Malaysia Branch holds inaugural Academic Liaison Officer Workshop

ALOs from across Malaysia joined the event to share best practice on supporting Student Chapters.

The IMechE Malaysia Branch successfully brought together 14 Academic Liaison Officers (ALO’s) from Student Chapters of 17 institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. This was held at the e.City Hotel at One City, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia on Saturday 27 February 2016 from 12pm -6pm.

The need for this workshop was identified due to the large number of Student Chapters in Malaysia, and thus the need to ensure consistent understanding for smooth operation of student chapters across the country.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

• Disseminate information relevant to ALO's for effective running of and advising Student Chapter Committees
• Provide guidance for managing Student Chapters
• Enable consistent practice among all Student Chapters 
• Discuss any other issues in the running of Student Chapters
• Network with Branch Committee  and Young Member Section (YMS) Committee Members and other ALO's.

The session started with lunch. This was followed with a welcome address by Malaysia Branch Chairman, Ir. Mathew Thomas, who went on to talk about roles and responsibilities of ALOs and guidance for running of Student Chapters. The Hon. Treasurer, Dr. Albert Tshai then talked about claims procedure by Student Chapters and on Best Student, Best Project Awards, Best Student and Best Project Certificates. YMS Chairman Chen Khin Fai talked on Annual Best Student Chapter Award, Communication between ALO and Student Chapter Committees and Certificates to Student Chapter Committees. Ir. Michael Kwan, Committee Member of the Malaysia Branch, briefed the audience about IMechE branding and publicity. The session ended with some sharing of ALO experiences with issues and concerns raised and discussed.

This was followed by a networking dinner with committee members present and the YMS Chair. The day ended at 9.30pm.

ALOs from 17 Student Chapters take note of best practice during the ALO workshop

The feedback from the ALOs on the day was very positive. As Dr Zaini Ahmad, ALO for the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) stated: "The workshop has provided useful and pertinent information to new ALOs, especially for those who are about to launch a Student Chapter. By attending this workshop, valuable experiences of ALOs in driving their existing Student Chapter were shared and ALOs have been given opportunities to ask any relevant questions".

Similarly, Dr Noor Shieela, ALO for Heriot Watt University Malaysia commented: "First of all, thanks for organising the event. It is really helpful to me as we just started our student chapter early of this year and I am much clearer about my role and responsibilities as ALO. It gave me much confidence towards it and most importantly I was able to exchange ideas and thoughts with other ALOs on a better outlook to function and sustain a student chapter. I am looking forward to similar events in future".

The Malaysia Branch gave a special thanks to IMechE HQ and to the South East Asia Region Chair, Ir. PE Chong for providing the support in terms of the funding to make this workshop possible.

Visit the Malaysia NearYou Pages to find out more about the activities of the Student Chapters in Malaysia and other Malaysia Branch events.