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LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS
50 000 respectively, a position that was satisfactory to EWF, which was a not-for-profit
organisation.
18
Income for 2001 actually did turn out to be higher than projected resulting in
a modest loss of a little under EUR 7 000, an acceptable result considering that the cost of
cross-subsidisation in the first year of operation could have beenmuch higher. The scheme did
produce a similar loss in the following year before returning the smallest of profits in 2003.
Having done its main work for the past four years, a formal
resolution to disband C-VII was taken at the General Assembly in
Florence, Italy in 2000. C-XIV would still continue with its work
for the overall membership of IIW, including complementing
the activities of the IIW IAB. In readiness for this, considerable
groundwork had been done over the previous 12 months by IIW to
establish the IAB for IIW. Prof. David Howden (USA), the first
Chair of the IIW IAB, was to comment on the generalities of
the achievements gained in setting up the IIW IAB and that
the next phase of the agreement was to move into a closer
relationship with EWF.
As part of this process,Van de Brug was contracted as a mediator to find
solutions for the organisation of the IIW IAB and its financial arrangement
with EWF. Mr Bevan Braithwaite (UK), as the current IIW President, was
to add vocal encouragement to this by saying ‘…a group of people of great
knowledge of this area had been set up to work over the last 12 months
in order to secure the cooperation of many countries. The big achievement
now was to have a scheme for this qualification activity and it is a great
credit to all the people involved in this process’.
19
Braithwaite’s words were
a reaffirmation of the excellent progress that had been made since Lisbon
and the growing collaboration and cooperation between members of EWF
and IIW in the Planning and Implementation Group that had been tasked
with the formidable challenge of getting the scheme up and running.
The first country outside of Europe to have its IIWANB approved was China in 2000,
followed in turn by Japan, Australia and the USA. By the end of 2004, over 24 000 IIW
diplomas had been issued and the IIW IAB network consisted of 34 active IIWANBs. The
IIW IAB Group A had expanded the number of categories from the original International
Welding Engineer (IWE), International Welding Technologist (IWT), International Welding
Specialist (IWS) and International Welding Practitioner (IWP) to include International
Welding Inspection Personnel (IWIP) and International Welder (IW), through the
establishment of curriculum guidelines for all these categories. The IIW IAB Group B
Implementation, Authorisation and Certification
, chaired by Mr Jeff Huffsey (USA), was
David Howden