrosion Management, that the theme of my Presidency would be
Coatings for the Protection of Structures and this in turn was the theme of our
annual Conference. I make no apologies for this narrow-minded approach since it
reflects my lifetime’s work since starting in research in the paint industry in
1957. I believe that there is a large
untapped membership in the coatings industry and the introduction of the
certification programme, contracted out, so successfully, to Argyll and Ruane,
who have now issued over 1200 certificates, is a reflection of this
interest.
It was disappointing for me to find that although one
years “free” membership was offered to coating inspectors, when receiving their
Certificate that a very few have taken this membership on a long term basis
when the subscription renewals went out at the end of their first year. Their reasons for not continuing membership
was that very little was carried out by the Institute in terms of coatings for
steelwork. I hope that this omission
has now been partially corrected with the launch of the Protective
Coatings Update – supplement.
You will see enclosed within this copy, the first
issue of PCU, which covers brush and roller application and the
effect of weather on coating application.
This supplement is the first of a series to be produced over the coming
months. The next issue will be included with the February/March and the third
in the May/June issues of Corrosion Management, both of which will be
associated with our next major event, the Surfex 2004 Exhibition and
Conference.
Surfex 2004 has grown to be the biggest UK event in
the coatings industry and we are pleased to be able to run a three-day
conference at the GMex Centre, Manchester, between 22nd-24th June,
courtesy of OCCA/Surfex. The event will comprise six half-day seminars and this
will be hosted by the I Corr, North West Branch, whose new Chairman, Chris
Atkins of Mott McDonald, is organising Session 4 of that event on the
Protection of New and Existing Re-inforced Concrete Structures.
Surfex is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oil and
Colour Chemists Association (OCCA) and they set this up to handle commercial
activities and fund raising events for their registered charity. I hope that we can parallel their success
with the formation of Correx Ltd, which was approved unanimously by our AGM,
which was also held at Harrogate during the UK Corrosion 2003 event.
For those of you, who I can hear now saying, “Why does
Deacon keep going on about paint, paint, paint”, I would say that UK Corrosion
2004 will be almost a non-paint event.
The call for papers, which were circulated at Harrogate, for UK
Corrosion 2004, listed the themes of the event as Corrosion in Water, High
Temperature Corrosion, Transportation Corrosion, Cathodic Protection, Corrosion
Monitoring, Coatings for the Various Industries and other relative topics.
Corrosion House would be delighted to hear from anyone
who is interested in providing a paper for UK Corrosion 2004, which will be
held in the London area in early November 2004.
Correx Ltd, which will be formed early in 2004, will
be the vehicle by which a much larger commercial exhibition will be organised
in conjunction with 2004 and hopefully, all those people who are concerned,
that coatings have dominated my period of Presidency, will support the 2004
event by taking an exhibition stand and sponsoring the above themes, which will
comprise the conference sessions.
One of the areas of concern I have been confronted
with, relates to financial questions and queries by the various Branch
Treasurers and Committees during my visits to each one of the areas. I was able to get all the Branch Treasurers
together in London on 12th November 2003, to discuss the problems of
financial control and the way in which the Branches can contribute so
forcefully to the financial success of ICorr.
I was very grateful that so many people took the time
to come down and represent the Branches and I felt, and I hope that they did,
this get together was a worthwhile day.
Our new Treasurer, Tony Collins and our part-time financial advisor,
Brian Weston, also attended the event and detailed discussions were held and
problems raised were addressed, so that the Branch financial activities will be
more successful during the current winter season.
Finally, I would like to wish all Members, both
Individual and Sustaining Company Members, all the very best for the
Christmas/New Year break and success in 2004.
David H. Deacon
President
December 2003