World Bunkering > News > Spring 2009 > Secretariat's report

Ian Adams

IMO held two Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meetings (MEPC 57 & 58), each lasting a week, and two Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) meetings (MSC 84 & 85), each of which lasted 10 days. In addition there was a further week spent at the Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG) sub-Committee and a week in Oslo at the first Intersessional Meeting of the Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships. The Secretary General represented IBIA by speaking at 20 conferences and training courses over the course of the year.

IBIA governance

This year promises to be an exciting year for our Association. Following the Extraordinary General Meeting, held during our Annual Convention in Cape Town, February will see the election of the Board of Directors (BoD). Much has been written about the changes to the governance of IBIA and the membership will hopefully not be adversely affected by the change. The changes have been introduced in recognition of the changing world we all live in and it is hoped this will result in a more responsive organisation. As a result of the changes to the governance, the structure below the BoD is the next stage of the review. With a Council of 25 members, IBIA tried to deal with all issues through the Council, which placed an unrealistic burden on them. Over the coming months the BoD will be assessing which issues IBIA needs to address and how to do so. There will be a need for a number of Committees of the Board. These Committees will be employed to guide and advise the BoD on both current issues, along with issues as they arise. As far as the membership of the Board is concerned I can only speculate. Why? This is the first year, since 2002, that it has been necessary to hold elections. Given that the Chairman and Immediate Past Chairman are elected automatically this has left us with nine vacancies, for which 14 applied. Under the new procedure the Interim Board Development Committee (IBDC) scrutinised the applications and selected the nine people they felt would fulfil the criteria which had been set. These nine people will be identified on the ballot paper, which every member will have received. In addition, the individuals who were unsuccessful, and were not selected by the IBDC, also have the opportunity to appear on the ballot paper. The first Committee to be established is the Convention Committee. This Committee will take responsibility for the content of the IBIA Annual Convention, which is to be held in Singapore during the week commencing 12 October 2009. If any member wishes to contribute to this Committee please contact the IBIA Secretariat.

IBIA Dinner

This year’s IBIA Annual Dinner proved to be even more popular than before which, given the current economic climate, was a great surprise. In fact, it proved so popular that we had to change the arrangements slightly from last year. The original plan to limit the number of guests to 650 was based on the fact that the pre-dinner champagne reception was extremely full last year. When the Dinner was announced this year the Secretariat was overwhelmed with the number of applications for tickets. We actually sold all 650 tickets in three weeks. It very quickly became apparent that there was going to be a very large number of people who were going to be disappointed as they were not going to be able to get a ticket. After discussions with the hotel an alternative arrangement was arrived at and we were able to release a further 80 tickets. Unfortunately, last year this option was not available. This meant that at the time of writing (early January) the waiting list is relatively short (but still populated).

Looking forward

As far as the IMO is concerned we are due to attend the BLG sub-Committee meeting in March along with the Second Intersessional Meeting of the Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships the following week. It is important to note that, whilst the high-profile issue of MARPOL Annex VI has been concluded, there are still a number of issues which IBIA will be monitoring and, where appropriate, be commenting on. Finally, I would like to say a very large thank you to Fritz Fredriksen who steps down as Chairman after two excellent years. Fritz leaves the Chair having overseen the revision of the governance of the Association; I have appreciated his efforts in supporting the aims of the Association. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Chris Fisher as our new Chairman. Chris has been on the Council for a while now and has previously served as Honorary Treasurer. I look forward to working with Chris during his year “in the Chair”.

Ian Adams