AGM - The Annual General Meeting of the SAE-A

The Annual General Meeting of the SAE-A

Moving with the times was made just that bit easier with Covid – it meant that everyone in business learned to Zoom hence, it was no surprise that even though the SAE-A AGM for 2022 could be held in person, as it was, it was also relayed via Zoom.

CEO and chairman Adrian Feeney opened the AGM which despite being available on Zoom had an array of young engineering students as well as SAE-A members. This year the event was held on Tuesday 28 June at an edgy venue called The Third Day in North Melbourne under dimmed lights and with a display of vehicles on site including Formula SAE cars from Monash and RMIT, plus a virtual reality display from Swinburne, an autonomous car from Monash, a Nissan Warrior from Premcar and a V8 SuperCar. By way of introduction to the event Mr Feeney said that the SAE-A’s vision was to foster a thriving mobility engineering industry in Australia, and where once we had five manufacturers in Australia and a vibrant array of opportunities for engineers, we had to move with the times but that did not mean that there were no longer opportunities for engineers. Indeed, the next speaker, Bernie Quinn of Premcar proved that opportunities do exist and there is a thriving, though smaller auto industry in Australia. Mr Feeney described the changes within the SAE-A thanking those board members who had left – Noelle Parlier, David Young and Luke Callaway for their hard work, and welcoming new board members James Soo and Richard Taube. One vacancy remains on the board and will be filled in due course. “We’re looking toward specific skills rather than just numbers to fulfill the positions and the jobs to be done,” Mr Feeney said. “I’d like to just talk about myself for a minute, which I don’t like to do normally, but I’ve been in this job for a while and there will be a motion coming out later … basically it’s time for me to move on. “I intend to stay on for this year as the chairman and CEO … but then we need to start looking for a new chairman, and look to how we are going to run the business going forward. We honestly can’t afford a CEO, but there’s other ways of doing it.” Mr Feeney explained that there were a number of projects important to the SAE-A that were underway, especially APAC21 and December’s Formula SAE event at Winton Raceway. These would benefit from his completing a fourth term as CEO and chairman. The motion was put to a vote and Mr Feeney will continue for another year. Greg Shoemark and Michael Waghorne completed their 3-year terms, and both were eligible to stand for re-election for an additional 3-year term. Both accepted to continue. A new nomination was received from Gary White and all were duly elected.

During 2021 the focus of the SAE-A was on more strategic delivery of services with some minor changes including the website redesign through the use of the new Member Jungle platform. The 2021 year was a particularly challenging year for the Society. Although Covid -19 impacted on all the events planned in 2021, it also provided opportunities for changes to the way programs were run, especially the use of online media, none more so than for Formula SAE-A. The Board took full advantage to limit its exposure to potential losses by restructuring its calendar of events. This restructuring showed the Society has a strong commitment to its members, staff, and programs. Despite these challenges, the financial result was a positive outcome for the Society. Cost restructuring has been a major change to the Society and will continue for the calendar year 2022. The results have paid off in savings while improving member benefits. The APAC 21 Technical Committee has continued its work to prepare for this significant event scheduled for early October, all members are encouraged to attend. The Board has continued with KE Creative to manage all events. The Formula SAE 2022 event will return to its normal format and the events calendar for 2022 has been developed with a focus on face-to-face events. As far as the APAC21 conference is concerned, so far 73 papers have been registered with a sponsor confirmed and more pending. Delegates have started to register, with Remi Bastien and Majid Sarvi confirmed as first keynote speakers, session chairs have been identified, three panel sessions confirmed and a draft program developed. Mr Feeney then turned to what was initially referred to within the SAE-A as the Police Car Project and now the Zero Emissions Vehicle. As this project developed, it became clear that the original objectives to manufacture a vehicle from the ground up here in Australia could not be met however, by changing the focus to a Zero Emissions Vehicle and engaging two very well credentialled interns in Noi Kotev and Evan Favos the SAE-A was able to provide potential manufacturers or remanufacturers a clearer picture of the

2022 Events Held to Date

• Sutton Tools Tour – 17 March • Motec Webinar – 30 March • FSAE Virtual Careers Expo – 31 March • VIPAC Tour – 19 May • Industry Networking Event – 28 June, post AGM

Events Planned/Under Consideration

• Networking Breakfasts/Dinners • State Run Networking Events Under

Consideration • LEAP Training – 26, 28 July & 2, 4

August (10am - 3pm) • Garry Rogers Motorsports Facility Tour – 17 August • Linfox Tour of World Class Proving

Ground – 12 September • Women in Industry Webinar – 29 September • PACCAR Site Tour – October • 2022 APAC21 Conference – 3 - 5 October • Crash Course Investigation, Dr Shane

Richardson – 14 - 18 November • FSAE-A 2022, Winton – 8-11 December

potential market for a family of commercial ZEV emergency vehicles. “We didn’t know the market and what they (Koi and Evan) managed to do was an extremely good, detailed investigation on what the potential market was for this vehicle, which started off as a police vehicle and we turned it into a zero emission vehicle. That was actually what the market wanted,” Mr Feeney explained. “These two students did great job, and now we have the report.” The SAE-A is currently discussing the potential for such a vehicle to be manufactured here in Australia. Although the ambitious initial objectives will not be met, the secondary objective of starting the conversation was indeed a great success and opened many doors to SAE-A. Future announcements are pending. In 2023 there will be a new requirement for engineers to be registered and to maintain their registration, this will come into effect in December 2023. Thanks to the excellent work of intern Joseph Zanzoul, the SAE-A is very close to being approved by the Victorian Government to become an approved assessor, thus providing significant benefits to members. Details of how this will be managed, and the staffing levels required are currently being determined. Finally, to end the formal proceedings Mr Feeney on behalf of the Board of Directors made a presentation to Laurie Geyer in recognition of his services to the automotive industry, the Society awarded its highest accolade of Honorary Membership. This was actually done on 11 June 2021, but Victoria was in lockdown and the award could not be formally presented. Mr Geyer has made a significant contribution, both to the engineering community and specifically to SAE-A. He has had a distinguished career in his role as Senior Quality Control Manager with Toyota Australia. He has supported and mentored engineering teams through various projects and his achievements are also acknowledged for his involvement in representing the Society on various Standards Australia technical committees over many years. “The award will be treasured. Like a lot of years, I’ve spent the last 50 years in the automotive industry in some shape or form. The greatest part of it for me was being in charge of quality control for Toyota and actually taking our cars, our Australian manufactured and design cars, to the middle east and some other countries,” Mr Geyer said. “When we first got there … what a lot of people think of as the middle east sand well over there, they still thought kangaroos run down the street in Australia and our cars were judged against that. “Our biggest response was the fact we could respond very quickly, and we did a good job at it in the end. I think if anybody went to Dubai a few years back and looked at the thousand yellow taxis, we built them in Australia. So, a big part of my job has been really … to be an advocate for Australian manufacturing.”