822P801238PCE
UAE(NEWSLETTER 2008No2 DOWNLOAD A COPY
IN WORD
CHECK WEB www..pceuae.net
PCE PROFESSIONAL CHARTERED ENGINEERS NEWSLETTER 2008No2
UAE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES GROUP (PCE UAE) AGM REMINDER
We welcome 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 Linked Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI)
Date
& week numbering aims to comply with International (ISO), European (EN),
& British (BSI) Standards
Eg.: ISO 8601& BS EN 28601:1992 “Representation
of dates & times for information interchange”, & BS 4795:1972.
We
meet on the first & second Tuesday of each month in Abu Dhabi & Dubai
respectively & plan related visits on the third Tuesday plus other events
throughout the Emirates. Come along
for Continuing Professional Development (CPD), meet colleagues and network
Dear
colleague
I start writing this aboard a vessel on the Nile, heading for Aswan
and a visit to the High Dam. My first
visit was in 1976 accompanied by my family while returning home at the end
of an interesting two year contract as Project Director, Jeddah for contracts
for the development of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina.
We had driven to Jeddah from Beirut via Syria and Jordan and later
had driven on ‘side trips’ to Riyadh and Kuwait and back as well as Aqaba
and Petra. So we decided – rather
than flying direct to Scotland that day we would take a long route home. We left Jeddah by ship to Suez and flew from
Cairo to Aswan and on to Abu Simbel to view the wonders of ancient Egypt and
the High Dam as a more modern engineering wonder.
My interest in the dam had developed from my very first site job
with Babtie (now Jacob) on the Glen Shira Hydro-electric pumped storage project
in Scotland with its four associated dams and three power stations (one underground)
and miles of tunnels and aqueducts. Having seen Aswan again I suppose the next aim will be to see the
Three Gorges Dam and power plant and think more of the ecological impact of
such developments.
You may wonder what all this has to do with PCE UAE? Well, ICE and IMechE (but regrettably not IET
and other PEI) agreed to hold a convention in Cairo on the joint themes of
“Sustainable Development”, “Climate Change” and “Urban Planning” for PEI Country
Representatives (CR) from Middle East and Africa. Included was a Young Engineers presentation
Competition. I listened to the six
finalists and the winner was a young Egyptian Engineer Ahmed Fateh Elbab,
who spoke about Systems Simulation.
As Chair of PCE UAE and formal CR for ICE, IMechE and IET I felt
duty bound to try to attend and had hoped some PCE UAE Committee Members and
others might have managed. Notes on
Convention programme, delegates etc will be added to this or be available
on our PCE UAE web pages at www.pceuae.net.later.
THURSDAY 2008 01 24 - PCE UAE COMMITTEE MEETING,
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING & DINNER.
In NEWSLETTER 2008No1 we stated that due to the scheduled 2007 AGM
landing on the Eid Holiday and heavy seasonal commitments including the Cairo
convention that the AGM would be postponed to the above date with a Committee
Meeting at 18:30 and the Reception followed by the AGM at 19:30 and dinner
at 20:30. Attached is a NOTICE giving
more details based on that issued and executed in 2006.
COMMITTEE 2007
Also attached is a listing of PCE UAE Committee Members for 2007
plus co-opted volunteers who have agreed to fill vacancies. All Committee posts are deemed to fall vacant
and be open for re-election or nominations of others subject to voting for
specific posts where relevant. It
is also hoped that others will volunteer to be included in a small pool of
potential committee members who will be able to be co-opted to committee as
such vacancies occur.
WHAT’S ON ? QUITE A LOT ACTUALLY -
(SEE OUR DELIBERATELY BASIC B
& W WEB PAGES)
In 2007 we achieved many of our AIMS, PLANS & PROGRAMMES with
active support of some of the 36 EC licensed Professional Engineering Institutions,
companies and individuals. However,
such support has been significantly lacking from many, illustrated by complete
lack of co-ordinated communications, financial support and voluntary assistance.
While members of PCE UAE Committee acting as UAE Country Representatives
and as Chartered Professional Review (CPR) organisers we arranged over 30
Interviews for members aspiring to EC Registration we only had four responses
to 68 letters sent to CEng F/M of one PEI seeking volunteer interviewers.
Eventually the five applicants were interviewed in November along with 11
from another PEI. Today I had a call from a potential applicant.
He has been two years in UAE with a leading UK based consultancy yet no one
told him about PCE and our regular Professional Review Preparation (PRP) meetings!
82P80118PCE
UAE(NEWSLETTER 2008No2
CHECK WEB www..pceuae.net
PCE
PROFESSIONAL CHARTERED ENGINEERS
NEWSLETTER 2008No2 (PAGE
2 / 2)
UAE
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES GROUP (PCE UAE)
AGM REMINDER
We
welcome all UAE based Chartered Engineers (CEng), Incorporated Egineers (IEng)
and Engineering Technicians (EngT)
Registered
with the Engineering Council (EC) plus all other members of the 35 EC Linked
Professional Engineering Institutions (PEI)
When formed effective 1996 01 01 PCE UAE had about
1000 potential members in 40 Engineering Council (EC) licensed Professional
Engineering Institutions (PEI). In 1995 members of ICE and IMechE who had
formed local branches here in 1969 and 1993 respectively arranged a survey
of all disciplines in UAE and held a meeting one weekend at Ghantout where
it was agreed to petition their respective UK based Councils to disband the
respective branches and give a lead to the formation of one Group in line
with Proposals for Unification of the Engineering Profession as published
in the Fairclough Report which suggested a basic structure related to ICE,
IMechE, IEE and IChemE and all other PEI.
In1996, although fully represented on the original
Interim Committee due to multi-discipline membership, IEE members decided
to establish their own Branch but dissolved it in 1998 to join PCE UAE and
be fully represented on the PCE UAE Committee along with IChemE representatives. That year PCE UAE wrote specifically to the
President and the Chief Executive of all 40 PEI inviting them to be formally
involved with and be represented by PCE UAE.
A number agreed, others wavered while two or three maintained independence
– mainly due to special local support. Today members of ICE, IMechE, IET and IChemE in UAE total over 1000.
However, PCE UAE led and supported initially by ICE
and IMechE has aimed to welcome all EC registrants and all other members of
all PEI, so making it a unique group worldwide and better able to work directly
with Government and National bodies such as The UAE Society of Engineers (UAESE)
which welcomes all engineering disciplines plus Professional Architects, Builders
and Surveyors. The PCE UAE Chair and
HonSec are members of the UAESE Technical Committee and ‘marketing’ EC UK-SPEC
and CEng, IEng, EngT.
The EC who initially provided us with contact address
labels for all EC registrants in UAE stopped doing so on legal advice following
the introduction of the Data Protection Act.
Also, they were unable to act as our UK Administrative link and the
ICE agreed to act in that capacity. That
means we can only contact potential members via 36 PEI as some PEI will not
release such data (while others publish membership lists openly!).
While we have met many aims with the support of some
PEI, for other organisations and individuals we could have done better had
we had greater pro-active support of all our related organisations in UK,
individual members and their employers in UAE.
We held meetings every month of the year but had to change many topics
and venues due to the business commitments of individual speakers and development
of venues. We are grateful to have had continuity of use
of facilities in Abu Dhabi at The Club on the first Tuesday of every month.
We had similar facilities for many years at The Club
in Dubai which has now been demolished for development.
Quoted charges for alternative facilities range from Dhs 500 to Dhs
1600 for the evening so it proved difficult to find a new fixed venue. However we did so with the help of Rev Stephen
Miller, who gave us interesting presentations and arranged the shipyard site
visit to The Angel in Dec 2006.
However, all members wishing to attend events are
asked to register and check with our PCE UAE HonSec.
We can then follow up for changes and facilities. While average attendances are below 30 we did
have 120 at the site presentation on the interesting topic of Burj Dubai ‘The
tallest Building in the world’.
That brings me back to the start and site visit to
the High Dam in Aswan. As related
conference visits we visited a coastal monitoring site near Alexandria where
the coast has eroded 5 km as it is not now receiving the silt which settles
behind the dam. We also visited the Alexandria University Engineering
faculty plus the dramatic new Library replacing the ancient one with its 500
000 scrolls and which confirms the close link between Architecture and Engineering
– as of course do the temples at Karnak etc of 4000 years ago.
We arrived back on Sunday afternoon and managed to
get to St Andrew’s Church for the inaugural visit of the new Bishop of Cyprus
and the Gulf and noted that over 10% of the male congregation were Chartered
Engineers or at least members of a PEI.
Monday 2008 01 21 saw the opening the three day ‘Future Energy Summit’
meeting at the Abu Dhabi Exhibition Centre with 3000 delegates and 200 Company
Exhibitors. It was an interesting and dramatic event with
key introductory speakers including
- HH General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Supreme
Commander of the UAE Armed Forces,
- Dr Sultan AhmedAl Jaber, CEO of MAZDAR Future Energy Company,
- Prof Dr Klaus Topfer, Former Executive Director of the UN Environment
Programme,
- HRH The Prince of Wales (by Holographic Video Address which was
quite dramatic - as he finished, he was beamed up and out!),
- Prince Andrew, Duke of York, followed by
- the Presidents of Iceland and Djibouti linking Geothermal developments
and the President of the Maldives and
- Secretary General of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, rounded off
by
- William McDonough architect and sustainable energy visionary and
by
- Lord Browne, MD Riverstone Holdings (alternative and renewable
energy markets) and former Chair of BP
There was a lot to take in even before the first keynote session
on ‘World Future Energy Policy and Strategy’ followed by ‘’Finance and investment
opportunities for global future energy development’. Also, MEED were present eg seminars 2008 01
27-28 RAK Conference, RAK, 01 28-29 Middle East Port Development 2008, Dubai,
02 26-27 10th ME Project Finance, Bahrain, 03 03-04 Dubai Mega
Projects, Dubai. Again, it was good
to meet or see many Chartered Engineers present – some heading up Engineering
Consulting and Contracting companies exhibiting. Unfortunately PCE UAE had no direct presence or even representation
at the UK Pavilion although SDI was apparently there. PCE UAE representation may be relevant for
the future as nearly all engineering disciplines were represented eg Energy,
Chemical, Mechanical and Electrical related to solar and wind power and process
plant plus urban development plans by MAZDAR.(www.worlffutureenergysummit.com)
Er Alister I M Macmillan, Chair PCE UAE
2008 01 22
823P80124PCEUAE(ntc)(AGMDIN)
CHECK WEB www.pceuae.net NL3/4
PCE PROFESSIONAL CHARTERED
ENGINEERS REMINDER NOTICE
UAE UNITED
ARAB EMIRATES GROUP (PCE-UAE) WEEK
No. 2008W04
PCE UAE welcomes all UAE based Chartered Engineers (CEng), Incorporated
Engineering (IEng) and Engineering Technicians (EngT)
Registered with the Engineering Council (EC) plus all other members
of the 35 EC licensed Professional
Engineering Institutions (PEI)
We meet at minimum in Abu Dhabi & Dubai
on the first and second Tuesdays respectively of each month.
Visits to sites are arranged for the third
Tuesdays plus dinners and other events subject to members interest and support.
PLEASE COPY & PASS THIS NOTICE ON TO RELEVANT
INDIVIDUALS
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT THE ORIGINAL PROGRAMMED
EVENT HAD TO BE RESCHEDULED FROM DECEMBER 20 DUE TO EID HOLIDAY THAT DAY AS
NOTIFIED ON WEB & IN NEWSLETTER 2008No1
EVENT: RECEPTION, AGM & DINNER
“ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING & DINNER”
VENUE: JAZIRAH
RESORT TULIP HOTEL, GHANTOUT
(On
main Abu Dhabi to Dubai Highway less than 100km from both cities, Sharjah
& Alain)
Tel: 02- 562 9100, Fax: 92-562 9035, e-mail: reservations@goldentulipaljazira.com
TIMING: THURSDAY
2008 01 24, 19:00 – 20:30 RECEPTION
19:30 – 20:00 + AGM
20:30 – BUFFET DINNER
COST: Dhs 150 including dinner & refreshments
(Committed on registration with HonSec)
TO
REGISTER: CONTACT HonSec
(Fax: 04-337 8340, e-mail: chisholm@arencoar.com)
FOR
SECURITY: HAVE IDENTIFICATION
AVAILABLE (PEI Member CARD or PCE UAE NOTICE)
OUTLINE The
reception with light refreshments will be open for all members, families and
guests.
Members will leave reception for AGM. Please have available your PEI Membership number in event of voting.
PCE UAE COMMITTEE MEMBERS (including Co-opted/Ex-Officio)
(to Represent members of all EC / PEI disciplines)
All posts are deemed vacant at the end of 2007 and appointees are
open for election / re-election unless otherwise indicated by ‘V’.
New nominations (with confirmed agreement
of nominee) to be with PCE UAE Honorary Secretary prior to meeting
Voting will take place if required – Nominations for Chair and other
vacancies again particularly welcome
Voting members shall be those confirmed
as current members of EC licensed PEI whose UK Council have formally confirmed
involvement with and support for PCE UAE resulting from PCE UAE invitation
sent to all PEI in 1996 .
‘V’ Vacancy