Update 6

We are still in the month of Syawal and thus the one month celebration of open house still continues. ISM successfully held our open house at hotel Armada on 28 Sept 2009 with good food and good company. The council wished to thank all members young and old who came to share the celebration and catch up with old friends and colleagues. Other open houses where the President was invited were by PSDC on 2 Oct, BQSM on 6 Oct, CKUB JKR on 13 Oct and Matrade on 14 Oct 2009. Tonite I will be attending Datuk Sr Isahak's open house. Hope to see you all there tonite.

On 29 Sept, Fadilah Camaluddin and I were in Johor on the invitation of UTM to give talks to their QS students with regards to ISM, registration and panel forum on the challenges of QS. Fadilah was her usual lively and gutsy self taunting and teasing the students to participate. It was fun. On 30 Sept and 1 Oct, I was fully occupied with the CIDB excellent award evaluation panel and as such DP Sr Elvin and vice presidents were on hand to welcome HKIS young surveyors visit to ISM on the 1 Oct. On 6 Oct, I attended the BQSM Board meeting. On 12 Oct, we had ISM 50th anniversary meeting. I was again invited by another institution of higher learning (Taylor's College) to give a talk to their students on 14 Oct but this time the emphasis was on being a professional QS. It was hilarious as the students were lively.

In the afternoon of 14 Oct we had our ISM management committee meeting and amongst the issues discussed were feedbacks on survey with regards to ISM, publicity on ISM, proposed setting up of UK chapter, opening up of ISM membership to non-Malaysian, financial issues and administrative issues.

On the 15 Oct, the FIG international conference was successfully held. It was attended by over 250 participants comprising international members of FIG commission 7 and members from ISM, PEJUTA, JUPEM and LJT. I attended the opening and stayed on for the two keynotes which were brilliant and informative. The FIG Commission 7 - annual dinner was also held on the night with traditional dances which enthralled the foreign participants. Also on 15 Oct, CIDB held the forum on construction industry payment and adjudication act (CIPAA) which I attended after attending the FIG opening and keynotes. It is hoped that after this forum the industry's concerns highlighted would be addressed and subsequently the CIPAA would be able to be gazetted. It's about time Malaysia had its Payment Act considering that the effort had started way back in 2003.

This morning on 16 Oct, I attended the National Professional Services Export Council (NAPSEC) and presented a paper on the Internationalization effort of the Surveying professions to NAPSEC members. I informed the members with regards to the efforts by the QS on the KL Pact, the PCVS effort on the education promotion in India and ISM's technical and study tour with emphasis on GLS effort on their visits in Vietnam, Cambodia, Phillipines and Indonesia. I also touched on the Malaysian Services Exhibition by Matrade. I suggested for PSDC to showcase the integration of all the professional services within the construction industry that include the Surveyors, Architects and Engineers instead of each instituion showcasing their own services individually. The next MSE would be held in Dubai in 2010.

ISM has organized a technical cum social visit to Japan from 18 Oct - 25 Oct. I will blog you all with regards to the trip after I come back. So that's it for now. I'm off to Datuk Sri Sr Isahak open house.