Already we are one month down in 2017 and things are busy at IIMS head quarters! The first few weeks have seen so much activity. Camella Robertson has joined to replace the soon to retire Jan Cox as Membership Secretary. Cam to her friends is settling in well at what is a busy time of the year for membership.
Already we have delivered two great, well attended training events. I relish the opportunity to get out and meet members, but equally non-members to talk about the work we are doing at IIMS and in particular the resources that are available to surveyors of all persuasions. Ultimately it is about helping great surveyors to become even greater by sharing all this mine of knowledge and expertise.
The LYSCWG two day event in Athens in early January provided a mix of first class classroom education, followed by some practical tonnage measurement training outside in an unusually freezing Athens marina. Feedback was most positive.
On 3/4 February, the IIMS Conference in Baltimore organised by James ‘Randy’ Renn, who I pass my personal thanks on to, was well attended curiously though not by many IIMS members, but by those from NAMS and SAMS. This gave me an opportunity to showcase the work of the IIMS to a new audience and there are several new membership applications heading our way. The content of both days was both technical and absorbing, featuring a sprinkling of very new technology which inspired.
Both training events drew an online audience who joined via the zoom video conferencing link. I urge those who cannot attend these events in person to keep an eye open for future online opportunities. Being at an event in an online capacity can never be as satisfying as being there face to face and the networking opportunities are less, but nevertheless it is proving a popular option. Watch out for the regular online seminars, the first of which ran last month delivered successfully by Karen Brain.
Continuing on the theme of new technology, I am delighted with the roll out of the innovative new CPD App. Handling the CPD needs and requests of nearly 1,000 members manually was proving to be more than a challenge for the head office team. My thanks to IIMS member, Capt Ruchin Dayal, and his App team in India for bringing my vision to reality in such a positive way and for automating the whole process. Already since launch just a few days ago, we have received dozens of CPD applications, which have been approved and accepted. For the traditionalists, there is a web based version of course. But in addition there are free versions for both Android and IOS devices available to download from either the Google Play Store, or the App Store.
Interesting times.
Survey well and perhaps I will get to meet you at one of the many events we are arranging in 2017?
Mike Schwarz
Chief Executive Officer
