Last night was my first ICE Wales Executive Board meeting. To be honest I was expecting a stuffy and fairly mundane affair (with maybe a few people dozing off in places). What I got was surprisingly far from it.
The Board members were clearly passionate about the ICE’s role in Wales. The Bridges to Schools Scheme was a big discussion point, as was Engineers for Overseas Development. I hadn’t previously realised that EFOD was a Welsh initiative, and although I knew a bit how they co-ordinate Civil Engineering graduates going out to Africa, it was inspiring stuff to hear more about how they are run. The proactive approach the Board members seemed to apply to everything in front of them was quite impressive, and is probably why Wales is well represented on the UK Council.
A few of the board members (Geoff, Liane, Keith and the two Simon’s) explained the difference between Executive Board and Committee. In simple terms, the Board get the formal business out of the way and make decisions on the direction of ICE Wales. The Committee is then more of an ‘action’ group to drive the initiatives and then feed back to the Board. This then links in to other groups such as Graduates & Students Committee, the Regional Affairs Committee and ICE HQ in One Great George Street. On first impression, there’s lots of cogs and lots of wheels, but everything seems to pull in the same direction!
After the meeting I got the chance to have a bit of a chat with Bob Lark (the previous Chairman who had lectured me back in Cardiff Uni), and to thank him for setting up my Summer placement with Babtie back in 2002 that led to my first job in Industry. Looking forward, I’ll be joining Alun and Keith next Friday for the State of the Nation Launch in OGGS next week so I’m looking forward to that and getting to see ICE HQ for the first time.
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