Over the past month the EGA Board have been debating the
elements of the new Strategy 2013 under 4 broad headings - Education,
Membership, Finance and Marketing. Board Subcommittees were set up for the 4
areas under the Chairs of Peter Brabazon, Michael Loughnane, Tony O'Brien and
Karina O'Neill respectively.
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| UCD EGA Strategy |
Each member of the Board had a role on at least one
Subcommittee. This worked quite well. I am very grateful to the entire Board
for the time, energy, innovation and enthusiasm that each member brought to the
reports of the Subcommittees.
An integrated Draft Strategy based on these 4 elements
will be brought to the May Board Meeting for consideration and adoption. The
most radical change to the EGA approach is the focus on the quality of
Education in the broadest sense. This will be our primary future role to assist
the UCD College of Engineering to realise its place as one of the leading
Engineering Schools in Europe.
Driving this ambition is the new 5 year Masters of
Engineering (ME) in Biosystems, Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Electronic and
Mechanical Engineering in accordance with the Bologna European Agreement which
will confirm our graduates as among the best in Europe.
To support this ambitious role a new Membership and
Funding Plan will introduced on a phased basis over the next year to hopefully
give us many new members backed up by a new Marketing Plan to help realise the
new approach.
At the April meeting we also elected a new Board
Member to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Past President Simon
Kelly. We thank Simon for his active Presidency over two terms and wish him
good health and success in the years ahead.
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| Cormac Mannion |
The new Board Member is Cormac Mannion who is Energy
Efficiency Manager with Energia. Cormac graduated in Mechanical Engineering in
1997 and was awarded an MEngSc in 2000. For the past 5 years he has been
working with Energia with overall responsibility for their Energy Services
Division. Prior to joining Energia, Cormac worked in Intel and at Littelfuse in
Dundalk.
At our April meeting we also finalised arrangements for
the Annual Lecture in Belfield on May 8th next at 7pm and the Annual Lunch and
presentation of the 2013 Distinguished Graduate Award at the National Concert
Hall on June 13th.
We also settled on 'Ceili na hInnealtoiri' as our Gathering Event in late August. We hope to attract
home for a week or even a weekend the many engineers who departed our shores
over the past five years or more to seek employment in UK, Australia, Canada,
US and mainland Europe. We appointed a Subcommittee of Robyn Kelly, Tony
O'Brien, Karina O'Neill and Chaired by Angela Treanor. They will meet shortly
to select a date and venue for the Ceili event. Already the soundings from
graduates I've spoken to on this totally social event are excellent. So we have
a busy year ahead.
