UNITED KINGDOM Association

NEWSLETTER
No 162 May 2000

Annual General Meeting AGM and Annual Reception

Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?

It is time to look ahead to the Annual General Meeting in June and organise ourselves for the year that follows. Some bookings have already been made for further events this year but there is still plenty of scope for the new committee to arrange more events.

The AGM of the Association will be held in the Penthouse, New Zealand House, on Monday 19th June at 6.30 pm Please note the change of date. We have been asked by The New Zealand High Commission to move the date of our AGM so as to assist the NZ Diary Board who are doing a European promotional campaign. The committee apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but given the preferential rate we receive for the hire of the penthouse suite at New Zealand House, the committee thought that it should oblige. The AGM will start promptly to properly precede the Annual Reception, which will follow immediately after at approximately 7.00 pm

The Agenda, minutes of the last AGM, and copies of the Accounts for 1999/2000 will be available at the meeting.

Nominations are invited for the posts of Chairman, Honorary Auditor, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer, and the Committee for the year 2000/2001. Send nominations signed by the proposer, seconder, and nominee to the Honorary Secretary at the Association's address. Nominations may also be made from the floor at the meeting.

We are all grateful for the time and effort that the Committee has put in over the past year.

So, please come along and take part in the meeting. This event is your best opportunity to make your views known on what we should do, what we should be and anything else relevant to our function.

... and the Annual Reception

As is our custom, the Annual Reception releases the members who have toiled through the AGM into the agreeable task of meeting together again in the splendid Penthouse with all the others who have come along, and to enjoy a time of pleasant eating, drinking, and discourse with old and new friends. Be sure to be there too. Gather your guests and reply promptly please by returning the enclosed Reply Slip to the Honorary Secretary as soon as you can.

Note the details.

Location: The Penthouse, New Zealand House, Haymarket, London
Date: 19 June 2000
Time: AGM - 6:15pm for 6:30pm
Reception - 7:00pm
Price: £13.00 per head for members and their guests to cover food and drinks.

Graduates Evening

IPENZ UK held a Graduate Evening in the Southern Cross pub in. April. The evening was very successful with our technical coordinator Gordon Weir giving a presentation on corporate membership routes and professional review requirements. Gordon has just returned from a trip to NZ where he received from IPENZ HQ the latest presentation material. Thank you Gordon for your efforts.

If you were unable to attend then, please contact Gordon who will send you a copy of the presentation documents. We will also be able to match up Graduates and Corporate members for possible informal mentoring.

Professional Reviews

Gordon Weir is our Professional Review Coordinator, his numbers are:

Ph 020 7804 9661 (wk)

Ph 07714 069 834 (mobile)

or e-mail: Gordon Weir

North Greenwich Station

This trip did not go to plan. Having received confirmation of the trip from our hosts London Underground we found on the day before the visit that tours such as ours had all been cancelled. In addition there appeared to be no record of us having made a booking. Our Chairman phoned around on the Friday night as many people as he could find on our database to inform them that the trip would not take place.

To compound matters your Hon Secretary was having one of his rare nights out that Friday and those who contacted the Hon Secretary about the trip particularly IEAust members were not spoken to. Unfortunately the situation was beyond our control and our sincere apologies to all those who turned up expecting a tour of North Greenwich Station.

Subscriptions

Our financial year ended at the end of March. A few of you have already renewed your subscriptions but for the rest your subscription for 2000/2001 is now due.

Combined Technical Talk 2000

It is our turn this year to host the combined technical talk with the Aussies. Our planned speaker has fallen through and so the committee are looking for alternative speakers. Recent past speakers have been Mike Smith on Crossrail, Tony Bracegirdle on Acid attack of cast iron tunnel linings at Old Street and Dr. Robert Mair on Deformation of ground structures caused by tunnelling, Tom Eisworth on JET and fusion power, Energy for the next millennia, last year Ian Duncan on Some aspects of the relationship between society and the disposal of radioactive waste.

If you know anybody that would be prepared to talk to our combined Institutions in September this year, please contact the Hon Secretary.

Other UK Association News

Articles for the Newsletter

If you have any news for us, events etc, that you would like us to tell people about in the newsletter please email or fax them to the Hon. Secretary and he will forward them to the Hon Secretary. Feel free to write about the projects you are working on, any differences in British practice compared with N.Z or how you resolved any difficulties encountered.

News From New Zealand

Team NZ to be targeted

More headhunting raids are expected on Team New Zealand's yachting talent with an announcement about a new Swiss challenge due in the next couple of days. The big money syndicate has no links with the ill-fated Be Happy challenge which competed in this year's Cup regatta. It's understood the Swiss group has more than 100 million dollars funding and has already approached sailors from around the world including New Zealand. The name of the new syndicate is "Watch Out".

Govt to put $5.5m in apprentice plan

The Government has decided to pump $5.5 million into a "Modern Apprenticeship" scheme aimed at eventually attracting more than 3000 trainees. Helen Clark said New Zealand was suffering from a shortage of skilled workers in a range of industries and this was likely to worsen as the economy grew. "The Modern Apprenticeships scheme ... will ensure that the issue of skills shortages is tackled head-on, providing young New Zealanders with the skills and motivation necessary to succeed in a modern economy," she said. Apprenticeship coordinators would be employed to recruit and act as mentors to ensure apprenticeships were completed. Apprenticeships would include on and off-the-job training.

For the first time in a decade New Zealand would have "a genuine programme of apprenticeships [to] ensure that young people have a pathway from school into the kind of industry training they need, and this country so desperately needs."

Worldwide demand for mohair

Demand for mohair is booming. New Zealand produces only 0.5 per cent of the world's mohair, but the mohair market is only about 50 per cent supplied worldwide. The top bales for export go out at about $8000 a bale. Last year they would have fetched only $2800." While mohair used to be known only for fluffy jumpers, that is no longer the case. It is woven into a variety of materials ranging from fine suiting to carpets. The goat industry in New Zealand had been held back because it was still suffering from the hype of the 1980s when large numbers of people got into goat farming, only to quickly abandon it. Today's purebred angora goats from South African stock were very different from the goats bred from ferals which were used widely in the 80s, "The goats now are very domesticated, and not fence-breakers. A good sheep fence will contain them."

Dairy products to lead way in forecast recovery

Cheese and wholemilk powder, both important New Zealand exports, are forecast to be in a vanguard of agricultural products leading a recovery from all-time-low international commodity prices. The gradual turnaround in the historically low prices of the past two years is predicted in a report released by the 29-member Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It expected OECD-country cheese exports to grow more than 33 per cent and wholemilk powder 23 per cent over the next five years.

In its sixth Agricultural Outlook, giving detailed projections up to 2005, the OECD said the main factor driving recovery would be a strengthening demand for farm products as the global economy recovered faster than expected from the economic and financial shocks of the past three years. The report said accelerated trade liberalisation from VVTO farm trade talks would create an environment for stronger recovery in both world trade and producer incomes.

Wholemilk powder prices are expected to benefit from economic recovery in Asia and Latin America. The report forecasted that skim milk powder returns would be boosted by the economic turnaround in Asia, which accounts for about 50 per cent of world skim milk powder imports. Butter prices, strongly dependent on Russia's faltering economy, are forecast to advance with rising vegetable oil prices, while cheese returns should rise on the back of strong global demand. In the Pacific beef market, the OECD said trade should increase with an upturn in demand in Asia, especially in Korea. Intense competition after a sharp rise in exports from the United States and Canada would constrain prices. it said the threat from South American countries to other beef exporters in the Pacific market was light in the short term because quota allocated to them in North America was small, Asian markets were remote, supply was restricted, and markets for their high-quality, grass-fed beef had yet to be established.

The sheepmeat trade would continue its downward path with little change expected in the European Union and market prospects dependent mainly on trends in Oceania and, to a lesser extent, the United States.

Dates for Your 2000 Diary

Again, please note the change in dates of the AGM and Annual Reception and that the Combined Technical Talk has been put back until September.

AGM and Annual Reception Monday, 19 June 2000
Combined Technical Talk September 2000
Barbecue Early August 2000
Christmas Soirée Hosted by IEAust - to be advised

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