2007 Centre Report

 President  and Council of the SAIEE

11 February 2008

2008 ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE SAIEE KZN CENTRE

The 2007 year was once again an exciting one for the SAIEE KZN Centre. Activities were held every month from February until October, drawing up to 900 members and guests.  

 In a year that marked 50 years since the centre was established, activities ranged from the Chairman and Presidents inaugural addresses, technical presentations from invited subject matter experts, visits to places of interest and a tutorial. There were probably two highlights of the year – the Bernard Price Memorial lecture titled NASAs vision for Space Exploration by Caris Skip Hatfield and the centre annual dinner and dance evening.

The former drew a large crowd of about 200 people and gave members a sneak preview of the new technologies that NASA is researching as they seek to replace the current fleet of space shuttles and take on new challenges beyond the moon.

The dinner dance was a major attraction for the year and members turned out in numbers to show that the event had indeed been missed in the previous five years. The President joined about 230 members and guests at the event. Awards were given for Lifetime Achievement in electrical engineering in the province (Howard Whitehead), Project of the Year (Amantha Maharaj for the Newcastle Co-generation project) and

In a surprise but pleasant announcement, the President shared with the audience that council had resolved to nominate past centre chairman Mr Vaughn Warren a Deputy President  

Plans are also underway for an event to mark the 50^th anniversary within the next few weeks.

The centre was not successful in its attempts to use the internet to deliver more value-added service for its local members. We would have liked in 2007 to establish a presence on the internet that would keep members abreast of centre developments. Previews of forthcoming events, reviews and downloads of past presentations, profiles of committee members, reports of task teams and even minutes of committee meetings could have been posted.

The centre was also represented at council meetings in March 2007, and continued to receive records of monthly meetings. The chairman also represented the centre at the annual SAIEE Dinner Dance in November.

Prince Moyo  Pr Eng  SMSAIEE

Chairman SAIEE KZN Centre

2007