On the 22^nd August 2012, the new team was elected into Council when the Society celebrated its 10^th anniversary. This new Council in late 2012 was not looking to re-engineer the society but merely set a couple of goals/targets, critical of which was providing sound training and reaching out to the construction industry.

Committees

As is evident from the Annual Reports presented, I’d like to highlight the following portions:

Professional Development – with 9 professional development events in the 2^nd half of the term, a total of 14 events were attended by over 800 members, reciprocal partners and others. Core programmes including the Construction Law 101 (in its 5^th year), Engineering 101 (in its 5^th year) and the latest “Managing Construction Disputes (& Resolutions) – The Efficient Use of Scott Schedules & Expert Witnesses Conferencing” were all well attended. The committee is currently working on a re-run of this latest workshop.

External Relations – The reciprocal partners currently stand at 10 with whom the Society has carried out joint programmes and with the right pricing levels, this encourages several of their members attending our PD and social events. On the international front, the SCL community comprising of Australia, the Caribbean, Gulf, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Singapore have had Denmark, France, Italy, Peru, Spain joining us and Korea is possibly next in line. The international Construction Law conference first started in 2006, here in Singapore. For its 5^th installment, the conference will be held in Malaysia in September this year.

Special Focus – Following a review of the demographic of the SCL(S) membership, the committee engaged  existing partners and assisted the PD committee with joint programmes (such as a seminar for the Tunnelling and Underground Society of Singapore and a joint visit to the Iskandar development in Johor Bahru, Malaysia with the Royal Chartered Institute of Surveyors). The committee will shortly announce a new PD programme that crosses the spectrum of several construction industry expertise.

Social and Outreach – the social and PD events have expanded the networking evenings for members, which is now well established and regularly attended.

Membership – We are 288 strong as at today with 52 new applications growing the membership by 17.5%.

Publication and Website – These have continued to provide informative and current resources to the membership including the E-version of the newsletter and a revamp of the website in the pipeline.

Council Members

The Council made up essentially of the backbone, core and new blood groups, constituted a well balanced team that provided critical initiatives, views, opinions and directions in moving the society forward. The two-year stint, while at times proved taxing to a couple of this fine group of volunteers, saw every single member of the Council persevering to the finish line and I am extremely grateful for their time, energy, guidance and support.

Anil Changaroth