The President Writes...

Before you ask, yes. that is an old picture of me, but it is not an attempt on my part to claim youth is on my side. It was taken about 25 years ago, roughly the same time I joined ICorr. That means that only my beard and my marriage are older than my membership. Scary thought, really. Even more impressive is the realisation that there are a considerable number of current members who had already been associated with the organisation we now know as the Institute of Corrosion for 25 years when the photo was taken.

Golden anniversaries have some quite unique characteristics. Unlike centenaries, there are liable to be a fair number of the original protagonists to confirm (or disagree vehemently about) the details of the early years and subsequent developments. It is a special, one-off opportunity to recognise the past with those who made it happen while looking forward to the future with the current, and hopefully growing, membership.

Over the past half century we have jointly committed something in excess of 50,000 man/person/whatever-you-are-comfortable-with years to the Institute. That’s roughly equivalent to one Channel Tunnel (don’t ask for the working out, just trust me on this one). A completely irrelevant comparison, of course, but it does put some sort of scale on the combined contribution the membership has invested in the Institute’s success. And like all investments (at least until recently) it is important to maintain a high level of interest. In our case, this is delivered by the various Branches and Divisions with technical meetings and social events plus contributions to committees and standards that form the interface between the Institute and its membership. All this activity then generates the news and technical articles that form the bulk of Corrosion Management or appear on the website.

By the way, if you haven’t visited the website recently (still at www.icorr.org), now is a good time as it has had a bit of a make-over. In addition to news and articles you’ll find a discussion forum and all manner of downloads such as the application forms for Chartered Scientist.

One of the enduring factors of our craft has been its multi-disciplinary nature. We are practitioners of every hue, linked by a common interest in a complex product of material, environment, design, maintenance (or lack of it) and perception. You even get instances where folk get upset because of too little or the wrong type of corrosion (I’m thinking patination, you might be thinking battery technology, we’d both have a point).

So, hurrah for us and a big ‘thank you’ to all the head office staff, Branch officers and committee members who make it all happen. And on this very special occasion, an extra special ‘thanks’ to those who started things rolling 50 years ago. We all owe them a great debt of gratitude, which we will pay back by setting a straight and true track for the Institute’s next half century.

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