Dear Members and friends, this is my last column in The Refractories Engineer as IRE Australasia President, as I have now handed the baton over to David Hollott. I would like to thank all committee members for their support in the past three years and the two years prior as Vice President.

Although I have a lot of energy, I am looking forward to stepping back, having a well-earned rest and supporting the new management committee in taking our institute to the next level.
During the two-year term we have had several achievements, including a successful technical and exhibition conference, increased financial surplus, plus a more interactive relationship with the UK council. Areas of focus for the new management committee are to increase our membership and training conferences. To that end we have expanded our management committee to include a dedicated Membership Officer and have a renewed plan to deliver training sessions more frequently.

Financially we are in good shape, thanks to the legacy of previous/historic branch committee members and the efforts of our membership at large. However, most of our surplus is derived predominantly through the success of our biennial conferences. Improving those will be a continuing focus. Surpluses allow us to better engage with our members and overseas peers. As part of increasing communication ties to the UK branch; the Australasia branch is committed to continuing to send one of our senior delegates to every UK conference on a biannual basis.

Our representative will be a long serving member, with many years participating in the management committee, including the current or former President position, and they will offer a contribution to the UK conference. The aim is for all management committee members to attend an IRE UK conference, serving as a reward for their service. Importantly, through this exercise, we can relay the strengths of each of our organisations thus broadening our effectiveness to the community we serve.

I thank all those who attended our Annual General Meeting in May and encourage you to always reach out to our peers in the refractory community to be more engaged. A grassroots effort is a key to success. With refractory conferences and training sessions, not only is our work important but it makes it fulfilling and enjoyable and, importantly, makes us better professional refractories engineers.

I thank the current management committee again for bestowing the honour and responsibility on me to serve as President. This is a special high point of my career. Having technical marketing and sales of the Asia Pacific skillset allowed me to offer a further vision and commitment on what our organisation can achieve. Finally, to the new management committee, you have my best wishes and full support and I will aim to serve where I can and look forward to seeing the great progress ahead.

Best always

Mario Taddeo MI Ref Eng
President, IRE Australasia

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