November Update

It seems like only yesterday I was writing Octobers Blog and here we are the End of November with Christmas rapidly approaching.
It’s been another full and hectic month
This year HEA conference was a great event once again a very different format to our own Summit but again very well attended a huge congratulations to all the winners of the respective awards on the night not least our own Alistair Scott (Past President) who won the Service to Industry Award.
Thank you to Gareth, Sue and the HEA team for a great event and looking after me on the night. I wish Jerome and Karen well in their forthcoming year as Chair of HEA and HEA / HEMSA respectively
The HEA event was quickly followed by Luxlive, another tremendously well attended and successful event. From the Institution’s perspective this year was our best year at the event. The team managed to sign up over 40 new members a welcome boost to the regional membership. The stand was busy both days and the HQ team were willingly assisted buy Guy Harding, Elizabeth Thomas and Jon Hall. Both seminars hosted by the ILP on day two were extremely well attend (approx 30 in each) This year the Best Practice in Competency Award was awarded to Elizabeth Thomas from Walsall MBC, as I’m sure you are all aware the Engineering Council require us to audit 1% of our members CPD and as a way of re cognition and encouragement we now have this award. CPD submissions are mandatory requirement for all members and our EC registrants be you an Eng Tech IEng or CEng.
Our congratulations must go to Philip Avery who was the winner of this year’s written paper submission for Young Lighter of the Year (as voted by the ILP). My thanks go to Jon Hall and Graham Festenstein for judging the four papers. My congratulations must also go to David Kretzer who won best Paper Presentation (on the day) and finally to Rachael Nicholls who won the Young Lighter of the Year at the evening award dinner and indeed to all the other award winners on the night.
The YLP also held their AGM this month where Chairman James Wright handed over to Fiona Horgan for the forthcoming year. Well done to James who had a fantastic year as Chairman and good luck to Fiona for the year ahead. Following the Executive Board  Strategy meeting changes were made with regard to the YLP and how they will integrate within the ILP. The YLP now report to the Immediate Past President and have a direct link to the Executive Board where their thoughts ideas and visions will be fed into. This is  in recognition of the importance the Board places on the YLP, after all they are the future of the Institution and they need a voice.    
Finally I attended the ELD module 3 and spent some time with this year’s students. I wish them all well in completing their project and look forward to seeing who the Student of the Year will be at the September 2014 summit.

My thanks must go to my employer Skanska (IS) for supporting me with the time required to fulfil the duties as your President. Without this full support it would be extremely difficult.

You can also now follow me  @mjrugby1968
Until next time
Mark

October Update

Well here we are and October has gone!! so time to update you all as to what’s been going on since my last blog.

Earlier in the month the Executive Board held it’s annual strategy day in London , the aim of which was to review the progress of growth for the Institution over the past year to learn from any issues raised by the members and to produce a strategy going forward for the next 5 years. More will follow on this as the year progresses and decisions are taken, I will keep you all informed.

Following on from that the CEO and I attended the IET Presidents Address held at the Royal Institution the home of The Charles Marques Lecture with over 200 of their members. Barry Brooks, the new President of the IET, used his Inaugural lecture to remind their members of some of the many engineers who have been the leaders and innovators and  who have made a difference to the world, and how their example needs to be followed by today’s engineers and technicians. Along with a familiar call for volunteers to support the IET and announcements of further events we also had the winners of the recent Lego League in attendance

For the first time in the competition’s history, a UK team was crowned Champions at the FIRST World Festival in the USA.

Over 20,000 teams take part in FIRST LEGO League globally. The teams have a multitude of tasks to complete each season, and are mentored by volunteers.

The team, Untitled 1, and their robot called The Beast, won the Champion’s Award  in St.Louis, MO, USA, beating 79 other teams taking part in the festival. Over 21,000 teams from around the world had taken part in the past year’s competition.

 

Team members Freya Alder, Tom Mason, Dani Workman, Rafi Borries Gruber, Joe Mason, Max Workman and Claudia Moorhouse are all students at two Bath schools – Ralph Allen and Kind Edward’s.

The team came up with a revolutionary doorbell fingerprint scanner, a project which took more than 300 hours to complete that impressed the judges at the event. The team also had to build and program their own LEGO MINDSTORMS robot, a task which they spent more than 500 hours on.

A huge congratulations to all of them from the ILP.

Many contacts were made at the event and I hope to see some collaborative working with other Institutions happening over the next few months.

On 23^rd October the Executive Board met with the Vice Presidents as a follow up from the strategy day. Further ideas were put forward with regard to improving communications and structure. A great meeting and very productive; the ideas now need to be moved forward and implemented.

Finally I attended the L&SE evening event on the 24^th Oct. Fantastic trip and a pleasure to catch up with people The landmarks of London looked amazing lit up in all their splendour. Well done Eddie and the committee for sorting out a great event. I was unable to attend the technical session due to the day job but kept up to date on twitter, the feedback was again very positive and so encouraging that so many people attended the session for the day and found the papers interesting.

My thanks must go to my employer Skanska (IS) for supporting me with the time required to fulfil the duties as your President without this full support it would be extremely difficult.

Finally I am now on twitter you can follow me  @mjrugby1968
Until next time
Mark

Marks 1st blog

The ILP Summit at Glasgow

 

Welcome to my first blog as ILP President

It seems like only yesterday we were in Glasgow for the summit yet almost two weeks have passed so I must apologize for the delay in posting my thoughts.

Despite the time elapsed I am still on a high from the event and extremely thankful for the encouragement and support from so many of my peers and friends. I just want to take the opportunity via this blog to say THANK YOU to you all.

I will not apologize for saying this yet again but a huge thank you must go to Jess, Jo & Chantal(who were at the event) to all the HQ team involved with the event, to Alan Jaques (VP Events) and finally to Richard Frost for making sure I was ok! all have worked so hard to make the summit the success it was.

To the Thistle Hotel staff - fantastic venue, fantastic service and great food.

To the Exhibiters - I am glad I had time to visit you all and to say thank you. Your support is so appreciated and a huge thank you to those who have already signed up for next years summit in Solihull.

To the speakers and Session Chairs – Thank you all, some fantastic and informative papers and for those of you that didn’t see Doctor Peter Hughes from Primary Engineers you missed something very unique!!!.

The celebration dinner – Great food, great company Thank you to Peter Hughes and Bailie Allan Stewart who kept me entertained with their stories and to the amazing mind of Drew McAdam I still don’t know how he got Steve Anderson Number!.

Finally to the award winners well done all.  

I hope all who attended the summit enjoyed it as much as I did.

On Tuesday(10^th Sept) of this week following an Executive Board Meeting the Board attended the launch of Light School. This event will be part of the Surface Design Show at BDC in February next year. The event is being run by Light Collective Light School consists of three parts: The School Room, Product School and the School Newspaper.

The aim of Light School is to provide you with some education about lighting design and lighting products. Light and Surface are inseparable partners and they want you to leave the show having learnt something that will change the way you see light.
They have asked leading members of the lighting design community to take a lesson in the school room. They want to explain how light works, why we love it and why you should too. Come and be inspired…
More details will follow
Finally I am now on twitter you can follow me  @mjrugby1968
Until next time
Mark

Pete's Last Blog

To those of you that followed my sporadic blogging, my thanks.
I hope you have enjoyed the photo's and my diverse ramblings.
You have followed me through the seasons of the years as I have sought to make this blog personal.

So today is no exception. I went to a business meeting this morning and I was so saddened to hear that a person I had worked with (civil engineering - not lighting) and who had become a friend, took his life this weekend. We all sat at the meeting stunned and in the end, decided that it would be better to re-schedule the meeting.
 I have just finished reading the book Ecclesiastes - written by King Solomon and the verses
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven
a time to be born and a time to die - Chapter 3:1-2
came to my mind.

Life for me only makes sense, when I acknowledge and have a personal relationship with my Creator. Nuff said

I am looking forward to handing over the badge of office to Mark Johnson, who I know will do an excellent job.

Looking back over the year I have really enjoyed getting out to the Regions and meeting the members and those who give of their time to run the committees. It has been great to wish outgoing Chairman, The ILP's thanks for a job well done and to welcome in the new Chairman and wish them the very best in their year.

One thing that so many Chairman have said in their summing up of their year, is how quickly it passed. All I can say is it is exactly the same for this President. The year has passed so quickly.

I love the diversity of the regions, all committed to lighting and yet all with slightly different perspectives. All doing a similar thing, in a slightly different way. Long may it continue.

It would be wrong to single out a specific favourite, to me you have all enriched my life in so many different ways - So to all of you, each region, each member - My grateful thanks.

To all who work so hard for the ILP at Rugby, my thanks. To the Executive Board members that give so much of their time, thank you.

Lastly to Richard Frost the ILP CEO, thank you for putting up with me on all those train journeys and flights. Thank you for all the wisdom and patience you have given to get this current President through his year. From memory, Richard has steered and patiently guided 17 Presidents through their years.

So, when Mark starts his Presidency, please read his blog and give him the support he will need.

Shalom

Pete

ps- the last photo is a sunset, it has been my screen saver for a year

"Time Waits for no man" - especially Presidents

First of all an apology for not writing a blog for quite a while! Time passes by so quickly, and in the business of our lives we prioritise. I confess the blog went on the back burner. However, yesterday it was pointed out to me that it has been a while, so here is the August blog. I recently took a short break from work and went over to see Trix's family in Italy. I had a couple of opportunities to take photographs, two of which are shown. The main thing was seeing family. Trix is a great Aunt to triplets and to see them was a joy. The more I reflect on life, the more I realise that realtionships, whether work, social or family are the most important things. People and the relationships between them is the most important thing (for me) of the institution. All that we do, I hope, is for the members, who are not just names on a spreadsheet, but people, with lives and aspirations. So, spending time with family, having some great meals, sitting out late and enjoying a bbq and the conversation was for me, the best part of the holiday. I also got to enjoy a 100 year old brandy. A bit special and very very smooth!! i know August is the quiet month - holidays etc, but come September the ILP will be getting very busy. The Summit in Glasgow and a new President. I am looking forward to seeing mark Johnson taking on the role of President and doing this blog. So I hope to see you at Glasgow. The pictures. The lantern and bracket are attached to the ruin of a castle, which sits high on a hill. I particularly liked the moon and sky that evening. The second picture is of the sun setting. The rich colours and the grasses. So the contrast is between manmade and natural - enjoy

Summer is here!

We really are enjoying some warm sunny days, plum trees are covered in plums, so looking forward to September for more than one reason.1- Plums,  2- Handover Presidency to Mark Johnson!!


Decided that our cottage will now be known as Plum Tree Cottage. How original is that. I suspect if I had named it in Welsh, I could have got away with a snappy little title - y bwthyn ar y bryn gyda choed eirin a barcutiaid coch yn hedfan uwchben. Which translates as -the cottage on the hill with plum trees and red kites flying overhead.

Longest day has gone and each evening the sun sets a little earlier. I have two pics , the first was the sunset on longest day - that is the sun set behind a cloud, but the pic came out ok and the next pic was  the actual sun setting a couple of days later.
I have one last sunset to show, which is my screen saver and will be my last blog. (7th September 2013)

So, the last week had the Charles Marques memorial Lecture, which was given by Prefessor Semir Zeki. How does the brain perceive colour. A fascinating look, with sorting scientific testing, at how our brain works with colour. We see absolute colours, intensity and time of day does not come into it. Green is green, etc.  There was a good half and hour of questions, followed by more discussion over drinks. A great evening.

The next day was the Surveyor Conference, which I chaired in the morning and gave a paper in the afternoon. I think that is my last official engagment. A good conference, with the challeges of cost saving and how technology can help, + a look at some of the ILP Prefessional Guides.

This week is my last Executive Board Meeting. Lots to engage us, and we will have Mark Cooper (Senior Vice President - Designate) sitting in on the meeting. Just to remind you, Mark's job as VP membership is available, so if you think you could make a difference, do apply. Talk to Richard Frost (richard@the ilp.org.uk)

I wish all who read this well until my next blog - whenever!!

Pete

7th AGM - Irish Region

In the middle of last week, I attended the SLL AGM and awards. My congratulations to Iain McCrae for a good year as the SLL President. We met at several events and even had a glass of whisky together at the Scottish Spring meeting. I wish Kevin kelly all the best,  as the new SLL President.

Not long before I hand over to Mark Johnson at Glasgow. I also wish Mark Cooper well as he is the SVP designate. Mark's role as VP Membership is available. Put your name forward if you think this is a role you could do.

I have just got back from a fantastic few days in Ireland. The Irish Region AGM, dinner and technical seminar was held at the Marine Hotel, Howth. A great venue and my congratulations to Michael Doherty for a sucessful year as Chairman. I wish the new Chairman, Colm Carton all the best in his year. It was a well organised AGM and John Walsh gave an excellent presentation on CMS. My thanks to Paddy Craven for all his hard work as the Region's Secretary. Not only a past Chairman and past ILP President, but still working hard for the ILP in the Irish Region.

Not only did the AGM and dinner go well, but I was able to get 18 holes in at Howth Golf Club. Picture below gives you an idea of the spectacular views overlooking Howth and beyond to Dublin.

 

 



I have been enjoying the weekend and today June 1st is the first day of summer, so I hope we all have agreat summer!!

 

Don't forget Lightscene at Uttoxeter on the 4th June.

 

I won't be blogging next weekend as I am away walking in the Peak District.

Have a great week. Pete