Dr A. J. M. Soane (F) (Bingham Cotterell) I have two questions on this very interesting project. First, how did you get on with DIN? Secondly, how did you get on with the Prüfingenieur or - perhaps more importantly - how did the Prüfingenieur get on with you?
Mr President, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a very great honour to be here this evening on such a special occasion for the Institution and to have a chance to share with you some thoughts and ideas about what might be in store for you as structural engineers within and without the Institution, and the degree to which those concerns for the environment now impinge on all our lives. Jonathan Porritt
It is an honour to be elected President of our Institution and to be given the opportunity to serve the members. Our Institution will celebrate, in 1998, 90 years of service to the public and to industry. I consider it important, however, to set my election in the context of the tragic event which occurred in October 1996. The death of David Alsop, a Vice-president of the Institution and a long-serving member of Council and other standing committees, has affected all of us. The Institution was confronted with a sudden and tragic situation which required difficult decisions in a relatively short period of time. I am conscious of my position and am aware of the need to continue policies developed over the last few years. S. Thorburn
Contribution to Verulam Contributions on some BS Codes of Practice have been numerous and, in some cases, extremely long, so much so that the discussions on BS 8002 Earth-retaining structures have been consigned to a separate correspondence section - a new procedure within The Structural Engineer. Verulam would like to repeat an earlier request reminding members that brief communications are particularly welcomed and that length is not necessarily concomitant with quality. Authors may suffer distress when a pearl of wisdom or eloquence in their contribution is discarded, but perhaps the pain can be borne when they consider the pleasure which brevity gives to Verulam.