Chairman's Introduction

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to write the introduction to the 2007-8 session of the IET in Surrey and our 2007-08 events programme.

We will continue during 2007/2008 to use this web site as the main source of up to date information on our events, and may I recommend that you add it to your list of favourites, and access it regularly, in order to get the best from your local Network.

In addition, I am delighted to announce that we have introduced a new service this year, the IET Surrey Information Line, on 084500 43356, which has our latest event information in a recorded form.

A very significant innovation this year is the Institution’s ‘Career Manager’. This is an exclusive free service for members, which allows them to record their qualifications and professional experience, to facilitate applying for professional recognition as an EngTech, IEng or CEng. This service is available online via the IET’s main website, and will be of particular interest to our younger engineers.

The IET is undergoing a process of formation and change, and the activities of the Surrey Network are also evolving along the same lines. We are trying to embrace more disciplines, and to raise the profile of both ourselves and the Institution in the local community. We intend to make greater efforts to collaborate with the other institutions in our area, by reducing overlap, and coordinating our programmes. We cordially invite all their members to our lectures, and I would like to ask each of you to pursue this if you know anyactive members of other institutions. You are, each and every one of you, our ambassadors.

We wish to attract members of wider disciplines, and part of my address, “From hard disk drives to fundamental management fallacies” is devoted to management consultancy, as a contribution to this process. I hope that through the year, we will initiate the process of attracting people from different and possibly less technical fields to our events.

Having said that, there are some excellent technical events in the programme. We are running an experiment of two themed lectures, with my lecture hopefully setting the scene for detailed lecture some six weeks later on the latest disk drive technology. There will also be one of our workshops, this time on CCTV. This links with the theme of our Guest Night debate, which this year will be on the subject of “The dilemma of privacy and surveillance”. We hope to have a distinguished panel to discuss this most important and relevant topic and will try to make this an even bigger event than last year, so put the date of 14th May 2008 in your diaries now, and tell other people who you think may be interested.

We also plan another exciting children’s Christmas Lecture, which will be given by Electronic Arts, and there are also some interesting technical visits arranged.

Your committee tries to make these events as successful as possible, and I would like to pay tribute to them, and thank them on your behalf. It is interesting work, which can be very enjoyable and rewarding (not in the financial sense) and also offers good professional experience. May I urge anyone reading this who would like to participate to contact either Colin Cunningham or myself. I believe you would find it interesting, and would make a lot of friends.

I look forward to meeting you at one of our events, and wish you a very enjoyable season with the IET Surrey Network. Finally, if you are a regular attendee, why not try to get another member to attend with you. The more the merrier.

With my best wishes for the coming season,

Malcolm Dudson
Chairman – IET Surrey

August 2007