Queensland President's Message - January 2015 Wednesday, 14 January 2015

For my first Members’ Message as Queensland Division President, I’d like to welcome you all back from the Christmas and New Year period. I hope that you all found some time to spend with your families and friends to recharge your batteries for what is already shaping up to be an exciting year for Engineers Australia in Queensland.

Due to the great work undertaken under Blake Harvey’s watch as 2014 President, we are now well positioned for 2015, and reasonably well prepared for the communication opportunities now triggered by the announcement of the State election being brought forward. It is important that we take advantage of these opportunities to get our collective messages out to political candidates, and to the community in general.

It will be more effective if we deliver consistent messages, and to that end the Queensland Division Committee has coordinated advice on behalf of Engineers Australia members to generate the following key messages:

  • The engineering profession and engineers are central to delivering Queensland’s economic growth across construction, tourism, agriculture and resources sectors;
  • Industry needs a pipeline of committed projects to generate the corporate confidence and investment necessary for sustainable employment and economic activity;
  • Engineering can’t be done with checklists and engineering capability is essential for informed procurement – corporate intelligence should not be outsourced; and
  • Safety and productivity in industry is maintained through appropriate application of skills accreditation and cost-effective standards.

These messages are now being delivered on Engineers Australia members’ behalf in the election lead-up.

Taking such a proactive position to promote our messages is totally consistent with the recently released Engineers Australia national strategy document for 2014-15 to 2016-17. Organisationally, we are rapidly moving throughout Queensland to implement this revised national strategic plan which incorporates the following 7 strategic goals:

  1. Professional Home for Life
  2. Connectivity & Partnerships
  3. Definitive Voice of the Profession
  4. Professional Credentials & Currency
  5. International Orientation
  6. Tomorrow’s Engineers
  7. Business Sustainability

For those members who haven’t caught up with this new national strategic plan, I encourage you to spend some time reviewing it, which you can find on our website here. There will also be a major member ballot in February as an on-going part of developing national institutional reforms , which will provide a further opportunity for all members to have their say – but more about that later in the year.

For those who were able to attend our 2014 Annual Division Meeting late last year, you would have heard me commit in my incoming president’s address to a number of personal objectives for this year. These commitments included:

  • Preserving and growing our Engineers Australia membership across Queensland;
  • Enhancing the quality and recognition of our members’ capabilities;
  • Broadening the appeal of Engineers Australia membership through our member value proposition;
  • Actively pursuing media opportunities for positioning EA members’ perspectives;
  • Reinforcing and enhancing Engineers Australia’s strategic industry partnerships; and
  • Maximising the inclusiveness of all of our Queensland members.

So, as you can see, between implementing our new National Strategic agenda; our key messages on behalf of members; and my own personal objectives, there is much to be done in 2015. However, Queensland is now the largest Division (on member numbers) and so there are many of us to collectively achieve these objectives.

We have a great full-time staffing team at our Queensland head office; a great Divisional Committee for 2015; and, more importantly, we have many, many competent and committed members volunteering their time week-in and week-out to promote our profession. It is somewhat humbling to have the opportunity to be the president of such a collective, if only for a year.

So let’s get on with 2015. I challenge all Queensland members to become actively involved in making Engineers Australia a better and stronger institution. Even if this only starts with taking the time to submit your views on various issues that you believe are relevant to our profession in your part of our state. After all Engineers Australia is your organisation; it is difficult for people to act on your behalf if those representatives are unaware of your views.

I look forward to seeing many of you at events or meetings throughout the state throughout the year.

 

Chris Warnock FIEAust CPEng RPEQ

Queensland Division President 2015