The ANZ Young Engineers Network (YEN) held its AGM yesterday, nominating a fresh regional committee, made up of a mix of new and experienced faces.
Following a review of the 2023 highlights, 24 attendees made for a lively discussion on strategy and the approaches that should be taken to run events and engage with universities in 2024.
There was agreement to appoint a student to represent the institution at each university with May Clancy pointing out a need to define that role in the coming weeks. Jake Lenahan suggested, “This approach will give rise to more interest in CIBSE”.
The debate of online versus face-to-face events wasn’t won, merits for both formats were sighted with online noted as better suited to technical events with a wider focus, and face-to-face winning out for networking events in the coming year.
The strategy discussion was followed by an introduction of each of the 2024 Officer nominees and an online vote for the officer positions. General committee positions were open to all.
Congratulations to the 2024 YEN ANZ Officers and Committee Members:
YEN ANZ Chair – Niro Siriwardena
Vice Chair/Secretary – Enda Seyama-Heneghan
Treasurer – Chau Lam
Marketing Lead – Steven Lam
Student Outreach Lead – Nicole Nanayakkara
General Members Rep: Bilal Jan, Jerry Zhang
(Clockwise from top left: YEN ANZ Chair Niro – Siriwardena; Treasurer – Chau Lam; Student Outreach Lead – Nicole Nanayakkara, General Member – Jerry Zhang; Vice Chair/Secretary – Enda Seyama-Heneghan; Marketing Lead – Steven Lam)
This is Niro's third year serving as YEN ANZ Chair. Looking to the future Niro said,
"A stronger focus on student engagement is something I'm really looking forward to. In 2023 we had great successes with our Student Mentorship Program as well as presenting to university students on the benefits of joining CIBSE. This will form great groundwork for a new region-wide initiative where we engage, chat, and support our emerging engineers."
CIBSE YEN balances the need for technical knowledge with the benefits of a strong professional network.
When asked about his biggest goals for 2024 Niro commented,
"Aside from getting my tennis backhand into reasonable shape, I'm really looking forward to holding a lot more events with other young professionals societies. While it's important that we hone our technical sharpness - something CIBSE continuously helps with - in the buildings industry we are only as strong as our wider project teams. Getting a better understanding of what happens across the table will improve the acumen of young engineers greatly."
Find out more about the Young Engineer Network (YEN).
Sign up to the YEN ANZ network today, online it’s free.
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Are their emerging built environment professionals in your organisation who could benefit from the free resources and opportunities that CIBSE YEN provides? |