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.