Institution of Mechanical Engineers Malaysia Branch. Minutes of the 12 th Annual General Meeting. Poolside Room, Royal Lake Club, Kuala Lumpur

Transcription

1 Minutes of the 12 th Annual General Meeting Venue: Poolside Room, Royal Lake Club, Kuala Lumpur Date: 26 th March 2012 Time: 6:30 pm The Chairman, Prof Dr Teoh Kok Soo called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm and welcomed all members to the 12 th Annual General Meeting (AGM). 42 members attended the meeting and the breakdown of attendees was as follows:- Fellow 11 Corporate 20 Associate 9 Affiliate 2 The number of fellows and corporate members present was 31, and with the minimum quorum of 20 being satisfied, the Hon. Secretary proceeded to conduct the AGM. 1. Minutes of the 11 th AGM The minutes of the 11 th AGM were confirmed and accepted, as proposed by Associate Prof Ong Kok Seng and seconded by Dr Aravinthan Arumugam. 2. Matters Arising Engr Mathew enquired whether the new IMechE logo was officially approved by the Registrar of Societies Malaysia (Jabatan Pendaftaran Pertubuhan Malaysia), to which Dr Satesh replied in the affirmative. The re-application was done end April 2011 and we received approval for the change of logo in July Page 1

2 3. Chairman s Report / Annual Report The Chairman tabled the Annual Report (copy attached as Appendix A) before the AGM. The Chairman presented a summary of Branch s activities, membership and new communication channels, and changes in the HQ and International Strategy Board structure. The Annual Report for the Young Members Section (copy attached within Appendix A) was tabled by the YMS Chairman, Dr. Tan Chou Yong, before the AGM. Engr Mathew Thomas extended a word of thanks to Dr Tan Chou Yong for his good efforts put into the Young Members Section. 4. Honorary Treasurer s Report Prof Dr. Ramesh Singh presented the Treasurer s Report and reported that for the Year 2011, the branch received a grant of 5,000 (RM24,195) and reimbursements of (~ 1,474.73) RM6,359, totalling (~ 6,474) RM30,554 from IMechE, UK for Malaysia Branch activities (SOFE & AOFM). The total expenditure for the year was RM48, 610. The accounts for the year showed a deficit before taxation of RM18, 056 for the year ending 31 December The deficit was taken from the accumulated funds in our current account. The biggest chunk of expenses came from activities which have doubled in 2011 compared to the last financial year, i.e We anticipate organising more activities this year. IMechE UK has given us a budget of 5K again this year and we foresee running into deficit again this year as the funds given to us will not be sufficient to cover the expenses. deficit. We will take from the savings to cover for the Prof Dr Ramesh reported that the total surplus carried over to 2012 is about RM184K. The money was accumulated since the inception of IMechE and the greater amount mainly came from income generated from a conference conducted by IMechE several years ago, and the rolled over surplus year after year. To the question of whether IMechE plans to organize another conference, Prof Ramesh explained that the Committee has plans to do so, their constraints being time as volunteers have to use their own time and the budget involved in organising a big event. However, the Committee will always try their best to gear activities for the benefit of the members. Page 2

3 Prof Dr Teoh Kok Soo added that IMechE UK is conscious of funds and has cut back on the overall budget allocation for every branch. The allocation of 5K has not been increased over the years, so it is important that IMechE shows them the activities and membership growth to justify to HQ in London to increase the funding. Another member queried about our confidence level that the funding from HQ, London will continue in view of the state of UK s massive national debt. If otherwise, he proposed that IMechE branch in Malaysia may have to look at alternative ways to look for funding. The exchange rate has fluctuated very much since 11 years ago from 1 = RM7.2 to RM4.9 now. The Chairman explained that IMechE s funds are derived mainly from membership subscriptions. Hence membership growth is very important to IMechE, UK. IMechE UK will continue to support regional activities and they will be funding cuts and would like to focus on good activities that will be able to generate members interest and drive new members to join IMechE. We thus need to be clear of the direction of IMechE UK in order for us to tailor our activities towards that. In turn, we give them our proposal of our plans. IMechE also submits quarterly reports to them about the activities conducted. Again if we could justify to IMechE UK about our continued increase in membership and activities that drive members interest and new membership, they will continue to allocate funding to us. Prof Teoh Kok Soo mentioned that the Committee is thinking of other sources of income. All the activities that we organise are free of charge yet we have difficulty in getting members to attend. Our target is to look at generate revenue via Academia, i.e. we organise seminar or conferences where we attract local and international participants, where there is a need for publications, presenting papers and members will be quite happy to pay for such an event. Perhaps a donation from members would be good similar to the case where UK requests members for some contribution when they pay their annual subscription. Ir. Eddie Lim also highlighted that our rolled over surplus came from the exchange rate fluctuations at that time when the exchange rate was high and when IMechE Malaysia received about 9K instead of 5K now from HQ UK. Also there was a symposium that we organised a couple of years ago where IMechE Malaysia made some profit. Prof Dr Ramesh added that as long as the Committee could justify the budget allocated to our branch and highlight our activities, increase the membership and promote IMechE activities, funding from IMechE UK is not an issue. Page 3

4 Dr Satesh further added that there is now a Regional Committee set-up which looks after at the SEA regional activities. Additional funds were channelled to the regional committee and that is the reason for the cut back of the funds for the branch. The Regional Committee serves as a communication channel for branches, so that the branches know what is going on in IMechE HQ and vice versa. In SEA, we have two branches Malaysia and Singapore. It serves as a guide for SEA countries which does not have branches and those wishing to set up a branch. One member queried about the increased costs of stationery and printing in recent years despite going on-line in our communications. Prof Dr Ramesh responded that due to the growing membership, more hard copies such as notices, flyers, brochures, certificates (to be sent out to members) were printed. Members who wish to check the costs could request the general ledger and report from Prof Dr Ramesh. Prof Dr Ramesh further explained that the income in the form of annual grants was derived from IMechE UK and that the local branch does not generate income. To the suggestion of conducting activities or conferences to generate income, Prof Dr Ramesh responded that the aim of IMechE s existence was not to make money, rather to sustain our operation and organise more activities for the network. Dr Satesh added that in 2011, the plan was to increase the awareness of the Committee and grow events, but next year in 2013, the Committee will have plans in place to start seminars and to organise conferences. One member suggested that when we sponsor an activity, we could plough back our profits by giving discount to members for example instead of showing our profits to IMechE. The accounts for the Year 2011 was proposed to be accepted by Engr. Mathew Thomas and seconded by Dr Tan Chou Yong. The accounts for Year 2011 was unanimously accepted and adopted by the Members. Page 4

5 5. Presentation of Membership Certificates Prof Teoh Kok Soo presented the certificates to the following new members:- Judha Purbolaksono - Corporate Member Mushtak Ai-Atabi - Corporate Member Ahmad Sarhan - Corporate Member Mohhamad Hamdi - Fellow Member Xin Wang in absentia Noor Azuan in absentia 6. Election of Office Bearers for Year 2012/13 As at the close of nomination on 26 th February 2012, the following nominations were received for office bearers of the Committee for the session 2012/13: Chairman (1No.) : Associate Prof Ir Dr Faris Tarlochan Honorary Secretary (1No.) : Dr. Satesh Namasivayam Honorary Treasurer (1No.) : Dr. Ramesh Singh Committee Members (11Nos.) : (1) Dr Aravinthan Arumugam (2) Chow Chee Choy (3) Douglas Tong (4) Eddie Lim (5) Mr. Edwin Sim Yih Shyang (6) Engr. Mathew Thomas (7) Assoc Prof Dr. Ong Kok Seng (8) Dr. Rajkumar Durairaj (9) Kannan Munusamy (10) Assoc Prof Faris Tarlochan (11) Tommy Tay Page 5

6 Election of Chairman, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer As there was only one nominee for the Chairman, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer, Associate Prof Dr Faris Tarlochan, Dr Satesh Namasivayam, and Prof Dr Ramesh Singh were all elected as Chairman, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer unopposed respectively. Election of Committee Members Since Associate Prof Ir. Dr Faris Tarlochan was unanimously elected as the Chairman and Tommy Tay has withdrawn his nomination thus not standing for the election, the number of nominations for Committee Members were reduced to nine (9). According to the constitution, election was by show of hands from only the Fellow and Corporate Members. There was some deliberation regarding whether nominated Committee members were allowed to remain in the room and vote for their fellow Committee Members. As the IMechE constitution was silent in this regard, there was a proposal to put the two options to vote by the floor:- Option 1. All nominees to step out of the room during election, thus not allowed to vote at all, or Option 2. particular nominee Only the nominee to step out of the room during the election of this The majority of the members were in favour of option 1. Of the 9 nominees, 6 of them were elected by show of hands. Since there were 6 positions available, each member was allowed to vote 6 times. Based on the majority votes, the elected committees are:- (1) Chow Chee Choy (2) Engr Mathew Thomas (3) Associate Prof Dr Ong Kok Seng (4) Edwin Sim Yih Shyang (5) Douglas Tong (6) Ir Eddie Lim In summary, the elected Committee for the session of 2012/2013 is listed as follows: Page 6

7 Chairman : Assoc Prof Ir Dr Faris Tarlochan Honorary Secretary : Dr. Satesh Namasivayam Honorary Treasurer : Prof Dr Ramesh Singh Immediate Past Chairman : Prof Dr Teoh Kok Soo Committee Members : Chow Chee Choy Engr Mathew Thomas Assoc Prof Dr. Ong Kok Seng Edwin Sim Yih Shyang Douglas Tong Ir Eddie Lim 7. Election of Honorary Internal Auditors Nominations for two (2) Honorary Internal Auditors were sought from the floor. The following nominations were received: No. Nomination Proposer / Seconder 1 Associate Prof Rajkumar 2 Colin Leighton Engr Mathew Thomas Dr Aravinthan Arumugam Prof Dr Ramesh Singh Engr Mathew Thomas There being no further nominations, the members present unanimously agreed to appoint Prof Rajkumar and Colin Leighton as the Honorary Internal Auditors for the session 2012/ Any Other Business Engr. Mathew Thomas expressed a word of thanks for the efforts and contributions of the outgoing committee. Prof Teoh Kok Soo presented the IMechE plaque to the new Chairman, Associate Prof Ir Dr Faris Tarlochan. Eddie Lim mentioned that Malaysia has the largest number of affiliate members and he advised that once they have graduated, they should inform IMechE UK to transfer Page 7

8 their membership to Associate Member status. There are no charges for transferring and they will only pay in January of the following year. There being no other matters, Associate Prof Ir Dr Faris Tarlochan thanked the members for their attendance. He welcomes suggestions from members and hoped to serve the members well. He hoped to see all the members in next year s AGM. The meeting adjourned at 8:10 pm. Page 8