Held at: GODDARD ARMS HOTEL
On: 28 NOVEMBER 1996
The meeting was chaired by Allen Fairbairn and attended by approximately 50 members,see attached list.
Allen passed on the apologies of Bill Bardo who had a long standing appointment inAustralia the following day. This, Allen explained, was typical of the difficulty everyonewas finding in supporting INCOSE in the current working environment. Allen also welcomedtwo guests from the newly formed Netherlands chapter of INCOSE: Cheryl Atkinson and RobHamann. The UK and the Netherlands chapters were planning to work together on a Europeansymposium proposal for Autumn 1997.
Allen reported on the events of the past year of which the highlight was the CoventrySymposium in June. The event attracted 104 attendees.
He mentioned the importance of the Foresight Initiative and the fact that INCOSEmembers were undertaking important roles. Our developing relationship with IEE and theneed to develop further our relationship with other professional organisations wasreported on.
There had been an intention to get regional centres up and running by now. We were notthere yet, but it is still the intention. An event has been planned for Kent (Medway) areain 1998: there is also an event scheduled for early 1997 in the West country. Anyoneprepared to find a venue and do some advertising would be supported by speakers and funds.There had been little activity on either of the sub-committees: due to difficulty ingetting people together.
The short term agenda for INCOSE had been set by the Foresight, NVQ and ISO activities,sessions of which had formed the first part of the AGM Event. These all present greatopportunities for INCOSE if we are mature enough to follow through. We are currentlyseeking support from members who can make a contribution to the large amount of work thatneeds to be done.
The recent "active members meeting" held at GEC on 10 October was lessconcerned with increasing membership etc. ( The target had been 1000 members by 2000) Thedesire to deliver a good annual symposium every year, pursue regional meetings andspecific interest groups were now being emphasised together with the need to address themajor opportunities being presented , including Europe.
Perhaps we had been too ambitious to start with, effectively shadowing the mainactivities of the States. There was a need to work with the states, make some use of theirdeliverables, contribute to their committees and discussion groups by E-mail, etc. We needto acknowledge that they do have some headway on us and something of value, even if theywere going a bit off course in terms of "true" systems engineering!
Europe opened up great opportunities. Peter Brook had just been elected INCOSE RegionalDirector for Europe and was a main INCOSE board member. These were the priorities for ournext year.
Harry reviewed the year in relation to membership statistics showing a tailing off atthe beginning of the year, but a now improving picture provided that the positive responseseen so far, to the recent mailing continues. He referred to the taking on of John Mead asnecessary to keep up with all the administrative details, for a trial period of sixmonths. The trial period had now finished, and it was intended for John to continue.
He reviewed the mail tree as a means of circulating information to members. This hadfallen down due to a number of branches not doing their bit. It was intended to try againemploying some improvement to the system to allow feedback so that it was known if peoplewere not getting the information.
Harry has now picked up the activity to convert INCOSE into a charity. This would alsopermit individual subscriptions to be set against income tax.
John had prepared copies of the Audited accounts which had been approved by the Board,covering the first two years of operation. These were explained. the Chairman proposed avote of thanks for the work John had put in as Treasurer.
Mike referred to the paper presented by Steve Mallon at our Coventry Symposium andstated that he was progressing this as the basis for a brochure.He referred to the PIGSand expanded on four current themes.
Mike described the proposed Spring event ( UK Annual Symposium ) which was to be"System Engineering in Practise." He is planning a rounded programme and despitethe first close date for receipt of papers having passed he was still seeking more.Members were encouraged to put papers forward. The topic was broad enough to attractpapers from almost any source!
The specification exists for the document which is going to do this for us. 96Symposium paper "A Manifesto for Systems Engineering".
All need activity. Need new members to volunteer. Need a plan for funding and a flyeror story to sell/tell.
Follow-up some of Peter Brook and Peter Robson activities to prove our maturity. Sellto DTI to fund bench marking. Would anyone support it?
Need to expose SECAM amalgamation activity, and to make it easier for access to USdocuments.
Allen was still Chairman - somebody else needed to take over! He confirmed they had notmet since January 1996 but that the activities of Jonathan Moffett on our web site andHoward Nicholls on promotional goodies continued. Another member was now also Secretary (Harry Hughes) so we needed more members.
Due to a lack of nominations it was proposed to retain the existing board as follows
President Dr W S Bardo
President Elect Allen Fairbairn
Past President Professor Derek Hitchins
Board Member Mr W Ian McFarlane.
The treasurer John Sole had asked to step down after serving 2 years, and failing anyvolunteers, Ian McFarlane volunteered to do it until a replacement could be found.Nominations to be requested in the forthcoming newsletter.
Harry Hughes - being the Secretary Elect had recently taken over from his predecessorJeremy Goulding who was now living in the USA. Sec elect position also to be advertised.
Chairman Development and Practices committee Mike Prince
Chairman Membership and Communications committee to be advertised.
Mike Prince therefore becomes an Ex-Officio Board Member.
The above proposal was carried by a show of hands.
Regionals Richard Smith, Peter Lister and Christopher Dean had volunteered toparticipate in leading groups in their areas. John Mead to provide assistance in gettingthese going.
Peter Brook keen to assist with regional workshops based on foresight membershipforums.
Next Year Symposium Date and venue to be decided. Theme decided, need more practicalpapers. Just tell us what you do. Symposium/ Technical/ Workshops to be considered. PeterBrook advised US contact for workshop. Foresight will be a continuing topic.Regarded as aTest / Trial for European Symposium.
Probably Nov. 97. Tentatively Holland or Brussels. The technical committee includingour two visitors from Holland would be discussing after lunch.It may be a JV with I.T.C.who have a bias towards transport systems. They are perhaps getting cold feet in this moregeneral area.
UK to host? Peter Brook is to present our case in L.A in January. Peter Robson isleading the bid. He intends 14 sheets of Powerpoint type presentation. Is there enoughsupport? The answer has to be Yes! PR has discussed with US and Brighton Metropole in Juneis favourite venue. Need main corporate companies to fund things. The chapter would beresponsible for :- Technical programme, chairing meetings, finding high profile speakers.We should not just follow the USA format. Joint Event with the Association of ProjectManagers. We have been invited by Peter Morris (who spoke at Coventry). They have 25,000members in Europe. Andrew Farncombe is giving a paper in Birmingham in February. We reallyneed at least one more.
We had a head to head with INCOSE central over the amount due from UK. We paid £3000on account in September but they were still not providing full membership services.Chairman asked that people only pay to UK for the present and that if they receivedanything on the subject from the USA, would they send it to John Mead. Some had beenreceived and Paul King had renewed direct. A silly situation had also developed overdistribution of deliverables, which INCOSE Central insisted on doing from the States,adding lots of freight charges. A task group report for the January Main Board will beaddressing regional and International methods of operation, hopefully with some commonsense resolutions. Peter Brook will be there.
It was asked whether the Draft System Engineering handbook was available in the UK.Apparently not. Peter Robson will ask the working group chairman.
Last Updated: 14 February, 2000