Perth Branch AGM

 

16 November 2011 Maritime Museum, Fremantle, Australia

 

Report

 

Report

The Perth Branch celebrated closure on another fantastic and busy year with our 8th AGM, held on the 16th of November at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle and attended by around 60 members.

The evening commenced with the inaugural AGM for OSIG Perth, with the OSIG Committee electing Sara Elkatib and Tim Pugh as Secretary and Chair, respectively, and formally adopting the OSIG Perth Operating Structure and Rules. Special thanks are given to Sharon Mackay, Tim Pugh and Andy Lane for their efforts in drafting the rules and to Andy for chairing the OSIG AGM. The OSIG Committee has already been hard at work planning their inaugural event as part of the Subsea Australasia Conference to be held in parallel with the Australasian Oil & Gas (AOG) Exhibition and Conference in February next year.

Everyone then had the opportunity to network, socialise and explore the museum until the SUT AGM commenced. Some folks found they could not resist the chance to have a play on the toy robot arms, Tronic connector and Ball-Grab connector, which form an interactive hands-on part of the Immerse experience. Others took the chance to explore the main Immerse exhibit, with its observation-class ROV testing the piloting skills of us ‘armchair’ underwater engineers! The Immerse exhibit has been one of the highlights of the year, with many school groups and members of the public passing through the exhibit – over 19,000 in the first 10 weeks since its opening in September.

All too quickly the fun was over and it was down to the formal business of the evening. I was fortunate to again present the Chairman’s Report, recognising that this year the SUT Perth Branch has accomplished a number of milestones thanks to our members, committee and sponsors, including hosting inaugural events for:

• A golf day;
• Subsea Controls Downunder Conference;
• The opening of the Immerse subsea technology exhibit; and
• The launch of OSIG Perth.

We are and remain totally dependent on the voluntary contributions of committee members and presenters who make our courses and events possible, with the AGM providing the opportunity to thank all who have donated generously of their time. This year saw the retirement of a number of our branch committee. We are grateful to each of them for their efforts but could not fail to make special mention of Jim Leven, who has diligently served on the committee continuously since the inaugural AGM in 2004 – his sound advice and guidance will be missed!

The Perth Branch was again very pleased to be awarding six scholarships at the AGM to students in their final years of study on relevant degree or higher tertiary courses. The number of applicants again grew significantly from last year. It seems that word might be spreading that not only is there a $5000 AUD award, but also the chance to attend SUT professional training courses and to build contacts with prospective future employers.

Ray Farrier presented the Honorary Treasurer’s report, showing that the budget for 2010–2011 was within 2% of being balanced – a great accomplishment given our remit as a ‘not for profit’ organisation. Dr Julie Morgan presented the Honorary Secretary’s report, including announcing the election results for the 2012 committee and the scholarship recipients. Julie also expressed the thanks of the SUT Perth Branch Committee and members to our administrative staff: Joyce Bremner as our Events Manager, Lisa Gagiero as our Branch Administrator and Corelle Charles as our Events Assistant.

Julie and Ray also presented gifts of recognition to Harry Mackay and myself (Terry Griffiths) for our efforts on the Immerse project. While the gifts were very gratefully received, both Harry and myself were at pains to mention as many of the corporate members as possible whose financial sponsorship and equipment loans made the exhibit feasible, including Woodside, GE Oil & Gas, SUT Perth Branch and Council, and many more. We also tried to mention many of the very large number of people from both SUT and the Western Australian Museum whose efforts over the last two and a half years turned an idea into reality.

The formal proceedings of the evening over, our guest speaker was then introduced: Mike Deeks, WA Site Executive at Raytheon Australia’s Henderson site and former Commander of the Australian Submarine Fleet. With so many subsea engineers in the audience, Mike’s talk on the history, successes and challenges within successive fleets of Australian submarines was both highly interesting and enjoyable – particularly his descriptions of the daring exploits of HMAS AE2 as it managed to sneak through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara with the poetically succinct orders to “run amok” during the landing of ANZAC troops at Gallipoli.