From Birdcage Walk

The latest in our ongoing series of updates about activities at the Institution.

Dear Member,

According to Winston Churchill democracy may well be “the worst form of Government, except for all those other forms” but our own elections last week have produced an enthusiastic new leadership team in support of President McGeough.  We thought it would be good if you had a quick reminder profile of the new recruits so that you can contact them if you have issues you would like to raise.

Top of the pile is our new President-Elect, Terry Spall.  Terry has a long history of service to our Institution based around his leadership of Automobile Division and Chairmanship of both the Technical Strategy and Regional Strategy Boards whilst previously a Trustee.  A chance to meet him will be at Formula Student, Silverstone, between 17 and 21 July where he will be our Chief Judge.  He will of course be our 135^th President between May 2020 and May 2021.

Next come our four new Vice-Presidents.  They join Giles Hartill who is starting his second year of office. Matt Garside is the newest, having served on Trustee Board on two previous occasions, as well as being a member of Council and Chair of the Council Coordinating Committee. His election motto (which clearly worked) is ‘put the trust back in Trustee”.  Next come Phil Peel,  Peter Flinn and Raymond Hodgkinson who all served to fill ‘casual vacancies’ last year.  It’s great news that they are happy to stay on and deliver a full three-year term.  Their specific duties will be set at the first Trustee Board on 18 June.  As Vice-Presidents they join the ranks of the 16 other current and past Vice-Presidents who are eligible to run for President-Elect next year.  So, no pressure, we wish them well in their new roles.

Finally we have our two new (‘far from’) Ordinary Members.  Richard East comes in as a past Chair of Railway Division.  His manifesto promised ‘relevance’ and a commitment to full implementation of our reviews.  Professor David Nowell joins us from working on our Proceedings for some years, currently as editor of the Journal of Strain Analysis. David’s policy statement included a pledge to treat Birdcage Walk as ‘an asset which should be exploited for present and future members’.  Once again Richard and David will be taking on specific responsibilities which are aimed to make most use of their individual skills.  They join Helen Meese, Helena Rivers, Salma Suleyman and Heather Clarke who are variously in their second or third years of their terms.

Except, really finally, because of the way the voting went, we have a casual vacancy for our International Ordinary Member.  The Trustees will be discussing names for co-opting for one year at their first Board meeting on 18 June.  We’ll let you know how that goes.  In the meantime, please join us in thanking all of these fine engineers for volunteering for these key roles, and please do use the discussion box below if you would like to comment or make contact with them.

You can find profiles of our Trustees on the Trustee Board pages.

Colin Brown

Chief Executive

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