Disadvantages of separate state SMBEs

There are 3 main disadvantages of separate state SMBEs:

1. There is no forum for separate SMBEs to advocate for their members in national issues
   e.g. engaging in discussion about the future of conferences and the role that they should play.
2. There is no way to contact all members consistently for a) conference info, b) standards workshops, and c) vacancies
3. There is no effective method for providing national prizes or award sponsorship. Offers to provide these from companies have gone unanswered as we do not have the forum to address them.

Advantages of a national SMBE

A national SMBE, either by unification or by forming a Technical Society of Eng Aust, would have the following advantages:

1. Allow a formal mechanism for co-ordination of activities, policies or strategies between groups.
2. Initiatives taken by individual states are more easily adopted by other states e.g. entering into MOU’s with Engineers Australia or the ability to pick up on workshop ideas and transfer them to other states.
3. The ability to participate as a “major player” in national discussions such as the determination of conference venues and associated issues (currently, the relevant state SMBE is simply invited to participate, often in a minor role, after the two colleges make the big decisions.)
4. Ease possible future transition to certification of practitioners by ensuring all members have access to ongoing information
   
5. Affiliation with similar organisations overseas is simplified (e.g. with AAMI)
6. Groups wanting to establish contact with the SMBE and it’s membership could be cohesively arranged without having to chase up individually the current contact details for each state.
7. The ability to engage sponsors at a national level, there is opportunity to achieve this via advertising to such a large group of members. It is a market that companies cannot reach easily in any other manner.
8. State based SMBEs maintain financial and operational control of their members. They would continue to collect their own subscriptions, organise their own events in what could be thought of a federal type system.

Option 1: We like it how it is...

The current state-based state system is good:
1. We like things the way they are
2. There are no problems so why change anything
3. We want to maintain full control of state membership, organisation and finances

For example, SMBE SA provide:
- Pizza and soft drinks and wine for the speaker at 3-4 technical meetings each year
- Subsidised Xmas dinner for members & guests
- Subsidised BBQ for members & families each year
- Outstanding Honours Project (Biomedical) each year gets a cash prize and free membership of SMBE for 1 year
- Encouragement Award for nominated worker in the field gets a trip to the NSW SMBE Technicians Conference
- Scholarship up to $1000 to attend or present at a biomedical conference or institution

How hard would it be to continue to provide these events & awards?

Option 2: Establish SMBE national executive

An SMBE national executive could comprise the President of each existing state society from amongst whom a chairperson could be nominated.
It should not be necessary to have other appointed officers at this level: the secretariat/treasury function could be rotated between states.
Discussions and affairs could largely be conducted by teleconference, with consideration perhaps being given to one face to face meeting each year at the national conference or other event.
These communications channels would need to be funded, this could be with a per capita contribution by each state to a national executive fund. Assuming teleconferences would be the initial means of communication something of the order of $1 per member per annum should adequately fund this activity.
Difficulties occur in there being continual rotation amongst members, also where States have no SMBE or an inactive SMBE: e.g. QLD, NT, WA. The State Exec will tend to oscillate between having the same membership each year (as the SMBEs do), and having complete new membership with no memory of goals and actions.

Option 3: Form a national Technical Society of Eng Aust

Technical Societies of Engineers Australia provide learned society functions and continuing professional development for members. Engineering qualifications are not a requirement for membership to a Technical Society of Engineers Australia.

They vary widely in their size, operation, aims and objectives. They range from small groups (minimum 30 persons) in one city with a specialized industry to large groups with hundreds of members spanning the nation and having chapters in many cities. It is preferred the society have >100 members. (Link to Eng Aust Technical Society info)

Societies established under Engineers Australia are operating units of the organisation and as such are a formal entity of the Engineers Australia with legal, insurance and functional ramifications.

How they operate - the brief version

• Each Technical Society is governed by a Technical Society Committee.
• The Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer of this national committee should be Engineers Australia members (else approval is needed and at least one committee member needs to be a member of Engineers Australia) and are covered by legal liability and protection.
• The Technical Society Committee sets fees:
  Member, Student/Retired/Unemployed, Corporate (see current fee schedule at Eng Aust).
• Regional groups formed within the Technical Society are known as Chapters.
• Technical Society Chapter funding shall be managed in accordance with procedures in the Constitution of the Society.
• Accounts for the Society (and Chapters) must be audited each financial year. A society may have a term deposit for excess funds. Every purchase made must have an original tax invoice to get a reimbursement. It is recommended, but not mandatory, that National Treasurer also look after Chapter accounts. An ABN is required, but GST and BAS are only needed if transactions require it.
• Awards can be given Nationally or at Chapter level

What the society gets
1. Eng Aust provide administrative support without fee for:

• annual membership renewal
• new members added to database, issued number & reciept
• lists of members and subscriptions received with 100% remittances forwarded to society treasurer
• access to online database of society members

Note: Additional administrative support is available on cost recovery basis (e.g. admin support for accounts management, technical meetings, office resources, publications, marketing etc.)

2. Use of Engineers Australia premises and facilities on request for Technical Society meetings, symposia and similar activities.
3. Public Liability Insurance for members of the Technical Society attending technical activities in Engineers Australia premises.

Questions?Web page creation and maintenance?
Insurance for site visits?


Example 
For an example of an Eng Aust society with chapters in each state and a nice webpage, see the Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering www.ssee.org.au

What about the AFMBE?

The AFMBE has been in existence for >30 years. The AFMBE was set up because the IFMBE would only affiliate with one organisation in each country; this allowed the multiple organisations within Australia (ACPSEM, Eng Aust, and SMBE) to have a single national affiliating body.

This is no longer the case with IFMBE now allowing multiple bodies within a single country to affiliate separately.

The AFMBE cannot be used as a national body for the state SMBEs as it is not set up to act as a decision making group for just a limited number of its affiliates (i.e. SMBE’s only). If any type of national SMBE is set up, the AFMBE would be dissolved after having fulfilled its role.

History 2005 EPSM-ABEC discussion

The Adelaide Discussion
At the EPSM/ABEC 2005 conference in Adelaide a meeting was convened to discuss how international affiliation for Australian biomedical practitioners may best be achieved. Currently the individual state SMBE's, the College of BME within Engineers Australia (CBME) and the Engineering members within the ACPSEM have international affiliation through the Australian Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (AFMBE). There may be a better way. An initial discussion document, specifically discussing the issue from an SMBE perspective was circulated in early 2004 to promote discussion. The 2005 discussion was convened to particularly engage all AFMBE affiliates in a broader discussion.
At the meeting there was healthy debate about the pro's and cons of the options available. One principal factor was the acknowledgment that the International body with whom we affiliate, the IFMBE, now allows multiple affiliations from within a single country. This was not the case until recently, and was the reason the AFMBE was created merely as an umbrella affiliation body many years ago.
There may be benefits in the SMBE's forming their own overarching structure to tie together what is now a range of disparate groups, and that they would have far greater potential if they presented with a common voice.
The ACPSEM have felt for some time that becasue the AFMBE only provides affiliation for their Australian members, their engineering members in New Zealand have been compromised. They would welcome a model that recognised them as a trans-national organization, something that the IFMBE have also done with other organisations in the recent past.
A possible outcome emerged that could comprise

• The SMBE's establishing a national model and affiliating with the IFMBE
• The Eng Aust CBME seeking similar affiliation
• Trans-national IFMBE recognition being sought for the ACPSEM so that their broader geographic base was adequately catered for.

The Way Ahead
It was agreed to pursue this overall plan with the key issue being the bringing together of the SMBEs from each state. I agreed, as the current AFMBE president, to play a co-ordinating role in this. I therefore propose that this be put on the agenda for the committees of each SMBE for earnest discussion and resolution at their earliest possible opportunity. I would appreciate if each group would feed back to me the results of those discussions, highlighting any issues that they may have identified that we may need to work through. Keep in mind that during the discussions in Adelaide , at which all groups were represented, there emerged a consensus to move in this direction, what we are looking for from this point on is constructive input so that discussions can move forward. I will collate these comments, circulate them for consideration and then convene a teleconference involving office bearers from each state to facilitate further discussion.
One of the matters that we will need to consider is how the national structure may appear. I would welcome comments on this but could easily be something along the lines of a rotating Chair/Secretariat between states, maybe following the EPSM/ABEC conference for example.
During this process I would plan to keep the chairs of both Colleges updated with progress so that they remain engaged in the process, despite much of the deliberation needing to be amongst the SMBEs in the first instance.

IFMBE Discussions
Concurrent with this Richard Kirsner, who has very close formal and informal links with the IFMBE has undertaken to commence discussions with the relevant people within that organisation to “test the waters” in respect to the plan that is emerging. We can be optimistic of the outcomes based upon the fact that what we are proposing is no longer out of the ordinary and that it is being done in a cohesive and structured manner rather than in a divisive or competitive manner like some other examples that they have encountered.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with any comments or suggestions that we can take into consideration during this very important process. It really is a sign that the BME scene here within Australia is reaching another level of maturity that will see all of the bodies involved serve their members well.

Adrian Richards
President AFMBE
Imm.Past President SMBE (SA)
Dep. Chair CBME, Engineers Australia
Mar 2006