Esme

Brief History of Ethiopian Society of Mechanical Engineers (ESME) and its accomplishement.

Abiy Awoke Tessema, Dr. Chairman, Engineering Council Ethiopian Society of Mechanical Engineers

1. Brief History of ESME
Table 1 highlights major issues raised at all the conferences conducted by ESME during its 10 years of existence.
Table 1 ESM E Conferences and Maior Issues

Conference	Date	Major Issues and Themes of the Conference
Founding conference	April 7-8,1995	By conducting its founding conference on April 7 and 8 1995, ESME was established ESME got its legal status, through approval of the Ministry of Justice on August, 1995.
1st Annual conference	May 11,1996	Over 200 Mechanical Engineers and invited guests attended the conference A commemorating journal had been published Membership cards were issued The major issue raised on this conference was The need to certify mechanical Engineers. On this topic, a team of Mechanical Engineers have come up with a proposal by looking at the experiences of other countries. The final draft was submitted on January, 1998. However, during discussion, it was recognized that ESME did not have the legal mandate to certify Mechanical Mechanical Engineers It was the BMEIA that was mandated by law for certification of engineers in the Basic Metals & Engineering Sector. Finally, ESME had to collaborate with BMEIA to come up with a document for certification of Mechanical Engineers through BMEIA and be represented in the council for certification.
2nd Annual conference	June, 1997	Issues were strengthening the office of ESME Issues of Mechanical engineers certification was a continuing Agenda
3nd Annual conference	July 24-¬25,1998	The final draft work for licensing of Mechanical Engineers was submitted on January, 1998
4th Annual conference	October 22-23, 1999	Theme of the year was "State of Automotive Industries in Ethiopia" - A half day workshop on "Vehicle Maintenance" was held, The 3rd International Motor Show workshop was organized under the theme "Automotive Sub¬sector Policy and Strategy in collaboration with a private firm and A workshop on Automotive Import utilization, safety and manufacture in Ethiopia was organized.
5th Annual	2nd September, 2000	Theme of the year "Manufacturing and Process industries” On the conference panal disscusion was held on the expereance of local enterprise engaged in the manufacture of Engineering products Workshops on productivity improvement through effective maintenance, stock and inventory management and industrial projects and environmental impact and traing boiler was conducted.
6th annual	September 8, 2001	Theme of the year was "Productivity and Quality Improvement" in the process industries. Panel discussions were held .
7th Annual	23rd Nov, 2002	Theme of the year "Productivity and Quality Improvement" in the manufacturing industries Technical papers that high light the theme were presented. Revised. constitution of ESME was presented .
8th Annual	Nov. 29, 2003	Theme of the year "Selection, operation and maintainance of construction equipment Traiing was conducted on the themes of the year.
9th Annual	Nov. 29, 2004	Theme of the year was Technology for rural development For the first time, the proceeding of the society was complied and published properly. Trainings were conducted on rural technology.

2. Major Achievements

2.1. Publication activities - Since, its establishment ESME has published a journal
annually and newsletters quarterly. Theses newsletters and journals had been distributed to its members and concerned institutions. ESME prides itself in achieving sustainable publication of its journal through out its ten years of existence. However, there are some comments on the contents of the journal lack of practical application to the country situation, not being original work and of low quality. However, some selected papers which have relevance to the situation of Africa have been published on the Internet.

2.2. Panel discussions, Workshops and conferences - A number of successful workshops and annual conferences had been conducted. On these workshops and conferences papers were presented and discussed.

2.3. Trainings - A number of successful trainings have been conducted by ESME to its members, Industries and other institutions in the country. Some of the trainings are now being given regularly to industries. The training activity in ESME had been institutionalized by the formation of Education and outreach council in the organizational structure of ESME.

2.4. Educational Tours - A number of educational tours had been organized by ESME. To mention some, the educational tours at Gilgel Ghibe Hydro Power Project, Metehara Sugar Factory, Ethiopian Airlines had been very educational and entertaining.

2.5. Research - There were attempts to prepare research proposals on different topics related to the Mechanical engineering profession such as - Manufacture of diesel engine in Ethiopia, Mechanical engineering education in Ethiopia, Application of intermediate technology to rural community. But, the proposals were not implemented because of lack of finding. To institutionalize research and development in ESME, an Engineering council was formed. The main task of the council would be to follow research and development activities in different specializations of the profession such as Automotive, design, manufacturing, maintenance etc. Professional organs in the different specializations will be created to effectively cater to the professional interests of members of the society.

2.6. Membership - Number of ESME individual membership has reached 575 while its institutional membership is more than 50. But active members of ESME who pay their fees regularly and attend conferences are around 200.

2.7. Institutionalizing ESME - Since its inception, ESME had held 10 Annual conferences and conducted 4 elections. ESME had made a major revision of its constitution and organizational rearrangement. It is believed that this will give ESME leadership a good ground to accelerate its development in the coming decade.

3. Evaluation of ESME Activities and Achievments

ESME's activities and achievements are evaluted against its mission/Purpose/as presented in its constitution.The Evaluation is presented as follows

Table 2 Evaluation of ESME's activities and achievements

4.Conclusions and recommendations

In its ten years existence, ESME had made some progress to fulfill its purposes.Now,ESME requires to formulate a long term strategic plan by assessing its past achievements, strengths and weaknesses as well as the environment it is operating.

ESME has to strenghten the training programs that is giving to industry professionals and its members. Now initiatives such as sponsoring research activities initiated by individual or group of ESME members as well as mechanical engineering students has to be put in place. Above all things, the first leadership of the second decade has this huge task of transforming ESME into a reputable scoiety of the future.