CEO blog

It is holiday time in the UK. Sadly mine has been and gone already! Things have got very quiet generally as IIMS members (and head office staff too) have headed away for their annual breaks. This has allowed me to devote a little time to the activities of the Marine Surveying Academy Ltd (MSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of IIMS that we launched earlier this year.

MSA’s reason for being is primarily to provide training courses for IIMS members and commercial marine based educational opportunities for third party organisations.

For some months now, IIMS has been responsible for marking and handling the examinations for The International Registered Marine Insulation Inspectors course (IRMII for short) as well as providing accreditation for those who have passed. The course is aimed at a highly niche market comprising subsea insulation inspectors and is run, organised and promoted by Wood Group Integrity Management. Around 70 people have now passed and been accredited. Although very specialist in nature, this is an interesting subject. My involvement has been minimal thus far. But that has changed recently when I oversaw the development of a simple IRMII web site. Here we are able to showcase the course and its content, but more importantly it is a place where we can provide a dedicated listing for those who have successfully qualified. This group of specialists now have their own home.

Continue reading “Getting to know my IRMII from my RMCI”

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting the President (Trevor Osborne) and President to be (John Fletcher) of The Institute of Corrosion, otherwise known as ICorr. They have splendid offices set in the University buildings overlooking an expanse of green parkland in the UK Midlands industrial town of Northampton, not known for its natural beauty it has to be said! Anyway I digress.

The reason for our meeting was to finalise the basis of our partnership as we prepare to launch and roll out the Registered Marine Coatings Inspector (RMCI) course and education programme, initially aimed at those involved with inspecting coatings for superyachts. This has been a tricky bit of work to get right. The course programme and syllabus has taken far longer than expected to develop and we are behind schedule. ICorr personnel have contributed to the development of the materials. But finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. Also with a vested interest in this project are ICOMIA, SYBAss and paint manufacturer Akzo Nobel.

Continue reading “Let’s talk corrosion”

I am Mike Schwarz, Chief Executive Officer of the International Institute of Marine Surveying and author of the CEO blog. This is my first post.

It is not my intention to blog on a daily basis  and I certainly do not intend to post too much unnecessary trivia here either. But if there is something I believe to be worth saying, I’ll say it. In essence, I hope my blog will give IIMS members and other interested parties a behind the scenes look at the side of life at the IIMS that one does not normally see or hear about.

So as we start to approach high Summer in the UK, there is a feeling of ‘it’s all new’ today in the office and no, I am not just referring to this blog.

Continue reading “There’s a feeling of ‘it’s all new’”