VICTORIA With record temperatures in Victoria over the past months, it has been pleasing to see some milder weather head our way, taking some stress off us and our plant. Hopefully your 2013 is off to a great start, as we face the challenges of this new year. Our committee met in early January to commence our meeting plans, considering venues and guest presenters that would be popular and informative to our members throughout this year. Our first meeting was held in February, hosted by Ganesh Sen from Eco Hospitality Refurbishment. As Ganesh has a close affiliation with RMIT, the meeting was held at the University. Ganesh presented in conjunction with KNX Intelligent Building Technology. The KNX team delivered a brilliant overview
WESTERN AUSTRALIA The Western Australian institute celebrated Christmas in December at the Brisbane Hotel with a great turnout of 50 members. We wished everyone a safe and happy Christmas and hoped that it was a prosperous new year. The WA Chapter rested over January with most Engineers and members on holidays. In February we visited the Ampac technologies team at there office/workshop in Balcatta. Ampac Technologies is the largest independent and privately owned supplier of fire detection and alarm systems in Australia. Ampac specialises in the design, manufacturing and technical support for a complete range of system solutions. Ampac supply systems for a vast variety of applications including commercial
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of the world of KNX, taking us through the advantages of this versatile open architecture based system. Again we recorded one of our best attendances with a total of 27 members and 8 newcomers, a great way to start the year, showing amazing support of our chapter. March had us gather at the Swanston Hotel Grand Mercure. Credit and thanks to Lal Udagedara Maintenance Manager, for working with his management team to secure the venue for us to meet. Paul Calabro, General manager of Scholz Industries, made the trip over from SA to present on the evening. The presentation was focused on VEET and Paul presented a very informative overview and introduction to the currently offered incentive. I feel we all walked away with a sound understanding of what the scheme has to offer and how our hotel’s can possibly benefit from the scheme when implementing energy saving projects.
network of contacts to passionately arrange our meetings, thank you Stephen. As we do every year, we are aiming to increase our member base in 2013 through the support of the committee, our hotel engineers and corporate members spreading the news about our meetings. By encouraging new members to our chapter, this will enable us to further develop a linked community of hotel engineers within Victoria. If you wish to become a member or require further information about our meetings, feel free to contact me via email, david.zammit@hyatt.com or use the membership form published in this magazine. The chapter presidents are also set to meet in April as part of our ongoing commitment in keeping the chapters communicating on a national level. Highlights of this meeting will be shared in the next edition of the magazine.
April and May’s meetings are currently being finalised; meeting dates will be communicated once venues and presenters are confirmed. Stephen Docherty our meeting coordinator has been instrumental in this task, using his vast
David Zammit President – AIHE Victoria Chapter david.zammit@hyatt.com
and industrial buildings, mines, prisons, hospitals, hotels and multi-residential complexes.
President Tony Fioraso
Ampac Technologies operates Australia-wide through a network of branch offices.These offices provide sales and technical support for fire installation & EWIS contractors as well as fire discipline and electrical consulting engineers.They also work with building owners and maintenance engineers to make recommendations for future planning or budgeting. Ampac Technologies is also ISO 9001 accredited
Security Social coordinators Lee Binsted Doug Stemp Barry Haydinger
David Thomas (Ampac Sales Executive) provided a Smart Graphics Presentation on the night which was well received with lots of interest and ideas on improving our current fire systems. The site meeting was well represented with over 30 members. Many thanks go out to Joe Fusari-State Manager Western Australia, Ampac Technologies and his team who provided food and refreshments after the presentation. Pan Pacific Hotel hosted the Annual General Meeting in March with the committee for next year voted in as follows:
Regards
Treasurer Ian Amen
The meeting was well represented with 30 members and our thanks went out to Jason Navarro (Chief Engineer) and Stuart Birrell (Assistant Chief Engineer) for hosting the night and providing refreshments after the meeting. I would like to acknowledge Darryl Mason for his help over the last year. The committee is very excited about what we can achieve over the next year particularly with the support of our Engineers and corporate members gaining strength in numbers every month. The calendar of events has been circulated to all members with a variety of meetings, presentations and site visits planned throughout the year, but we continue to seek new and exciting topics for discussion. Thank you and I hope you all have a great year, Tony Fioraso President – AIHE Western Australia