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Back in the UK, he vividly remembers the moment his father got his chartered engineer status and the proud moment when the certificate went up on the wall. So, when Garside was able to join IMechE as an affiliate member while studying at De Montfort University in 1999, he jumped at the chance.
He has spent time at virtually every level of the Institution since then, starting with rejuvenating and chairing the Leicester Young Members Panel, and ending with stints on the Trustee Board and as an elected Member of Council. He even met his wife through IMechE.
In parallel, Garside has built a successful career in industry with roles at Alstec, Rolls-Royce, Babcock, Assystem, Nuvia, AWE and Costain, among others. In a wide-ranging conversation with Professional Engineering, Garside spoke about his goals for his year as president, and the importance of trust to IMechE and the engineering profession at large.
What are your goals for your IMechE presidency?
Everything hinges around trust and trying to celebrate the trust that engineers have within society. Ipsos do an annual survey where they ask about 1,000 people to rank different professions and, since engineering was added to the list in 2018, we’ve been in the top six of about 25 or 30 professions. Last year, we were in the top two – we’re rubbing shoulders with doctors, nurses and other people you would want to trust. But when you look internally at IMechE, maybe that level of trust between the Trustee Board and the Council is a challenge, based on some of the past decisions that have been made, but there’s not the focus on the really good decisions. My approach is very much collaborative, making sure we’re all trying to do the best with the team we’ve got. There’s also the member proposition that I’m keen to push and promote. We need to remain relevant to our members.
How can IMechE stay relevant for members?
I think part of it is making sure we’ve got something for everybody. In the past, I’ve volunteered for armed forces charities and we have a number of people who are in the armed forces, and the armed forces have been proactive in incentivising people to join us as a chartered or incorporated engineer. Their transition when they come out into civilian life can be quite a stark, difficult, lonely place to be. I want to make sure we’ve got something that will offer them some assistance. We do have the Support Network that has some elements on the advice side, but actually it’s about understanding what it is our veterans want from an institution like ours.
We also need to be engaging the young members. They’re the next generation. We have a strong Young Members Board at this point in time, and we’re working on President’s Champions, a scheme that will take young members who are not fully developed and give them some opportunities to access people like myself, people on the Trustee Board, people on the Council or in other boards and committees to develop and become better, more rounded engineers.
There’s also the long-running question of what will happen to the IMechE building at One Birdcage Walk.
I dare say you’ve talked to the last few presidents about this, and I had quite a pointed question during my president’s address about what’s going to happen with the building. I haven’t committed to making a decision because I’ve seen so many other previous presidents going through this. My statement is: we’ll make significant progress. We need to make sure we walk into the decision with eyes open and understand the risks associated with each option. I think it comes down to head versus heart. I have an attachment to the building because I’ve been using it for the last 18 years or so, but ultimately we’ve got to do what’s best for the Institution.
What other key challenges facing IMechE will you try to get to grips with over the year?
We need to try to improve our values and behaviours, and make sure we create that safe space for people to work and collaborate in. We are developing a volunteer code of conduct that we can hopefully roll out and get people to agree to and abide by.
What are you most looking forward to over the course of the next year?
Attending the Challenges is a major thing for me to see how we are engaging with the young members and potential future young members and developing engineers. There’ll also be opportunities to interface with other institutions. We’re hoping to be a lot more outward-facing and lift the lid a little bit on the inner workings of IMechE. And the international trip at the moment is looking like the Oceania region, so I’m looking forward to engaging with as many members as I can as I move through the year.
What will success look like when you hand over the reins in a year’s time?
In an ideal world, we would have made a decision on the HQ and a successful pilot of the President’s Champions initiative – we’ve got to get the business plan sorted and approved, and then do it with a small group of people to find out what works and what doesn’t work. And then making sure we remain inclusive, so looking forward to getting the updated strategy from the culture and inclusion committee on the next step.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.