Introduction by the Chair
Introduction by the Chair – Sarath Wijayapala, BSc(Eng) Hons, MSc(EoE), MBA(Tech Mgmt.), CEng, HLF IESL, FIEAust, CPEng
I welcome you to the first Newsletter under the new Chapter management committee. The newly elected Committee held its first committee meeting on 3rd Nov 2017 and discussed the activities planned for the year. I have noted below some of the key activities and the progress to date on them:
Public Lecture Series- Although we were planning to conduct the first lecture on 23 Nov 17 due to unavoidable reasons we were unable to proceed with our plan. With the the festive season soon to descend upon us, the next Presentation will be in February 2018. We will circulate more details through our email circulation and website.
We had some technical problems in our Website and had to shut it down for nearly a month. We have managed to solve the issues and a new look website will be developed with some enhancements. I apologies for this inconvenience.
Annual Engineering Conference and Gala Nite have been scheduled for the 8th and 9th June 2018 respectively, which dates I would request you to please note in your diaries. The Engineering Conference will be held as usual at Engineers Australia Auditorium in Chatswood on Friday 8 June and the Gala Night will be held again at the Hornsby RSL Club on Saturday the 9th June.
We have received positive feedback from the attendees about the venue from the past year. Considering all facilities available in the venue, we made the decision to continue the event in the same place going by the experiences of the past attendees.
Matters requiring collaboration between IESL HQ and IESL Overseas Chapters
We are planning to work towards achieving the following goals as identified by the past committee. They are:
- Establishing a Standard Operating Process for Overseas Chapters under the umbrella of the parent body, Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka. Some preliminary discussions have been held by the Past Chair in consultation with other Overseas Chapters in WA and Qld
- Formalising mutual recognition of Chartered Engineers by Engineers Australia and IESL
- Formalising a process for knowledge sharing between engineers in Sri Lanka and Overseas Chapters – There had been significant contributions made so far. We would like to have a streamlined process for the program to flourish and to make the objectives clear to participating engineers.
- New initiative: We would like to have increased participation by Overseas Chapters in the upcoming Techno Exhibition to be held in Sri Lanka in Oct 2018. We will explore the possibility of facilitating participation by Australian Industry and Academia in this Exhibition for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders.
- New Intitiative: Explore the feasibility of an engineering student volunteer exchange program between Sri Lanka and Australia
I have written to the IESL President on these matters who will table them at the next IESL Council meeting. Early in the New Year, we will follow through with those proposals and will keep the membership informed.
The second Committee Meeting was held on 8 Dec 2017 – The Committee discussed and updated an action plan for the activities to be carried out.
Conduct a Survey to compile the skills of the engineering community. We are planning to conduct a survey of the readership to better understand the skills you possess so that they could be better utilised both here in Australia and in Sri Lanka. We will also seek your preferences as to how you would like to share that knowledge. More information will be shared via our Website early in the new year.
New “Letters to the Editor” opportunity for future Newsletters – From the next Newsletter you will have the opportunity to express your thoughts/suggestions through this column. Please send them to the Secretary via email to chapter_secretary@ieslnsw.org by 31 Jan 2018 for consideration by the Editor for publication in the next newsletter.
