Malcolm Cant took the first slot aiming as he stated to "entertain the members whilst their lunch went down". He said he had been asked to make a presentation to a very wide variety of audiences in the past, within almost as wide a variation of venues and most of the problems revolved around the issue of utilizing 35 mm slides and hence having to shut out the daylight. He felt however that the worst condition was being asked to present an illustrated talk on the 22^nd June, at 12.00 midday to a group in a hospital in a conservatory. This resulted eventually in presenting his talk to a group of people, sat two across and about 50 deep – all sat in a corridor, as this was the only way they could find to prevent the problems of too much daylight. Hence he felt the chance to make the presentation today in Donaldson’s, where there were heavy curtains up to the windows, was in fact a real treat for him.

Introduction

The development of Edinburgh over the past few decades has seen quite considerable change – some ups and some downs, but he aimed during his presentation to try and show some of the origins going back to the 16^th century by use of picture of etchings and drawing as well as the picture taken in much later times, to show just how Edinburgh has developed

His first slide was of a tram, in an era reminiscent of the 1950’s in Princes Street, outside "Forsyths". The picture was obviously taken by a transport fanatic, as the tram has pride of place and is possibly the only part in relative sharp focus. It included a "Transport controller" – he was stood by the side of the tram with a white cap and a "stick" in his hand – the "stick" was used to control the points in the tramway at Waverly Junction.

Jenners

This slide was of an advert for Jenner’s department store dating back to the 1908/1910 period. The speaker felt the same picture was possible to be taken now save for the transport in the picture – a rather old motor carriage. The Jenners building had of course been in the news fairly recently for unsafe masonry, which is only to be expected when you consider the age of the building, for it unlike Donaldsons had not benefited from a full recent refurbishment.

Princes street looking east pre 1870 showed Nelsons column on the hillside in the distance, but did not contain the Balmoral Hotel building which was erected in 1902

Shakespeare Square in the 1814 period as depicted on an etching looking at the General Post Office, although the picture indicated it was at that stage the Theatre Royal. The next slide was from a similar position but now looking in the opposite direction with several trams in view and Registry House. A picture, which could not be taken now, as it, would now show the St James Centre at about the position occupied by one of the trams.

This showed the building during it original condition, not one to be repeated for some time now. It currently had problems of trees growing out of its roof and was generally covered in green mould. There is said to be a programme in hand to spend some £60 million gutting the content and converting it to modern offices. A second view in the same location had included the statute of the Duke of Wellington – once described as – The IRON Duke – in BRONZE – by STEEL

No set of slides would be complete without the obligatory image of the Castle, this image was taken off Calton Hill. The point of interest was the building in the foreground – St Andrews House –, which at that time was still Calton Jail, but has now been utilised as the seat of Government.

The slide showed the "Scotsman" building – the site of the newspaper building – the name can still be seen on the facade although the paper as moved out and it is now the Scotsman Hotel.

This was originally thought to be the modern "metropolis", looking towards St Andrews and St Georges Church (still at that time just St Andrews church). In the foreground was a horde drawn "taxi" alongside one of the stepping stones. The stones obviously aided the access into the high steps of the carriages, but also served to save the ladies dresses/skirts getting soiled by the gutters.

Now recognised as the Dome Restaurant, but at that stage was The Bank, which went through a wide range of occupants within the banking circles. The next image was from inside the dome area with a number of flat-capped men all turning to look at the camera whilst banking activities were being conducted – it was thought that there should have been at least one bowler hatted gent amongst them.

The image was pre 1870 of the |National Gallery and the Royal Scottish Academy and had a distinct lack of trees, which at that stage must have only just been planted or were only saplings.

A number of images were shown, depicting the Scot monument and what is now known as Frasers Corner – previously Binns corner – and previous to that Maule’s corner. The clock, which used to stand in the road, has been moved to Leith Street and London road.

Images were included which showed the original Caledonian Railway station in the 1840’s and the Caledonian Station Hotel, which was at the terminus of the rail link.

Images of original areas of Morrison Street prior to and as they erected the ICC (under scaffolding) where £30 to 40 million was spent removing some of the old dilapidated buildings, but at one stage they deliberately kept one which can best be described as a slum. It has now found a new resting-place – in a skip.

An aerial image of Edinburgh, with the castle in prominence was shown as an indication of just where the Union Canal was in relation to the rest of the city.

This image was showing the "villages" of Edinburgh – not miles out of the City, but just 5 to 10 minutes from the West End, around the Telford Bridge built in 1832. Several images of the confined spaces inside the bridge which have to be accessed annually to check on the condition of the bridge by the city architects. Not by looking at the outside – but inside. The bridge is constructed of two leaves of stonework kept apart by large blocks of stone

The speaker then summarized his presentation but showing a few of the images of poor working conditions endure within the factories and the somewhat dubious food hygiene conditions exhibited by what was then thought to be the best in terms of food supply – from Lipton’s. An aerial image of Donaldsons rounded of the slide presentation.

The Chairman made a Vote of Thanks.

Rob Strange – the Chief Executive of IOSH took the second slot and started by stating he felt he ought to offer apologies to the members. His presentation he felt was not likely to be anywhere near as interesting as the pervious speaker was as he had the more formal part to talk about.

He then indicated why he was attending the AGM, as it was normally the President. But as the members were probably aware, Mike Garstang the president elect last year had to choose between a board appointment and the IOSH Presidency and he chose the Board Appointment. In accepting the Presidency for a second term, Paul Faupell had it agreed with Council that he would not repeat his trips to the 25 Branches which he had visited during his first term of office, and this gave the opportunity for the Chief Executive to come in his place, which Rob had done willingly.

He intended in the next 30 minutes or so to provide an overview of the IOSH Committee structure and the Departmental Roles within IOSH together with an insight to the achievements over the 2001/2002 period – achievements which he emphasized were not his or the HQ staff, but the achievement in the main by the full team of IOSH including the hard working volunteers.

This entailed nearly 50 persons which took some organizing to get together with the standing committees covering – IOSH Services, Management Finance, Audit, Corporate Strategy, Technical Affairs, Admissions, Professional Affairs, Nominations, Specialist Groups.

Remuneration, Corporate Communications, IS Strategy, Qualifications, CPD, Editorial Panel (Learned Journal) SHP Board.

The Learned Journal was to cease this year in its present form and will be re-released with its own paid editor.

There are now 12 groups and the Chairperson of each attending meetings at the Grange.

Construction, Public Services, Education, Health, Railway, Safety Sciences, Off-shore, Telecomm, Consultancy, Environment, Fire,

Conference 2002, Conference 2003 (which will be in Glasgow), Volunteer resources, Tech SP

Naturally when Rob joined and took control on John Barrel’s retirement, he had to rearrange the office and subsequently re-organize – this was inevitable.

The organization now entailed

Core competence working party/ENTO Standards (level III, IV, & V)

ISO 9001 has been gained

Increased membership = 46% corporate 54% non-corporate

Data clean-up exercise (10,500 members replied)

Admissions committee had developed procedure and had received training interview techniques

Professional Development brochure, with more and better courses offered and run.

Revitalizing and Safety & Health Together links – meshing IOSH to 10 year targets

Safe-Start-Up.org - website and leaflet for SMEs

4 new specialist groups

OSH Guidance "Professionals in Partnership"

Safe-T-Cert scheme in Ireland

Schools H&S quiz (for 4 to 5 year olds)

Cabinet offices etc. – Links with Government offices

ENSHPO – the EU similar organizations

APOSHO – Asia pacific

European week of safety (POOSH) – Professional Organizations

SME Risk Assessment project

"Best Practices in Construction Safety"

Visits – (Cyprus, Taiwan, HK, Australia, Brussels, +Germany, Canada, USA, Caribbean, etc)

KPIs and better finance reporting (we now have a £5 to 6 million turnover)

Better budgeting and forecasting – new corporate strategy committee

Council Elections AGM – 32 working committees

IOSH Benevolent Fund

IS Strategy and details for the Passport scheme

Keeping score

New National IOSH Safety Passport scheme

New commercial and marketing strategy

New 3 year Compass contract (Catering group)

New 3 year "Principles" contract with Allan St John Holt

Directing safety / Managing safely in Policing/ Managing risk

Promoting new books, training packages, etc

Re-assessed for Investors in People

IT security

Job evaluations against the Hay scale

New contracts of employment

Recruitment & training

3 new books in one year – 2 more in the pipeline

H&S in Risk Management

Workplace ergonomics

Essentials in Health & safety

Corporate ID and Branding (we will be keeping the crest but loosing the "pennant")

Branch liaison co-ordination

Web site development

Surveys

A new Chief Executive following 20 years under the previous management

Very please with the team efforts

£45 per member is made by IOSH Services and this is still growing

SHP is a better read than before

Corporate plan is on target

POOSH group - a seminar is planned

Institute of Directors initiative

94 visits to/from IOSH HQ by various organizations

Royal Charter – we have now answered all of the objections – BIOH should have signed off a memorandum of agreement last night. A letter has gone off to the Privy Counsel stating where we are at now. The CE believes now it a matter of WHEN rather then IF it is to happen, and if he were abetting man, he would look to being within the net 12 months.

The Chairman made a Vote of Thanks and a small presentation.