Members are informed that each region is now making preparations for its Annual General Meeting (AGM), to be held in March 2005. About three weeks prior to the AGM you will receive a letter of invitation from the region chairman, an agenda and if necessary a ballot form.

Many of you have probably considered offering your services to your region committee but have not done so due to business or personal commitments or possibly you have hesitated due to not knowing what is involved.

Region committees work within published guidelines, known as ‘The manual of procedures for the administration of regions' and if you are interested in assisting your region and would like a copy of the manual, please contact ICES and request one. Alternatively, or additionally, speak to your region chairman who will be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Economy in Bridge Design
In a late change to the programme, Clive Russell, a senior bridge engineer for Abacus Design Associates, kindly shared his many years experience of bridge design with the audience at Nottingham Trent University. He illustrated many ways in which cost savings could be maximised by looking at the wider picture of the overall design rather than by making minor design changes.

22nd ICES Nottingham Christmas Lecture: Where Next for the New Global Utilities?
Professor Terry Moore, Professor of Satellite Navigation at IESSG, Nottingham University, gave an interesting and wide-ranging review of the past and future developments of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). He discussed how different positioning accuracies of 10m down to 1mm were possible using increasingly sophisticated GNSS systems. He also explained how new civil signals from the satellites would be introduced during 2005 and 2006 so that, in the event of terrorism, these could be turned off and leave the military signals unaffected. He then produced some amazing statistics of how many millions of cars, buses, trains, ships, lorries and aircraft could be potential users of GNSS in the near future. (A fuller synopsis appeared in the Dec/Jan 2005 edition of CES, p.11).

Following this Christmas Lecture, prizes were awarded to the best civil engineering students at Nottingham Trent in 2003/4. The Eastern and Midlands Region Prize for best geospatial engineering student went to Matthew Stott from Nottingham University, a founder member of the ICES Graduates and Students Committee. There then followed the Christmas social and buffet attended by about 60 people.

10 February 2005: Nottingham Express Transit Experience
To register your interest in this event and to receive the detailed timetable please (e) [email protected]

9 March 2005: Regional Committee Meeting
(5.00 for 5.30pm) and AGM (6.30 for 7pm). Nominations for the posts of chairman, secretary and treasurer should be sent to the secretary by 1 March 2005; volunteers to join the committee will be welcome at anytime. After the AGM there will be a lecture on ground remediation — details will appear in March CES and on the website. All Welcome. Please make every effort to attend and support your region. Venue: Room 715, Newton Building, Nottingham Trent University.

5 April 2005: Joint Meeting with ICE Lincolnshire
Visit to MasterCare Centre near Newark. See March 2005 CES and website for details about how to reserve a place.

9 May 2005: Regional Committee Meeting
All welcome.

11 July 2005: Regional Committee Meeting
All welcome.

For details of the Graduates and Students Eastern Group events, click here.