The Work of the EFC Scientific Secretary

The membership of the STAC includes all of the EFC Working Party Chairmen as well as six elected members from the Member Societies and ex-officio attendees from the Paris and Frankfurt Offices of the EFC, usually about thirty in all. The Committee meets once every year in conjunction with the annual EUROCORR Conference. The Scientific Secretary is responsible for the preparation, in consultation with the STAC Chairman, and the issue of meeting notices, agendas and working papers. He must attend the meetings and then prepare and issue the minutes. In between these meetings he provides a similar service to meetings of the President’s Advisory Committee (twice yearly) and an annual meeting of the EFC Strategy Group. He also attends twice yearly meetings of the EFC Board of Administrators and the annual General Assembly, at all of which reports on activity must be presented and help provided in preparing the minutes.

The Scientific Secretary also has responsibility for the preparation of EFC reports for the dissemination of corrosion information across national boundaries, notably through the publication of the EFC Series of ‘Green Books’. The Bye-Laws say that the detailed editing of manuscripts for publication in the EFC Series is the responsibility of the series publisher but in practice there is no-one else to do this job, which can be very time-consuming, particularly as some books run to 400 pages or more. However, it is a very interesting aspect of the work.

Another duty of the Scientific Secretary is to reinforce, when desirable, scientific and technical links with other bodies having interest similar to those of the EFC. At present, such involvements include my activity a Secretary to the Board of Administrators of the World Corrosion Organisation and my participation in the annual NACE CORROSION conferences in the USA where I look after the EFC stand in the exhibition and participate in meetings between the EFC and NACE Presidents, and others, and take minutes.

I have always enjoyed foreign travel and I have plenty of journeys to make in connection with my work for the EFC. These are mainly within Europe but over the past five years I have attended NACE Conferences in Houston, San Diego, Nashville, New Orleans and Atlanta. I also receive invitations to participate in other conferences in my capacity as Scientific Secretary. Especially memorable was the 3rd Israel Conference on Corrosion, Advanced Materials and Processes in Industry organised in 2007 by Amir Eliezer, President of CAMPI, an International Member Society of EFC. The quality of that event was exceptional in all respects.

There is a requirement for the Scientific Secretary to maintain an awareness of, and collaborate, whenever possible, with National, European and International Standards bodies. This I manage to do by chairing BSI Technical Committee ISE/NFE/8 on Corrosion of Metals and Alloys and by convening Working Group 8 of ISO Technical Committee 156 which is concerned with the coordination of international corrosion standardising activities.

I must not forget to mention the EFC Newsletter, which I produce and distribute every year. There is also the EFC Calendar of forthcoming events to maintain, and EFC Event Numbers to be allocated to events being organised by, or in collaboration with EFC. In addition, I do what I can to help my colleagues, including the EFC Honorary Treasurer and those at the Paris and Frankfurt Offices. There is also a great deal of correspondence to deal with and all of this has to be fitted into a part-time job occupying little more than one day a week on average. Nevertheless, as a keen Europeanist and Corrosionist I count myself lucky to have a job that provides close contact with such a nice crowd of people.

Paul McIntyre
EFC Scientific Secretary