Having been persuaded to join by my long standing colleague Derek Bateman, I’ve been part of the Swindon Committee since 1998 holding positions of Council Representative, Webmaster and Vice-Chairman prior to becoming Chairman in June 2005. After all this time I had thought that maybe an introduction would be unnecessary but we are entering into the new environment of MyCommunity with the anticipation of a much wider audience and with the need to keep in contact I’ve therefore added my contribution to the introductions.
Having spent many years representing the electrical industry and BSI either as Chairman or member of a number of National and International Technical Committees it seemed natural to become part of the Swindon committee when asked by Derek to join.
When I took over the role of Chairman my primary objective was to raise the profile of the then IEE in Swindon, in particular the attendance to our events. With the help of a very active and hard working committee our events have become more informative in terms of subject and technical content and have attracted many more members and non-members alike to come along, with the result that our average attendance has risen from 15 to 45. Since retiring I’ve now also been able to spend more time working with local industry to gain further support for our activities.
We need however to move on and not rest on our laurels and it is good to see and welcome Walter, Craig and Mubbisher as new members of the committee who I know will bring a younger and fresh approach which, along with the existing members, will bring a greater balance to the committee and help us make full use of MyCommunity. This does not mean we do not need more members so please contact me or any other committee member if you would like to contribute to our ‘committee of the future’