Dear Members,

In my previous message I spoke of my impending visit to New Zealand and I am pleased to inform you that I had the privilege of inaugurating IESL New Zealand Chapter in Auckland on 31 January, 2015 with the participation of large number of engineers living and working in New Zealand.

I am also proud to mention that our colleagues there have established themselves as highly regarded in their professional fields and command the respect of others in that country.

Back home it was time for ‘B’ Paper examinations for the Professional Review usually held in March and hectic preparations were underway to hold it in all the provinces with the assistance of IESL Provincial chapters. It is my hope that the special efforts the institution has taken to boost the pass rates will yield the desired outcome and bring a marked improvement in the proportion of chartered engineers in our membership. Things were also bright in our efforts to pass the Engineering Council Bill in the parliament as there are signs that the Act may finally be enacted very soon.

In other developments the Call for Papers for the Annual Transactions for the 109th Sessions have been made and authors could make submittals through an electronic document management system as well. I expect submission of abstracts to be in their heavy numbers seen in the past years. The quality of papers too I hope will improve so that a high proportion of the abstracts that gets accepted initially will transform in to full papers that will get published. The marked improvements in the participations in the technical paper presentations at the last Annual Sessions will, I hope, establish itself as a healthy trend in the future.

The ‘ENGINEER’ journal too will get colour printed in better quality paper from the next issue as part of the institution’s effort to getting it listed in internationally renowned journal indexes. It is already listed in the Sri Lanka Journals On Line (SLJOL) and expected to enjoy the full exposure it affords to member journals. Efforts are underway to introduce electronic documentation management system in the near future for paper submittals to the journal too.

I express the similar sentiments with regard to the ‘SLEN’ newsletter too. Recent years has seen revolutionary changes to modern ICT enabled features in the digital version. Efforts are underway to boost qualitative improvements to writing skills of members through specially designed programmes so that there will be wider contribution to the SLEN by members.

I end with that positive note. Bye until we meet again in the next corner.

President