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Vol 31 - No 07 - November/December 2005 Institute news : Chairman’s Message There’s a Chinese proverb that has stayed with me for many years – ‘may you live in interesting times’. As with most Chinese proverbs it is a double edged sword: interesting in this context is interpreted as not boring, but challenging; interesting in the sense that nothing is predictable, ordinary or unchanging. With our response, we become more or less part of the time we live in; because individuals, organisations and nations find themselves challenged to respond in dramatic ways to the circumstances around them. The reality is that most of us have no choice about the times we live in. Circumstances around us are ‘interesting’ or not – world wars, terrorism, bankruptcies to name just a few. So we can either move to the Outer Hebrides and try and ignore the world and its challenges or we have to act. People are saying we are entering times of scarce oil resources (www.peakoil.com); global warming, environmental issues, China and India’s rapidly developing world presence are all shaping our world of work; there seems to be no end to the list. I believe UK plc, most of your organisations and many members of the IOM are deeply immersed in these interesting times and maybe trying to find an adequate response. Doing nothing is no response, but it is easy to feel isolated, lacking the familiar signposts that give us comfort in the decisions we make day-by-day. As an Institute, we feel we have to find ways of keeping you better informed of the impact and appropriate response to these issues, help you become better trained and educated to be able to respond with more authority and by arming you with solutions to these seemingly intractable problems. Certainly the IOM feels these interesting times very acutely. We have to respond to the changing role of Institutes such as ours - many are simply giving up; members have less time to contribute to doing good works for their Institute; less money is being spent in the areas of training and seminars that are our life blood. So, what has been our response and what are we doing next in these interesting times? We have recruited skilled full time staff at headquarters – Katie Sweeney joined us during October as Communications Manager. We are replacing our headquarters computer network and member database software to be more effective in our day-to-day operations. We are looking to Operations professionals in areas other than manufacturing - you will see a heavy emphasis on the Health Sector in this very issue. We are working to infiltrate the Financial and Banking sector too. So what? For the Institute to be more effective, your Council believes that you as members have to feel that we are giving you what is most important to you: access to the best information, the ability to learn new techniques and apply them directly in your own organisations and access to what is grandly called ‘continuous professional development (CPD). The products that IOM deliver are all aimed at you as members and the Council’s next task is to hone our broad offerings into rational, credible products that really appeal. Over the next months we want to give you the ability to interact with each other through the website, which itself needs a thorough revamp, radically change the content and delivery of short courses and create the opportunity for each of you to be involved in a CPD day where you can be immersed with colleagues in these interesting times and the response that your Institute is creating. For me as your new Chairman it looks like being a very interesting couple of years!! Peter Aston, FIOM Related Topics:
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