Pipeline Industries Guild

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation continues to escalate, I’d like to update you on the steps the Guild is taking regarding activities and events.

The Guild staff are now all working from home and we are making full use of electronic means to facilitate day-to-day management. The Guild Executive is meeting weekly by conference call as we continue to monitor this fast-developing situation and ensure that any issues that arise can be resolved quickly.

The safety and wellbeing of our membership and staff is our top priority and with this in mind we have postponed all Guild events that were due to take place up to 30 June 2020. These include the Guild Conference (7 May), the Midland Branch Golf & Training Day (21 May), Northern Branch Karting Event (10 June), our AGM & Awards Luncheon (11 June) and the Utilities Panel Conference (23 June). It is our intention to run all of these events in the future and the Guild Conference has already been rearranged for 2 February 2021 and will be held at the MTC Coventry with Liv Garfield as keynote speaker. We are continuing to monitor advice in relation to events that are scheduled to take place after this date and we will keep members advised of new arrangements once they are made. The staging of Guild and Branch AGMs does pose a particular problem and the Guild Executive are currently considering how we can hold these remotely. Once a procedure has been devised, we will be issuing guidance for these meetings.

Additionally, we have already issued guidance to our Branch, Panel and Committee chairs to avoid face-to-face meetings and unnecessary travel. Regular meetings will continue to be held remotely using the Guild’s Zoom conference call facilities and details of these meetings and log on information will be provided to members, so you are able to participate.

The Guild will continue to maintain its presence for members through email communications and the use of social media postings (LinkedIn and Twitter). We will be holding regular webinars and posting links to topical technical papers, so please look out for these communications. You’ll find further information about postponed or rescheduled events on this issue’s final page.

On this subject of COVID-19, I would like to conclude by thanking all of our members who are continuing to work through these unprecedented times to deliver and maintain our critical services. Your efforts are truly appreciated. I hope you’ll agree it’s inevitable that something as unprecedented and serious as coronavirus should take up the bulk of my introduction. But, as you’ll see, this issue is largely ‘business as usual’, covering the many news items and events that occurred prior to the escalating situation – in particular our hugely successful Annual Dinner. Looking forward, I am sure it will only be a relatively short time before we’re back doing what we do best – meeting, networking and talking all things pipelines.