In April this year WA President James Westcott and General Manager WA Susan Kreemer Pickford travelled to Albany and Bunbury for meetings with the Great Southern and South West committees and members.
In Albany, the Great Southern group hosted a member briefing and then an evening presentation at the Albany Entertainment Centre. Over 100 people came along to hear about the Albany Wave Energy Project from representatives of UWA and Carnegie Clean Energy.
The committee in Bunbury provided important feedback for improving engagement for members based in regional areas. This was discussed further at the face-to-face meeting of regional group chairs in late May and a number of actions identified are being progressed. The meeting was timed so that the group chairs could attend the WA Leaders Conference hosted by the College of Leadership and Management. As well as gaining CPD, the chairs had the opportunity to meet with more of the Division Committee and other office bearers and members.
Earlier in May, Past President Jason Flowerdew and Susan attended a member briefing in Mandurah hosted by the Peel group. The meeting was preceded by the first of our EngConnect events in WA. EngConnect events provide a forum for discussion on the broader aspects of engineering careers. The launch event comprised a facilitated workshop to develop strategies for career breaks. We have since held two panel discussions in Perth with engineers sharing how they manage their careers around family, travel, volunteering and other interests. We are interested to hear of other topics for this series.
Just two weeks ago, Susan and WA President Elect Paul Young were accompanied by Executive General Manager Jeff Hughes (who is based in Melbourne) to a site visit to Southern Ports in Bunbury. With talks by Frank Mustica and Kevan Wheeler, the tour was booked out with over 30 people attending, most of whom then joined the member meet up at the Bayview Bar. The following day, Susan, Paul and Jeff joined members for a boat tour of the Mandurah Estuary and heard from Boris Vujovic from BG&E and Simon Hudson from the City of Mandurah about the new Mandurah Bridge (one of the 2018 WA Australian Engineering Excellence Award winners) and other foreshore developments. Members then had a further chance to talk over lunch.
Planning for further regional engagement is being developed with the regional group chairs by Engineers Australia’s Member Engagement Manager Michael Bell who joined EA this month. If you are interested in participating in a regional group committee, please contact us.