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President's Report - August 2008

In May the National Council met to further develop Materials Australia's Strategic Plan. This was a very productive meeting where we agreed on the key elements of the Strategic Plan and also resolved that we urgently need to take action on a number of objectives to position the Institute for the future.

The following is Materials Australia's Vision and Key Strategic Goals for the next three years. Under each of the Key Strategic Goals there are a number of Objectives which I will not present here in detail.

Materials Australia's vision

To be the peak materials technology body that provides its members with competitive advantage and access to networks into industry, research, education, government and the wider community.

Key strategic goals

To be the peak materials technology body Materials Australia will be a recognised as:
1. a best practice not-for-profit organisation able to provide quality service to its members and clients; and
2. a growing, viable and sustainable organisation.

To provide competitive advantage (value) to its members Materials Australia will:
3. support the career development of its members through membership categories that recognise their achievements; and
4. provide access to, and promotion of, information on new technologies, new thinking and knowledge.

To provide access to networks Materials Australia will be:
5. the vehicle that links local and global networks between practitioners, government and industry in the diverse fields of materials.

To be able to achieve Strategic Goal 1 and elements of Goals 3, 4 and 5 we need to modernise our administrative systems, in particular the database which is the repository of our membership information and supports the Institute's secretariat activities.

At a recent meeting of the National Executive we approved the purchase a new fully integrated data management system that will allow a strong interactive web presence. We have selected a system commonly used by many other associations with planned implementation by November 2008.

The new system's web capability will also enable MA to communicate with its members in a flexible and up to date manner. The look and operability of MA's web site will change dramatically over the next six months and I hope you will notice the improvements.

Regarding Strategic Goal 3, Bill Roberts from the WA Branch has been leading the Membership Committee in the development of a new membership category called Certified Materials Professional (CMP).

MA wishes to recognize the achievements of its members and since many of the members of MA are not qualified Engineers there is a need to create a form of recognition for scientists and industry practitioners to recognize their achievements in being a Professional working in materials-related manufacturing, research and education capacities.

Significant progress has been made in defining the criteria which will be presented at the next National Council meeting for approval. The National Council would like to receive comments from members on their views regarding the concept of a CMP. If you wish to provide input please contact Nick Koerbin who will forward your views onto National Council.

In the last issue I mentioned the Materials and Austceram Conference (MAC2009) and the Light Metals Technology conference (LMT2009) both to be held on the Gold Coast over the week 29th June to 3rd July 2009. You can find information on these conferences at www.materialsaustralia.com.au and www.lightmetals.org.

This issue of Materials Australia once again contains a diverse range of materials topics including an article where we look at some of the Australian companies that have been involved in the Beijing Olympics and the materials they used for swimsuits to stadiums, a feature article on the engineering behind the bionic eye, and the latest developments in materials for sustainable energy applications focusing mainly on advances in solar applications.

I hope you will learn something from this issue of Materials Australia magazine as well as it being an enjoyable reading experience through an appreciation of the world class work being done by Australians.

The Institute of Materials Engineering Australasia Ltd, trading as Materials Australia, is also a technical society of Engineers Australia, Suite 205 / 21 Bedford Street, NORTH MELBOURNE VICTORIA AUSTRALIA 3051
Tel 61 3 9326 7266 Fax 61 3 9326 7272
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