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LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS
in these documents available to industry and the general public.
Modernisation was the key to upgrading IIW’s service to the
membership and, following its initial presentation to the Executive
Council, the WG
Strategic Planning
, under the guidance of the
Chair Dr Giulio Costa (Italy), was then given official approval to
provide a new-found platform to guide IIW through the 1990s. The
final report was delivered to the Executive Council in July 1992
after several meetings, the last being in Madrid, Spain, in
May 1992.
15
The report was comprehensive and covered
both the strengths and weaknesses of IIW and looked
at the ‘big picture’ opportunities rather than solving the
specific problems that IIW currently faced.
One of the strengths of the Institute was its high professional standing in government,
industry, research institute and university circles. The current structure of IIW was
considered to be a powerful administrative machine for communication between welding
societies and individual specialists of many disciplines on a worldwide basis. IIW did have
weaknesses, the most important of which had been evident for some years – the length of
time that it took for actions to be implemented.
One would suspect that such criticisms were aimed at the long-held
constitutional requirement, 44 years in fact, for the registered office to be
situated in the country where the General Secretary was based, at that time
the UK. It was commented that legal opinion, as defined by English Law,
meant that the Institute was an unincorporated company, a matter that would
not have sat well with some members of the Executive Council since it
meant that IIW had no legal status at all. The final conclusions of the report
did recommend a number of initiatives and a need for the Executive Council
to be restructured so that Vice-Presidents became responsible for specific
areas and operation of corresponding working groups.
During Eaton’s Presidency 1990-1993 the concept of a single
secretariat was progressively developed and received increasing
support by most members of the Executive Council. Mr Robert
Salkin (Belgium), who was President 1987-1990 was not, however,
in favour of a single secretariat although the incoming President in
1993, Mr Raül Timerman (Argentina), with an industrial background,
fully supported a single secretariat.
16
Following the release of the
findings of the WG
Strategic Planning
a total of 12 members
responded with suggestions. Inevitably, many were to question
the current practice of having both a General Secretariat in the
UK and a Scientific and Technical Secretariat in France.
Giulio Costa
Robert Salkin