Hi all,
Doesn’t time fly. Here I am again, having the pleasure to once again reflect on another successful 6 months as Chair of the West Cumbria Area Committee, and look forward with anticipation foe what looks to be a fantastic Autumn events programme.
The Autumn edition of our twice-yearly Newsletter will soon be available to download and it will cover all the Engineering Learned Society activities that we have undertaken over the last 6 months, including lectures on subjects including, CDM -Temporary Works; the Workington Transport Hub, as well as visits to more Engineering companies that thrive in our beautiful part of the world, such as PaR Systems, and TIS Cumbria Ltd. I am delighted that numbers attending our lectures and visits still remains healthy.
Our Autumn Events Programme is now up and running, and you can find details of the talks/visits below. These include a talk on the Queensferry Crossing, and Tidal Energy, as well as our exciting season curtain raiser on (something) NASA. We also have highly informative and interesting visits to Carrs Mill, Silloth and Harrison & Harrison, in Durham, who you may remember came to West Cumbria about a year ago to tell us about the work they do refurbishing church and cathedral organs, in particular the instrument in the venue for that talk; the United Reform Church, Whitehaven Please come book your place on the events, as well sharing the events poster and encourage your friends and colleagues to come along to them as well.
We’re to further develop our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Educational Engagements activities this year, culminating in the highly successful “Our World in 2050” Educational Extravaganza at Lakes College on 27th/28th June in conjunction with the Annual Dinner. We’d be delighted to get more of you involved in our STEM activities. If you’re interested bet in touch with our STEM Co-ordinator, Ned Furniss (ned.furniss@sellafieldsites.com).
Talking about our Annual Dinner, I don’t know how we keep doing it, but yet again we raised the bar. “Sustainability” was the theme, and the menu reflected that. We had Colin Brown, IMechE CEO and Michael Ditchburn on the top table, along with Baroness Julia Brown, Vice Chair of the Government Committee on Climate Change developing the UK’s strategy to attain zero Carbon Emissions. Our after-dinner speaker was Tamara Taylor, who represented England at the 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2017 World Cups, winning the trophy in 2014, and captained England in the 2015 Women's Six Nations Championship. In my University days, I had the pleasure of playing rugby union alongside Tamara and even went on tour to Russia with her ……… but that’s a story for another day.
The Dinner was complete sold out again, and once again our sponsors are fantastic. Without their fantastic support we would not have the funding to underwrite the dinner and continue to grow our Educational Initiatives. Furthermore, guests on the night once again dug-deep and raised £1318.61 for our 2019 Charity Raffle beneficiaries; Cockermouth Mountain Rescue, Hospice at Home and the North Air Ambulance.
And it does stop there, the planning for the 2020 Annual Dinner begins in September, and we have a challenge and a half to match or better this year’s event.
We’re still looking for new Members to refresh our Committee, so if you feel like boosting your CV, improving your Chartership/Fellow credentials and what to help us with keep West Cumbria as one of the most productive and successful Area Committees in the country, get in touch with me.
Caroline Hamilton CEng MIMechE
Honorary Chair, IMechE West Cumbria