The Covid years were hard beyond belief. But the decision not to furlough the IIMS staff and to keep the team in place (albeit working from home for extended periods) proved to be absolutely the right one, although making that decision was far from straight forward because of the numerous variables at play as we moved into lockdown. IIMS flourished remarkably during that dramatic and turbulent period as we repurposed and moved our training offerings into an online environment with great success.
I vividly recall the highly successful 25th anniversary celebrations and the Awards for Excellence in Marine Surveying in 2016, which drew a large crowd to the two-day event in central London at which Maritime & Coastguard Agency Chief Executive, Sir Alan Massey, was Guest of Honour. But perhaps my favourite event was an earlier conference and AGM when we managed to fill the stunning oak-panelled Old Library at the famous Lloyd’s of London building. Those days seem like a distant memory now.
Until the pandemic hit,
international travel was a regular part of my role, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have met many members in overseas territories and to visit parts of the world I would never have seen. International travel is opening up again. But online conferences and seminars have become much more the norm post Covid and that is a big change. Life will never go back to what we knew.
The deployment of continuous technological innovation has transformed IIMS’ processes and efficiency beyond belief and has greatly reduced the Institute’s carbon footprint too. In collaboration with our partners, eDot Solutions in Goa, IIMS has brought several eye-catching apps to market, including the sophisticated Marine Surveyor search app, the app which effortlessly handles the managing of CPD points and, most recently, a highly effective state-of-the- art student portal. Old-fashioned word document forms have been swept away in favour of easy-to- use online ones. Examinations
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and tests were moved into a sophisticated online environment. The accounting function is sleek. And the IIMS Head Office has become almost paperless with all records and documentation scanned and now stored in the cloud. The job to introduce a bespoke database was a long and arduous one, but the outcome is good and underpins the organisation.
As many members know, my experience as a publisher meant I was able make a positive impact on this very publication, the quarterly award-nominated Report Magazine, these days published electronically. It has gone from strength to strength over the past decade and now extends to well over 100 pages. It remains one of the aspects of my role I enjoy most. Nowadays the magazine boasts an estimated readership of more than 10,000 for each edition. I am grateful to my graphic design colleague, Craig Williams, the only remaining member of the original IIMS team from 2014, for his skills in putting this magazine together.
Our publishing interests have not stopped with the Report Magazine either. Nearly 30 handy guides covering all aspects of marine surveying have been authored by members and published by IIMS over the last ten years. I am immensely grateful to the many authors who have wanted to share their extensive knowledge in print with their fellow marine surveyors.
The extensive News Bulletin and Mid Month Marine communiqué are circulated monthly and broadcast electronically to about 12,000 recipients. They are opened and read by 7,500 people on average per month.
The IIMS website has grown into a huge beast attracting 15,000 unique visitors on average each month. It houses over 3,000 news stories and features along with a comprehensive collection of shipping and hard to find boating regulations, incident and accident reports and much more besides.
2019
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