Message from RAeS
Message from RAeS
First, I have to say how honoured I am to have been voted in as President and my promise is to serve the needs of the Society to the very best of my ability. My thanks go to my immediate predecessors, Howard Nye and Jonathan Cooper, who both had their tenures severely affected by the pandemic. This is also the moment to welcome Kerissa Khan as the President-Elect and I look forward to working with her as we push to deliver our long-term programme. Like all of you, I am delighted we are now well on the way back to normality and we must look forward as many things have clearly changed for good.
I want to acknowledge the sacrifices being made by the people of Ukraine. The next Council meeting will discuss the effect the Ukraine conflict has had on our sector.
A few days ago, we held the Society Banquet, and we are very grateful to Alix Partners for their generous support of the evening, the first since 2019, and it was proof, if needed, that the value of meeting in person cannot be overstated; it is the most effective way to really develop trust. Patrick Ky, the Executive Director of EASA, was an outstanding guest speaker, reminding us which country historically wrote most of EASA’s regulations.
As President, I chair the Council and here the pandemic has led us to a new and better way of working. By going virtual we have been able to include all the Council Members from outside the UK, as well as the Division Presidents and Chairs. This has improved communication and the breadth of our meetings. We will now develop a new approach to ensure this high level of attendance is maintained while still meeting in person.
Turning now to the year ahead.
First, we must exploit the opportunity to recover. Like all organisations, the Society has found the past few years tough. I am determined that the Society will learn from the experience and thrive. Key is the importance of young people. When I speak to industry, airlines or anyone else and ask ‘What is your biggest challenge?’ the answer is always ‘recruiting’. We must solve this problem from the roots – that means pupils at school (younger and older), university and college students as well as apprentices. We should use the tools of the Society and our stakeholders to enthuse the youngest, guide and advise those choosing their careers (of course encouraging towards aerospace), help sustain those in the early years, keep them aboard in the mid-career and use their knowledge in their later years. This is a long-term effort but it is the right thing to do and a must for the future of our sector.
Second, is that I and the Chief Executive, and others, will generate a profile to project the Society and ensure it is fulfilling its remit to inform policymaking, not only in the UK but everywhere the Society has a presence. Being non-political we have the unique ability to deliver unbiased, evidence-based advice.
I have identified three key themes for my Presidential year, and I hope you will support me:
- Looking after young prospects to bring them into our sector and sustain them thereafter.
- Making sure the Society is relevant and the go-to place for learned advice.
- Reform of the Society’s governance.
I know you will all have devoured last month’s AEROSPACE from cover to cover so will have read about the Society Governance review, if not, I suggest you go to https://www.aerosociety.com/about-us/governance/governance-review and take a look. I spoke about this proposal at the banquet and I am convinced we must change. I think we all agree that aerospace is at the leading edge of technology and innovation and similarly your Society must keep up with the times. There is legislation that drives the role of the Board of Trustees but we can be more flexible with who we ask to be a Trustee, as well as the roles and functions of the Council and Boards. I think the governance proposal is good but we need to hear your views.
And, finally, I need your feedback. My email is president@aerosociety.com – please use it. Our Society can only thrive with the engagement of its members. Comment is welcome but, even better, offer your services, whether to Council, on a Board, or practical support to young people – please step up and take part, you will find it more rewarding than you imagined.
Thanks to Scott Phillips for his article last month on the work of the Society’s Community Engagement. That community, our volunteers, Specialist Groups, Branches, Divisions and Networks, is vital to our learned output and I hope you found it useful to learn about parts of the Society you might not be too familiar with after the past couple of years.
Of course, this month we focus again on our volunteer community, in the shape of our new President for 2022-23. I’m delighted to welcome Air Commodore Peter Round to his year as President of the Society. I’m looking forward to working with him and to delivering on his themes of new space and the next generation.
While it is an incredible honour to join the historic ranks of President of the Society, it is, without doubt, an all-consuming voluntary role. The time demands are significant but the reward is the opportunity to be the public face of the Society, representing the wider membership at our Branches, Divisions, Corporate Partners and with other stakeholders.
For obvious reasons though, that reward was largely impossible for Howard Nye in his Presidential year and he has spent most of his time representing the Society at conferences and lectures remotely from his home. While the end of the year has allowed him to travel a little, it has not been anything close to ‘normal’. My sincere thanks, therefore, to him for his good humour, dedication and friendship in my first few months as Chief Executive and our best wishes to him for the next phase of his Society life.
One benefit of the pandemic has been our switch of the AGM to being held online. This gives members from around the world an easier opportunity to ask questions of the Council and Trustees than we were able to offer when it was in person. It was interesting to have questions on the Society continuing to deliver hybrid named lectures, on how Branches can also continue to add to our learned output through having their lectures available to watch online, how the Society will deal with the challenges of the increased cost of living which also aligns with another question of how we will be ensuring that the Society remains open to all in the future.
The continued diversity of our Council, Boards and Committees is an example of this – in the past five years we’ve seen a change from 15% of their members being women to now 29%, and this year’s Council Elections also returned an equal number of men and women. As I said in my answer, we, and our sectors, still have a long way to go, but I’m pleased with how we are doing on this journey. To help with this, we’re aiming to make sure that all opportunities to volunteer are more widely known and openly advertised so that, even if you’re a relative newcomer to the Society, you can find out ways in which you can become even more engaged in what we do and help give something back to your sector.
The ICAO Assembly in October is likely to focus heavily on climate change. We are therefore delighted to be hosting the ICAO Air Navigation Commission on 30 June where we will present a number of papers on the Society’s work and role. The ANC manages all of ICAO’s technical work and it’s an honour to have them with us, particularly in the year when Padhraic Kelleher FRAeS is the ANC President. We will be using the opportunity to renew our links with ICAO, where we hold Observer status, with the aim of presenting papers for consideration by the Assembly later this year. My thanks to the LSB and the SGCC for co-ordinating on presentations and papers from our Specialist Groups that will be presented throughout the day.
Finally, as the President mentioned, we are progressing through our Governance Review which the Trustees launched earlier this year. The Review is to ensure our Royal Charter, By-Laws and Regulations are fit for purpose and that we continue to operate a strong, compliant and resilient Society for the future that allows us to deliver on our charitable aims. We’d welcome any views you might have on the proposals, which are available on our website.
Next month I want to highlight the role our Education Team provide, from outreach work with schoolchildren – including the return to the Farnborough Airshow in July, through apprenticeship and university opportunities and into early career professional stage – I’m very conscious that members tend to know certain parts of what we do, so I hope it will be a great opportunity for you to understand the depth of what your membership provides to our future generations.