The document summarizes the activities of the 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild Midlands Branch, including: 1) Paper presentations on topics like the history of British Gas and pipeline challenges, environmental issues around pipelines, and skills shortages in the industry. 2) Social events like the annual golf day and summer ball for young professionals. 3) The highlight of November was the successful Nottingham Dinner which raised money for charity. 4) Ongoing planning for the branch's technical program and succession planning.

1. 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild
Midlands Branch - Chairman’s Year
On the 29th April the first
paper of the year was at the
AGM and was given by John
Sykes of John Kennedy, part
of Balfour Beatty. He gave an
interesting insight into the
history behind British Gas,
Transco and the Mains
Replacement Programme.
John detailed the challenges
before the industry and
discussed how contractors
would rise to meet this
challenging target. Nearly 40
people attended and Richard
Glenister gave a brief insight into current HQ activities.
15th May saw the 24th Annual Golf Day
on a warm and breezy day. Andrew
Ferguson lifted the Members Trophy
and the day was a huge success. A
massive vote of thanks goes to Keith
Mole for organising yet another
memorable event. Previous records for
attendance were shattered with 116
people playing and enjoying an
excellent evening meal. Also of note on
the day was a hole in one by Gerry
Cummings of Murphy’s. Richard Frazer
joined the prize giving to round off an
excellent day.
Other Sponsors : - Subterra and Adas

2. 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild
Midlands Branch - Chairman’s Year
29th May saw yet another
triumph for the Midlands YPN
Committee with a Summer Ball
held at the Crown Plaza on the
NEC. Headed up by an Industrial
Forum, Ruth Allen, Les Dawson
and Paul Stephenson gave
accounts of their careers and
advice on how to succeed. The
warm summers evening then
allowed everyone to spill out
onto the terrace where
entertainers and games were
organised before the main
dinner. Following the meal, the
YPN Chair was formally handed
from Nigel Curry to Lloyd Smith
over a ‘friendly pint of lager’.
Dancing and drinking went on
into the small hours in true PIG
tradition, some stalwarts were
still seen in the bar at 4.30 am.
The last committee meeting before the summer recess was held on 17th June. The
main topics of discussion were the Technical Programme, which by now was
largely finalized, and the Dinner. This event would be our 25th Anniversary Dinner
and several ‘extras’ were being planned to make the evening go well. A B Rhead,
Severn Trent and Haswell had already offered sponsorship although it was hoped
that additional companies would come forward.
The summer months saw little activity in the Branch. However, planning for the
Annual Dinner continued and Invitations to special guests, all past chairmen and
all other members were duly sent. Most guests responded positively and there
was a good early response from members.
The 2003/2004 programme was, by now, largely fixed and the first meeting was
held on 23rd September at the HQ of Severn Trent, a meeting they sponsored
jointly with Enterprise.
Other Sponsors : - Subterra and Adas

3. 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild
Midlands Branch - Chairman’s Year
The evening began with a short paper
entitled ‘Shrewsbury Area Drainage
Plan – A Case Study. This was
presented by David Kinston of Ewan
Associates and was a very interesting
analysis of the measures to mitigate
flood problems in the town of
Shrewsbury. This was David’s first
paper and he is to be congratulated on
a concise and well-presented subject.
The main paper was by Louise
Richardson of GWINTO and was
entitled ‘Skills Shortages in the
Pipeline Industry’. This was an
insight into the work of GWINTO in
developing National Vocational
Qualifications and Industry
Standards for competency
assessment. Louise also discussed
how the role will change as the
SSC takes over from GWINTO and
expands its responsibilities into the
energy sectors. Approximately
60 people attended the event and
this was an excellent start to our
Midlands programme. Project Aurora Outcomes
– Stoke Programme
Our next evening in October was at Anglian Water Headquarters in Peterborough.
Raj Kumar presented a short paper about the Water Industry in India at the start
of the evening. This was a fascinating insight into the political problems of moving
water from the North to the South.
The main paper by Peter Hancocks of ADAS on
environmental issues surrounding cross-country pipelines
was a fascinating insight into the myriad of problems caused
by the large variety of wildlife found in the British
Countryside. (Alternatively titled, Badgers, how six small
mammals can completely wreck a multi-million pound
project! – BPS) This was an excellent presentation about the
fauna of the UK. 35 people attended the event.
Other Sponsors : - Subterra and Adas

4. 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild
Midlands Branch - Chairman’s Year
The highlight of November was the Nottingham Dinner. 458 people enjoyed a
fabulous evening (2 Scottish gentlemen informed me in the bar that they did not
but there is no accounting for taste) with additional entertainment from two
tabletop magicians and the comedian Ian Irvine to round off the evening. The
evening started with a bang as the YP table let off 10 party bombs. Two of these
were less than successful but were eventually detonated by prudent use of a fork.
The evening was rounded off with a presentation to Malcolm Ayers after 14 years
as Midlands Dinner Convenor and to Gerry Cummings of Murphy Pipelines for his
hole in one at Branston in May.
£4,767 was raised for the charity Children in Need
My thanks go to several people who attended for
taking the time to send notes complementing the
Branch on the evening.
The weekend was crowned by the success in Australia
watched by about 50 people in the Irish Bar of the
hotel, some still drinking Guinness at 8.30 am.
Our last paper evening before
Christmas took place at
Conkers in Derbyshire on 25th
November and 35 people
attended to see two papers.
Andrew Mustoe of Laing
O’Rourke gave a short paper on
the use of Grouted High
Pressure Tees as an alternative to conventional welded tees. This was a first for
Andrew who did extremely well in presenting the technical issues involved.
Norman Howell of Sub Terra gave the main paper on the use of sub-coil insertion
of PE for mains refurbishment. Although mainly in use in the water industry,
Transco has put this technique through trials, and it is hoped that it will be used
to a greater extent in the mains replacement programme.
One serious concern I was beginning to have with all the paper evenings to date
was the lack of Gas Industry interest with only a handful of people out of the 130
attendees being from Transco.
Other Sponsors : - Subterra and Adas

5. 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild
Midlands Branch - Chairman’s Year
Our program continued in the New Year with two joint paper evenings and the
Technical Forum in February. The YP Network were organising a five-a-side
competition at Aston Villa and some technical visits starting with one to Corus
Tubes in Hartlepool.
A joint meeting with UKSTT was held on 27th January at Severn Trent’s offices in
Leicester. 50 people attended to listen to three very interesting papers about
leakage detection and leakage equipment advances in the water industry.
Committee Meetings were, by now, concentrating on keys issues such as a
Midlands Branch Website, Succession Planning and Presentations for 2004/5. A
good response was received from members wishing to present papers next year.
On Saturday 7th February, The Falcon Hotel at
Stratford-On-Avon was once again the venue for
the Midlands Branch Dinner Dance. The evening
was convened by John Coyne of Morrisons and as
usual was a testament to his great organisational
talents. As always the hotel provided an excellent
venue, this year entertaining a capacity crowd of
174 diners with excellent food, wine and service.
The evening continued into the early hours with
dancing to The Likely Lads. A truly memorable
time was enjoyed by all. A huge thank you goes
to everyone who made the event such a great
success. Even the Chairman was congratulated
for his speech, although this was probably more
for its brevity than its content. Again, many notes
of congratulation were received for a great
evenings entertainment.
On 17th February, The Midlands Branch hosted the first Technical Forum to be
held outside of London. With the venue set in the Elmdon Building, the old
departure lounge for
Birmingham Airport,
and the topic of
Third Party
Interference, the
Chairman’s belief
that this combination
could not fail was
duly rewarded.
Other Sponsors : - Subterra and Adas

6. 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild
Midlands Branch - Chairman’s Year
Nearly 80 people representing 38
companies attended and were treated to a
host of exceptional papers, spearheaded
by David Dale of Fulcrum Connections
who talked frankly and openly about the
Hunton Hill incident and the impact it had
on the company. The papers that followed
brilliantly supported the belief that
another incident of this type must be
prevented and that a joint industry
exercise is needed to ensure that this is
the case. Feedback after the event
suggested that people were extremely impressed with the choice of subject and
the quality of presentations. The venue was to everyones’ liking and, with some
improvements in the facilities, could become a regular venue.
On 29th February, the Young Persons Network
hosted the 6-a-side competition at Aston Villa.
The event was extremely well supported with
some companies fielding two teams, although
it must be said that the definition of ‘Young
Persons’ was stretched to the limit in some
cases. The
Marauding
Rovers won
the day
beating No
Good Team
2 – 0 with the best result of the day going to
Haswell Youth with a 7 – 0 victory over A Round
of Bacon. An excellent day was had by all and a
huge vote of thanks must go to all of the YP
committee for their efforts.
And finally, my last evening was a joint paper with IGEM at NGT House in
Warwick. Steve Holiday gave an excellent presentation on the future of NGT.
Steve talked openly about the break up of the company and answered a range of
questions in an honest and forthright manner. An audience of 70 people ensured
it was standing room only.
Other Sponsors : - Subterra and Adas

7. 2003/2004 Pipeline Industries Guild
Midlands Branch - Chairman’s Year
My thanks go to all of our presenters and sponsors, the Branch Committee, and
to Keith Mole, Malcolm Ayers and John Coyne for organising the Golf, Dinner and
Dinner Dance events. I would like to thank my wife and my son for putting up
with the late nights and the endless Friday nights away at ‘another bloody PIG
Dinner’. At least we got a couple of days in Dublin to make up for it!
Can I finish by thanking everyone that has helped me enjoy a great and
successful year? Nearly 1,100 people have attended Midlands Branch events this
year, a fantastic number. This does not include the YP who have entertained a
further 300. Without all of you we would not have a Guild and I thank you all
sincerely. Please continue to give Paul Wallis your support next year and if you
want to get more involved please do; it really can be good fun and very
rewarding. I look forward to seeing you all again at future events.
Best Wishes and Thanks to you all.
Brian Spencer
Other Sponsors : - Subterra and Adas