The Society kicked off 2010 with an interesting spread of activities and programs

Professional Development

This 1st quarter of 2010 witnessed a number of visits and talks. In January, the Society organized a visit to Maxwell Chambers followed by talks in February and March on Dispute Boards and the independence of Certifiers.

The next talk in April will feature a double bill of a Singaporean and Australian speakers discussing the adjudication experience in the two countries.

My thanks to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Professional Development Committee, Karen Fletcher and Anil Changaroth, for their discipline and focus in putting together such an interesting and regular spread of professional development activities for our members.

Engineering 101

The tireless Audrey Perez helmed the 2nd annual run of our popular 2-½ day evening training course “Engineering 101”.

This course is specifically designed for lawyers, quantity surveyors and other non engineering professionals interested in the basics of engineering principles, construction projects, construction techniques and related challenges.

The Society launched this course last year to overwhelming response from the course participants. The course was conceived and taught by Audrey Perez, a professional civil engineer with Dragages Singapore, and a Council member. Audrey attracted rave reviews for her teaching style and materials last year, and the Society is very fortunate to have her back this year.

In response to feedback from last year’s course, this year’s program consists of 4 evening sessions held over 2 weeks.

I would like to recognize the enormous commitment and work put in by Audrey. Conceiving and teaching a course of this nature is a very demanding exercise. On behalf of the Society and all its members, I extend my thanks and appreciation to Audrey.

Social

As we are near the end of the our 1st quarter of 2010, I look forward very much to meeting all of you at our next networking cocktail in April and our Annual Dinner scheduled in the middle of the year.

Last year’s Inaugural Dinner was a tremendous success. I look forward to the cheerful combination of good food, great wine and excellent networking that made for such a thoroughly enjoyable evening last year, awaiting us all in a few months time.

External Relations

The External Relations Committee headed by Johnny Tan has cemented reciprocal arrangements for the Society with six very esteemed partner organizations:

• The National University of Singapore (Law Faculty)
• the Chartered Institute of Building
• the Singapore Contractors Association
• the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators
• the Singapore Institute of Surveyors & Valuers
• the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA)

The formal signing of the MOUs took place on 2 March 2010 (a fuller report appears in this newsletter).

The MOUs establish a framework and platform for mutual co-operation and sharing of expertise to promote and advance the practice of construction and construction law. They encourage the parties to collaborate on joint programmes such as conferences and forums and to promote each other’s events, with preferential rates extended to the other’s members.

The Society is delighted to be able to work with partner organizations of the stature and standing of our 6 partner organizations.

My appreciation to Johnny and his External Relations Committee for bringing together for the Society this grouping of key partners in the industry and academia.

Members Directory

I had mentioned in my previous message that the Society was looking at the Members’ Directory.

It is therefore my pleasure, on behalf of the Council, to announce the launch of our online Members’ Directory.

The Council debated the possibility of a hard copy publication but eventually decided that an online publication would be more efficient, offering the tremendous advantage of regular and constant updating, and easy access.

The Online Directory has both a public and private area with the provision of voluntary details in the form of members “pen portraits”. The public section merely contains a listing of all of our members names although each individual member has the option of listing your organization, designation, contact number and pen portraits if you so wish. Otherwise, this additional information will only be made available in the members’ area.

You will see more details on this in the write up in this newsletter.

Concluding Remarks

As we move past the 1st quarter into mid 2010, the Society’s AGM will not be very far off.

There will be full Council election this upcoming AGM as the current Council’s two years term will come to an end.

For those of you who are interested in the activities of the Society and would like to participate more actively and fully, the AGM offers you an opportunity to do so.

In additional, we have seven standing committees (which focus on specific areas of the Society’s activities) which always welcome enthusiastic interested members. So there are a number of varying levels and opportunities of participation.

As always, I end my message looking forward to your continuing support and participation in our ongoing activities and programs.

Your feedback and comments are always welcome, both on what we have been doing, as well as what we have not been doing, or on not doing right.

All comments, positive or negative are welcome. You can email me c/o the SCL Secretariat This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Mohan R Pillay

Chairman

2008-2010