AEMT Sandbox - Association of Electrical and Mechanical Trades

President's Message

Shaun Sutton - AEMT President

June 2022

I’d like to start by thanking those who make the association function for all their help and support. That includes my fellow officers – Dave Hawley, Matt Brown, Mark Brady, and James Stevens. All the council members, including those whose term of service has now ended. Each of your contributions is hugely welcome and greatly appreciated. Finally, I’d like to thank Gary Downes for his many years of service as he has now completed his term of office. Gary’s contribution to the development and progression of the association has been exceptional, and we’ve all benefited from his efforts. So thank you Gary. I’d also like to thank the permanent AEMT team - Thomas, Karl, Leslie, Rebecca, Mohsen, Peter and Brian for their efforts. 

Last year as your newly elected President I spoke about how humbled I was at being asked to represent you. Notably we had recently completed the transfer of Thomas and the team as direct employees marking a changing of the guard and a new direction. We were slowly returning to normal. The situation that we’d faced was unprecedented, and it was testimony to our members that you all reacted so swiftly and adapted to keep industry going. You should all be immensely proud of that. 

Our agility and flexibility very much define who we are. It was notable how people came together out of necessity to support each other. I witnessed and heard numerous examples of members reaching out to help other members. This was very much in keeping with the founding spirit of the AEMT when it was created after the second world war. But as difficult as Covid was looking back there are some positives we can take from the experience of lockdown. This enforced downtime gave us the opportunity to take stock, reflect and consider the future needs of our members and how we might evolve to accommodate them. Now as we face the challenges of rising costs, skills shortages and resource availability it’s more important than ever that we find ways to work more closely together to help each other and support our customers.  

My vision for the AEMT is to become a provider and facilitator of a broad range of business services to support our members and enable individual member organisations to develop, prosper and become world class by encouraging a closer working relationship amongst all members. To achieve this we will need to continue to evolve. Our individual and collective challenges include; Developing leadership skills to enable legacy for many of our owner managed businesses. Providing a comprehensive range of technical and commercial training services to enable our current and future employees to acquire the technical skills to meet demands of the future. Helping our members provide an exciting workplace with fulfilling opportunities in order to attract, secure, develop and retain the highest calibre of employees. 

I believe that any community is stronger, more productive and more resilient when it works together. Sharing ideas and improving as a group is one of the cornerstones of the advancement of humankind. In summary I’m optimistic that with the team we have in place and with the continued support of our members we can continue to develop and make a positive difference for all of our stakeholders

   

Shaun Sutton.

AEMT Honorary President