Sometimes meetings are a necessary evil. We all know that! But in the past couple of weeks I have been involved in meetings that have not only been pleasurable, but also informative too.
It started with the IIMS strategy meeting with the head office team. We disappeared to a quiet location to talk about how we could improve what we did, the way we deliver it to the membership and so on. We considered the strengths of the organisation as well as the weaknesses, threats and opportunities too. The outcome was that we have a basis on which to produce a strategy later in the year to be implemented for the 2015 year ahead.
On Monday of this week I had the pleasure of joining our UK Small Craft Working Group at one of their regular meeting – this one held at Grafham Water Sailing Club, near Huntingdon. Having had the chance to give a small presentation to the IIMS members who were present, I then settled back to listen to veteran past IIMS President, Jeffrey Casciani-Wood, as he spoke eloquently and knowledgeably about the subject entitled ‘Introduction to the design and survey of marine propellers’. This is a subject I knew nothing about and, even though I cannot profess to be an expert now, I do at least know how to tell a left hand from a right hand propeller. Jeffrey provided a very valuable insight into what is clearly a most complex topic for those who were at the event. You can read Jeffrey’s presentation here: Introduction to the design and survey of marine propellers.
Yesterday we held one of our regular quarterly IIMS management board meetings at HQ in Portchester. These are always lively affairs and it inspires me to hear board members expressing their opinions with such passion. It was especially good to welcome overseas board members, Allen Brink and Zarir Irani, to the UK. They bring a different perspective from overseas to these meetings.
Mike Schwarz