PAST PRESIDENTS
One of SAIRAC ’ s main historic events is the traditional Dreosti Memorial Lecture series held every 3 years . In 2019 , the subject chosen was ‘ Issues Around Cooling Systems with R290 as an Alternative Refrigerant with a very low Global Warming Potential ’. We were very privileged to have as guest speaker , Dr Volkmar Hasse , who has decades of related research and application experience . His contribution towards environmentally friendly applications is simply enormous . Added to this , Dr Dreosti ’ s daughter Joan and her husband Dr Ian Huskisson were able to attend the PE leg of the lecture series . This was truly one of the highlights of my term with SAIRAC to bring together and share an incredible wealth of knowledge , experience , and history in one event to the potential benefit of the environment and the role players involved . The Cape Town leg of the event was recorded , and this can be viewed on YouTube . ( https :// www . youtube . com / watch ? v = WkcQ2YjmX4U )
Western Cape Government departments and the Bavarian state ministry for environmental affairs hosted a RAC workshop the day after the Dreosti Memorial Lecture in Stellenbosch . This was well attended and offered good networking opportunities to industry role players with support on offer from government departments and the Bavarian state departments . I believe special mention should be made of Marlene Gamble , SAIRAC ’ s national secretary , for her efforts to plan and help arrange events .
The Institute of Refrigeration ( IOR ), based in the UK and founded in 1899 , shares similar industry goals with SAIRAC . With a wealth of applied knowledge that any keen industry role player would want to benefit from , the IOR created an option to become an ‘ electronic-affiliate ’ or ‘ E-affiliate ’. In March 2019 , any current SAIRAC member could also become an ‘ E-affiliate ’ member for only GBP20 . This allows access to an abundance of research papers and case studies to benefit any industry professional at an incredibly low annual rate .
The Global Covid-19 crisis urged us to stop any public meetings at the start of 2020 . With a pressing need to adapt to the new environment to still offer value to our members . A few weeks into the level 5 lockdown we began online meetings to substitute our usual technical talks at each centre . The popularity of these events grew rapidly with some meetings being attended on-line by close to 100 guests . This remains in place and I trust it will form part of SAIRAC ’ s offers in future . being Dr Daniel Colbourne – very well known for his research in the field of Hydrocarbons and their specific applications . He contributes towards policy making in Europe with regards to Hydrocarbons and their safe use in industry regularly . His presentations can be found on the website : ( https :// sairac . co . za / presentations-drdaniel-colbourne /).
I thought it appropriate to hand the reigns to Jaco Pieterse considering he was more than ready to take over . If you review the current events calendar on the SAIRAC website , you might well agree that Jaco and his team are very busy , offering many enrichment courses and speaking events to add value to our members and industry and indirectly of course to the environment .
More specific details are covered in the report for 2019 & 2020 on the SAIRAC website : ( https :// sairac . co . za / presidents-report-2019 /); and : ( https :// sairac . co . za / wp-content / uploads / 2020 / 08 / SAIRAC-Presidentsreport-2020 . pdf ).
I thank you kindly for your support , and trust that you received much value for your SAIRAC membership .
As circumstances required at the time , the AGM in August 2020 was held on-line with our guest speaker
Best regards ,
Marius La Grange .
CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE HERVAC INDUSTRY 5