RINA AFFAIRS


the world to sign up to RINA. Secondly, the local branches and regions


continued to hold meetings, lecture series and social gatherings regularly. These many events held around the world are to many members what RINA is, not the activities at Head Quarters, but these branch and section meetings that provide an opportunity to meet friends and colleagues. So a thank you too to those members who give so much of their time to ensuring that these many popular events are successful. I also must mention the activities of our


Technical Committees which are focussed on Innovation, Environment, Safety, and the IMO. It is these committees that keep the work of RINA relevant to our sector, and it is these, together with our Membership and Professional Affairs Committees, that are at the core of what RINA does. I wish to thank all those who volunteer their time and contribute their expertise as members of these committees, and in particular the individuals who shoulder the greatest load by agreeing to chair them. Lastly in this list of the achievements the last year


of I must include our


conferences and publications. RINA’s declared aim is ‘promoting and facilitating the exchange of technical and scientific information …. to improve ship design,’ and this aim is met largely through our conferences, of which 15 have been held in six countries in the last year, and through our journals, which are distributed in over 100 countries. For the last


two years I have been


President of this institution, and in a few weeks my term finishes when I hand over to Maurizio d’Amico, who has been elected to be the next President earlier in this meeting. As President I have been contacted by many people who engage with RINA in a variety of ways, including Members, Fellows, Chairs of committees or branches, leaders of industry and senior academics, all of whom have opinions on RINA, its activities, its operations, and its services. It would be remiss of me if I did not acknowledge that not all off these communications are favourable. I know that people complain more readily than they praise, so no doubt for every person


RINA Affairs May/June 2020


who makes an adverse comment there are many remaining silent who are satisfied. However we, as engineers, know that quality improvement is not about looking at what is going well, it is achieved by focussing on what is going wrong. And RINA is far from perfect. Our


journals are not the favoured route for the dissemination of research results, at least not for academics. Our conferences, which in many cases reflect niche concerns and are rightly praised for that, are not held up as well curated events hosting the foremost authors in our field. Our voice in the maritime world as thought leaders and policy advisers is not as strong as we would like it to be, and our impact in this respect is not as significant as it should be. And perhaps most concerningly, prospective members do not automatically turn to RINA as their professional body of choice. But remember, quality improvement


is about looking at the faults, so please don’t interpret my words as an attempt to demolish RINA. Far from it as I, together with the Board of Trustees, have been looking to how we can make a difference, how we can make RINA into the organisation that all levels of the maritime community turn to, whether they are individuals, companies, governments, or intergovernmental organisations. To this end, during the last two years, the Board has conducted a strategic review, looking at what we need to do to make a step change in terms of our digital footprint, our publications and events, our international profile, and our performance with regard to equality, diversity and inclusion. There has been much hard work put into undertaking this review, and I want to thank my fellow trustees for their determined efforts on this project – a project which is now coming to its conclusion, at least as a review. A Report is planned which I anticipate will set out a vision for the future of RINA, and a detailed implementation plan. I say ‘I anticipate’, because this will not be my task. I step down from the role of President and Chair of the Board of Trustees in six or seven weeks time, so sit will be for the new President with his new Board to take these initiatives forward.


One phrase that emerged from the


review that resonated with me was the ‘need for cultural change.’ At this moment in time, which will surely be seen as historic when looked back upon from the future, we are all having to embrace radical change, both now and in the months and years ahead. Te change that will be forced upon us by the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic will force us all to transform how we do business in all its aspects: how we hold meetings, how we run conferences, and how we use the internet. Tis then is an opportune moment to rethink, to re-imagine, how RINA should operate. We must grasp this opportunity to make the cultural change that the Board believes RINA needs. In a few weeks


I hand over the


stewardship of RINA to Maurizio d’Amico. I must tell him that while two years appear to be a long time when they are stretching out ahead, they do not seem to have lasted long at all once they have passed. Use your time wisely Maurizio! I wish Maurizio good luck when he


takes on the role of President of RINA at the beginning of July, and I look forward to the RINA that will develop during his tenure. I look forward to the RINA that will emerge from this global pandemic, from the strategic review, and from the efforts of our Board, our Council, our Committees, and all our Branches and Sections around the world.


Richard Birmingham


THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH


“The behaviour of ships on stormy seas is so hard to be understood and so important to be predicted, that it is worth any amount of hard thinking, and painstaking observa- tion, and subtle reasoning we can expend on it”,


J. Scott Russell, 1863


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