All members shall shortly be receiving the Tax Invoices for next year’s membership. Members are reminded that the fees are due to be paid by January 1, 2006.
For your convenience, you can also arrange your payment to be made directly through direct debit to the ASTT bank account, the details for which can be found on page 63.
If there are any amendments to your mailing addresses, contact names or other details please let me know so that the ISTT and ASTT databases and website can be kept up to date.
Membership Changes
I have had several requests from members wishing to upgrade their membership from Individual to Corporate. Members who wish to alter their membership status are requested to let me know as soon as possible so that the correct Tax Invoices can be sent to you.
Annual General Meeting
The 14th Annual General Meeting was held in conjunction with the enviroNZ05 Conference and Exhibition in September. The minutes of this meeting are available online at http://www.astt.com.au/agmminutes.htm.
Members are reminded that the 15th Annual General Meeting will be held in conjunction with the Brisbane International NO-DIG 2006 next November.
ISTT Year Book Status
I have had several enquiries from members about the status of the ISTT Year Book. I have discussed this issue with the ISTT Membership Secretary and she has advised that the hardcopy year book was discontinued in 2001. It was replaced by a CD-ROM which was discontinued in 2003. Both versions of the Year Book were administratively difficult and expensive to produce and were out of date as soon as they were published, and the information continued to degrade thereafter until the next issue. Like many not for profit organisations, the ISTT decided to stop producing the Year Book.
ISTT Website
However all is not lost, the information previously contained in the Year Book is now available on the revamped ISTT website, http://www.istt.com, in various forms. The ISTT website is continually being improved with new sections being added regularly to meet the changing requirements.
In setting up the new ISTT website, some of the features of the old site did not transfer properly onto the new server. Unfortunately the Members Area has to be linked to the membership database to control the password access and will take a little time to reinstall.
The new ISTT database has so many extra features and capabilities that we are having trouble deciding which features to activate next. The Members Area will be the next to be installed and we hope that this will be done before the end of this year.
Those members seeking their logon details are requested to contact me and I will provide this information to you. The information I give you will be your username (ISTT Membership Number) and your password. Once you have logged on for the first time, you should be able to change your password.
Directory of Services
All members are requested to visit the Member Services area of the ASTT website and to confirm that the information stated about themselves is still accurate. This also means that should any member change addresses they immediately let me know so that I can notify the ISTT, PPA and update the members database for future correspondence.
EnviroNZ 05 Conference – Auckland
The ASTT held its second combined Conference and Exhibition with the New Zealand Water and Wastes Association in September at the Aotea Centre, Auckland. A full report from the Conference can be found on page 10.
Grant Binns, the ASTT New Zealand Councillor and all those that assisted him are to once again be congratulated on their efforts. I would also like to especially thank Iplex Pipelines for sponsoring the trenchless keynote speaker, Professor Samuel T. Ariaratnam from the United States of America.
And finally I would also like to thank Mr Raveen Jaduram who was the President of the NZWWA and also the new Chief Executive of the NZWWA, Mr Simon Carlaw, as both of these gentlemen ensured that the combined event was successful yet again.
Merry Christmas
In closing, may I also take this opportunity to offer all of you on behalf of ASTT, a very Merry Christmas and let’s hope that next year will be both financial and rewarding for you.
Jeff Pace
ASTT Secretary