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