Seaways - March 2023
The strength of The Nautical Institute lies in the professional expertise of its members, but more importantly than that, in our ability to share that expertise and work collaboratively.
Captain John Lloyd FNI Chief Executive
Partnership, communication and collaboration
We see this at many levels. Working collaboratively makes us more effective as we bring together diverse perspectives and experience, leading to better insights and decision-making. It also helps us communicate across disciplines and areas of activity to achieve outcomes that matter to all of us. Recently this has been manifested through our contributions at the IMO where we have provided input to discussions in several areas including fishing safety, Dynamic Positioning, STCW requirements and other areas of development. Our role as an NGO recognised by the International Maritime Organisation is central to our positive influence on professional standards and my thanks go to our staff and volunteer members who contribute so effectively to this forum. It is a pleasure to see our members asking to join the delegation and experience first-hand the complex and detailed working at the IMO. Such advocacy is at the heart of our influencing maritime safety discussions and helping ensure positive change.
Cross-industry support
Our support for members is also very tangible in more specific ways. Through our relationship with The Marine Society and Sea Cadets we are able to offer ‘Learn@ Sea’ courses free of charge to members. Covering core subjects such as English, writing and maths, these programmes are available on-line and are readily accessible through our website at https://www.nautinst.org/membership/individual-membership/other-provider-courses/learn-sea.html
These programmes were made possible by the support of IFAN, the International Federation for Aids to Navigation who also support our Navigator magazine. Such arrangements demonstrate the importance of collaboration and effective consortia to deliver results better and more effective than any one organisation on its own can possibly hope to achieve.
Similarly, we are grateful for the ongoing support from the Ocean Technologies Group (OTG) and their provision of free on-line courses to our members. Again, this is a fantastic opportunity for seafarers to benefit from learning at their own pace on subjects of key importance to their professional development.
I look forward to speaking at an event organised by OTG at an event being held in Japan in early April. Here I will explore the importance of continuing professional development for all professionals especially those in the maritime sector where we face so much innovation and change.
Worldwide knowledge exchange
Our branches provide another example of working with communities and specialists from across the maritime community, especially when we host technical seminars and meetings. During March we will be hosting another two NI 50th Anniversary events which I hope you will support by attending in person or on-line. These events, hosted in Antwerp and Cape Town, will bring to a close an amazing series of community engagement for the NI on an unprecedented scale. My congratulations to every single organiser of these events. You have helped shine a spotlight on the expertise at The Nautical Institute and through the technical engagement and discussions helped raise standards of maritime safety.
The series of events held for our Golden Anniversary year have been an outstanding achievement, but the work of technical development continues. We are already making plans for an offshore energy event to be held in Egypt during September 2023. This will help us develop further our engagement with the training and operational aspects of the offshore energy activities and help ensure we retain a key influence in the standards for Dynamic Positioning Operators. If you have a contribution to make to an event such as this, then please get in touch. We want to share as much expertise as possible.
On the subject of making a contribution, we are targeting a special effort in our publications area at the moment and we would like to thank every member who has contributed their time and effort. We will be announcing senior appointments in the coming weeks and are developing a number of new titles that will be released in the first half of 2023. A number of members from our ‘Experts Database’ have committed to supporting further publications. Your support is much appreciated. Together we can help develop the next generation of books and e-books to support and serve the maritime community.