From Eur Ing Jeffrey Casciani-Wood (Past President 1997-2000)
First of all, congratulations to IIMS and happy birthday! I think that membership at whatever level of an established and well-founded Technical Institution or Learned Society is invaluable, even in today’s world. Quite apart from the right to use post nominal letters and to decorate your headed notepaper with an Institute’s logo, it tells your client, be he/she a company, an individual or a court, that you work to a set of peer approved technical standards and ethics.
The marine surveyor of today operates in an ever-changing world with advances in technology, legislation, survey requirements, markets and customers as a continuing back drop to his/her work. That means that continuing professional development, which the marine surveyor needs to address in a coherent and pro-active way, is the means by which he/she maintains his/her knowledge and upgrades
his/her experience; and its obligations are common to most professions. In that respect, the IIMS excels in arranging and holding around the world various technical meetings which can and should be attended either in person or online by zoom. I have long been of the opinion, perhaps controversially, that anyone taking the IIMS Professional Qualification and diploma should be required to achieve a certain number of proven CPD points and to attend and take part in an agreed number of such meetings before being allowed to upgrade to a higher level of membership.
In my opinion it is of the utmost importance for anyone offering professional services to the general public and other commercial entities to be known as a member of a Technical Institution, thereby showing that he/she is a peer recognised, competent person of that profession and not operating as a member of that much maligned other profession - the cowboy.
As one who has been a member of the IIMS from the earliest days, I am very proud of that fact and consider it to have been one of my most valuable “selling points”. I am also very pleased to have been one of the moving lights in the establishment of the original diploma and education programme. As I approach final departure time (growl you may, go you must), I know that the IIMS is in safe hands and hope that it will remain so while men build ships and boats to face the unpredictable whims and fancies of “the old, grey widowmaker”.
From Ian Biles (Past President 2000-2003)
It has been my experience that marine surveyors tend to be fiercely independent of thought and, in some circumstances, this can lead to a degree of isolation from one’s peers. When the first Marine Surveying Conference was held in 1990 the Chairman, John Guy, posed the question whether surveyors should co-operate to further the professionalism of the profession. From this simple idea the IIMS, together with the British Association of Cargo Surveyors (BACS), was born. What this showed was that despite the desire for independence there were some advantages, and a need for, interdependence. It is in the role of assisting interdependence that professional bodies provide a useful clearing house for information and ideas.
In our constantly changing and challenging world marine surveyors need to stay abreast of what is happening. Sometimes, the relevance of a particular event to one’s business is not always immediately apparent. Whether, or not, it is new environmental requirements, or changes brought about by BREXIT there is a constant need to stay informed to provide a service that is relevant to our clients as well as to protect ourselves. Once again, it is the professional organisations that provide support and assistance to their members that are ideally placed to fill this role.
Whilst not a founding member of the IIMS I was fortunate enough to join early on and for many years was involved with the Institute’s training activities. The IIMS (and specifically Ian Wilkins) was the first organisation to recognise that there was a better way to train surveyors rather than the old fashioned route of trial and error and this legacy lasts to this very day.
From Chris Spencer (Past President 2003-2005)
Time moves on and these days seem to pick up speed every day. I am still switched on and staying busy but so pleased I do not have to operate in the current surveying market with ever faster technology. I am currently struggling to keep “One Drive” OFF my computer as it has destroyed a lot of my work largely because I did not know it was there and or that it was allowed to do anything without my knowledge!
Of course, I have not done the “course” and am finding more and more technology to be a hindrance rather than a help. I have moved photos around, copied them, labelled them and transmitted them all over the world as a surveyor and an Inspector of tanker safety; but I have now found that I cannot do that as the photos have to go to an interim location, so the recipient can go to that point and download them - and I finally have to approve that download so they can get them! I see it all as wasting my time, but also wonder where they go and what security they have….ho hum….
The Report • June 2021 • Issue 96 | 27
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