822P80106 PCE UAE(NL2008No1)                                                                    CHECK WEB          www.pceuae.net

DOWNLOAD A VERSION IN WORD

PCE           PROFESSIONAL  CHARTERED   ENGINEERS                  NEWSLETTER    2008No1   Page 1 / 4

UAE  UNITED ARAB EMIRATES GROUP (PCE UAE)     PCE UAE TWELVE YEARS ON !

PCE UAE welcomes all UAE based Chartered Engineers (CEng), Incorporated Engineers (IEng), Engineering Technicians (EngT) 

registered with The Engineering Council (EC) plus other members of the 35 Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI) licensed by EC

 

Dear colleague

 

The AIMS of PCE UAE (founded effective 1996 01 01) include:

· To increase the status and representation of the Engineering Profession and to improve its contribution to the further development of the UAE.

· To promote and encourage the acquisition of knowledge relevant to the Engineering Profession and to establish friendly exchange between members.

· To arrange meetings for the reading and discussion of papers and visits of engineering interest and to do so in collaboration with other relevant bodies including UAE national organisations as appropriate.

· To stimulate among members interest in the work and qualifications of the Engineering Council (EC) and the Sponsoring Institutions and to promote the Sponsoring Institutions locally

 

There is no harm in repeating our aims as it always helps to know where we are going otherwise we’ll never get there!

 

INTRODUCTION - Well a good New Year to everyone and let’s hope with your help 2008 will be a success for PCE UAE, a unique  multi- discipline  group of present or aspiring Professional Chartered Engineers. In that context PCE UAE Committee Members arranged Chartered Professional Review (CPR) Interviews for over 30 applicants for registration with the Engineering Council as CEng via at least five chosen Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI) and they were assisted by at least four experienced interviewers / assessors flown out from UK.  Regrettably these experienced people were unable to attend any PCE UAE formal meetings and meet members.

 

We have many other members planning to sit or re-sit and hence possibly attend our regular monthly Professional Review Preparation (PRP) meetings at Ghantout.   With the help of some senior member volunteers we can assist the few who were not successful in their first interviews.  Keep trying - it is interesting that today I received an e-mail from a senior graduate engineer just arrived in UAE who sat first in 2001 and hopes to ‘have another go’ with our help after taking degrees in Moscow and Glasgow – my home city – and I have recently visited his country.

 

PROGRAMME & EVENTS - Having planned and programmed events for 2007 last January and seen many necessary changes mainly due to speakers being called away on business it seems appropriate to quote from the Scottish National Poet, Robert Burns born 1759 01 25.   on 25 January, here in the UAE many Scots and others will be celebrating his birth and regretting his early death 1796 07 21 at the relatively young age of 47.  My ancient edition of his work includes 300 Songs and Ballads and over 250 Poems and Epistles.

 

As a farmer ploughman he wrote some verses titled ‘To a mouse’ when his plough cut through a mouse’s nest.

                                    “But mousie, thou art no thy lane

In proving foresight may be vain

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft aglay

An lea us nought but grief an pain for promised joy”.

 

PCE UAE plans for 2007 “went aft aglay” starting with our programme issued in January for reasons including

·         Speakers having to call off   (we found replacements)

·         Permission for site access refused for planned visits (we met elsewhere - even site gates)

·         The return to UK of our HonTreas of many years (we now have a volunteer replacement)

·         We decided to cancel our PRP meeting Dec 25 (all attendees in November agreed!)

·         AGM and dinner landed on a National Holiday (now rescheduled to 2008 01 24)

·         That the first Tuesday of 2008 was in fact January 01, New Year’s Day (skip a week)

 

Many do not believe it but I, a Scot, once had to start a new job with an English based International Management Consultancy in Egham near Windsor on Monday morning January 01!  Undaunted we mustered other expatriate Scots but even that fell through as it started to snow and others could not get their cars out or would not risk driving!

 

Let us hope for better in 2008.  The best will be to see some actual results from ICE as our UK administrative link and from all other relevant PEI for a proportion of our subscriptions paid to UK returned as grant aid.  Meanwhile we continue to seek local corporate sponsorship from organisations in UAE.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                Page 2 /’ 4

·         Attached are the following documents   -  Please register with HonSec for all events

·         Draft PROGRAMME FRAMEWORK FOR 2008 – this gives proposed themes and some topics

·         NOTICE for JANUARY 2008 – this refers to programme and topics and also PRP

·         NOTICE OF AGM & DINNER AT GHANTOUT -  Members are reminded of this key event now due

·         Thursday 2008 01 24 at 19:00Hrs with a Committee Meeting at 18:00. 

 

FUNDING & FINANCE - We greatly appreciated corporate sponsorship received from Hyder Consulting and John Ray McDermott, for a guaranteed mailing of 1000 to members.  As yet we have had no response from other organisations contacted.  Meanwhile members of Committee help finance operations and new Budgets have been submitted to UK for local secretariat set up, web and operational assistance.  An application to the ETB/EC for some funding from the £5million Government aid package was rejected.

 

That brings me back to Robert Burns who was at one time nearly an expatriate, only ‘rescued’ by the publication of the ‘Kilmarnock Edition’ of his poems in 1786 which was a great success.  I quote from his “LINES WRITTEN ON A BANKNOTE”

“Wae worth thy power, thou cursed leaf!                  Fell sourse o’a’ my woe and grief!

For lack of thee I’ve lost my lass! For lack of thee I scrimp my glass!

I see the children of affliction Unaided, thro’thu curs’d restriction.

I’ve seen the oppressor’s cruel smile Amid his hapless victim’s spoil,

And for thy potence vain have wass’d To crush the villain in the dust,

For lack o’ thee I leave this much-lov’d shore,    Never.perhaps,to greet old Scotland more.”.

 

What would he have written about a plastic credit card?!

 

Unsurprisingly there appears much in that which is relevant to yours truly and it is long past the time when I wish to hand over UAE Country Representation for ICE, IMechE and IET to younger more pro-active Chartered Engineer Fellows or Members of respective PEI prepared to act as Committee Members of PCE UAE and also as PEI Country Representative and Member responsible for arranging relevant CPR Interviews. 

 

This calls for a certain degree of commitment and continuity which would result from more UAE National graduates becoming Chartered and possibly from the changes in the economy which allows expatriates to buy residential property they help to build and service.   After 2 years in Brussels and 5 in Paris, when I arrived in Abu Dhabi on a 2-year contract with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) little did I expect to be here 23 years later.  My family and I have enjoyed the experience but must plan for return to our homes in Scotland but we hope to keep in touch with many friends and colleagues based here.

 

I look forward to joining other PEI country representatives in Cairo on 2008 01 10 for a multi-discipline convention of representatives from Countries of the Middle East and Africa to be rounded off by a site visit to the Aswan High Dam.  This is particularly relevant as my first job was on site on a multi dam pumped storage hydro-electric scheme in Scotland.  In 1975 after completing a two year contract as Director, Jeddah for contracts for the “Beautification of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina’, rather than flying to UK that day we took three weeks sailing up the Red Sea to Suez, checking out the Pyramids, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel before heading home via Athens and Sofia.  My family do appreciate that there are certain perks in having an itinerant father who is a business management consultant and Professional Chartered Engineer!          

 

I do recommend that you all consider the opportunities presented by expatriate life and cherish these.  My children never forget the experience of driving from Scotland via Geneva and onwards to Sofia and around the Balkans then back home via Greece, Italy and the South of France – then repeating the adventure from Beirut via Damascus to Medina and Jeddah, then later driving from there via Mecca, Riyadh and Dammam to Kuwait and back. Just as memorable are drives to Sila, Al Ain and Muscat as well as Ras Al Khaimah and elswhere in this part of the Middle East.

 

Please let the HonSec have your views, suggestions and general constructive feedback so that we may better serve you all with hopefully constructive marketing and administrative assistance from our parent PEI in UK.  Please also join and support the UAE’s own Society of Engineers (UAESE) with which we aim to work closely, having been invited to have representatives on their Technical Committee.

 

Regards, Alister

Er Alister I M Macmillan BSc, CEng, FIBMC, FICE, FIMechE, FIET, MUAESE,

Management Consultant & Professional Chartered Engineer & British 'GlobalScot' volunteer

Chair Professional Chartered Engineers United Arab Emirates Group (PCE UAE)

UAE Country Representative for Institiuions of Civil, Mechanical Engineers,

& Engineering & Technology (ICE, IMechE, IET (Ex IEE))

Member of Committee British Business Group (BBG),

PO Box 46621, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates  Tel:    00971 2-584 3187 Mob: 00971 50-445 1879

OR 9  Cleveden Crescent Glasgow G12 0PB, UK      Tel:    0044 141-357 5444 e-mail: macmilan@eim.ae

823P80101PCE UAE(PROG2008FRAMEWORK2)                                                 CHECK WEB    www.pceuae.net  3 / 4

PCE       PROFESSIONAL  CHARTERED   ENGINEERS            PROGRAMME

UAE            UNITED ARAB EMIRATES GROUP (PCE UAE)            2008 FRAMEWORK 2

PCE UAE welcomes all UAE based Chartered Engineers (CEng), Incorporated Engineers (IEng) and Engineering Technicians (EngT) registered with the Engineering Council (EC) plus all other members of the 35 EC licensed Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI)

PROGRAMME 2008           - IN INVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

In this PROGRAMME

·          THEMES & EVENTS are listed in reverse chronological order to plan ahead yet record past and present  events. 

·          We aim to hold meetings on dates as scheduled normally starting 19:00  for 19:30 Hrs and visits 16:00 Hrs. 

·          On web just scan down to relevant date and click on DATE or TOPIC TITLE to raise a NOTICE for the event. 

·          The NOTICE will provide details of VENUE, TOPIC SUMMARY and SPEAKER PROFILE .plus registration requirements. 

·          Changes  in  venue, topic and speaker are inevitable (eg one venue of ten years was demolished in 2007) - therefore . 

·          Please check latest version on web and register with PCE UAE HonSec stating EC / PEI  registration / membership number.

·          Such numbers may be obtained by Joining a PEI as Graduate /Student members pending EC Registration via the chosen PEI