IHE Council – an alternative view
- Tuesday May 18, 2021
February 2021
Syed Khalid Mahmood, IHE Middle East Branch, reports on the latest Council meeting.
The aggression in the air was obvious as soon as the meeting started. Beads of perspiration started trickling own the forehead of the CEO, while the president stammered over the minutes from the last meeting.
A growing uproar took over the room, a situation only made worse when some of the members drew their swords.
Well, let me admit that nothing like that happened in the last IHE Council meeting. It was a serious meeting of a highly professional engineering institute.
For a start, the IHE council meeting of 18 February was held over Zoom. The CEO administered the meeting with the support of the president. There was a financial update on 2020 and members were able to ask questions.
Portfolio leads also provided updates on their group’s activities and highlighted their achievements since the last meeting. There was a sense of accomplishment at all of the good work being done to run the Institute. Listening to seasoned Council members was a treat as they shared their perspectives, opinions and ideas.
Then there were those out-of-the-box thinkers who fired away interesting ideas and statistics intending to improve and review some existing approaches. The scrutineers gave their report, which was quite comprehensive and provided a 360-degree view of the Institute.
The meeting may have overshot by more than an hour but everyone remained engaged, which I thought this was quite remarkable for a virtual meeting lasting more than three hours.
The meeting contained a great deal of information on financial and other complex matters, all of which strengthened my commitment to continue to steer the IHE during the tough and unprecedented times we are currently passing through.