In recognition of the changing landscape of business and the increasing need for diversification, more and more Consulting Engineering companies are finding themselves moving away from the traditional engineer-owned and managed business focusing on design and construction supervision and offering value adding services such as infrastructure advisory services and maintenance management services.

In addition, some find themselves being increasingly involved in EPC and EPCM services, as Client bodies look to infrastructure development services under financially constrained circumstances, with risks sharing as part of a PPP process in the form of a BOOT or BOTT process. Under certain circumstances companies may be part of an internationally listed company, in which case guarantee of ownership by engineering practitioners is not guaranteed.

Board members, Branch Chairs, a few Past Presidents, Dr Tom Marshal, Craig Clarke, Dempsey Naidoo, Dr. Zulch Lotter, Naren Bhojaram, Lynne Pretorius together with a few representatives from member companies joined in the discussion and shared ideas on considerations that could be factored into the future membership criteria that recognised the importance of sustaining the industry and the organization it had established some 65 years ago, against the backdrop of a future landscape where the need has changed from providing only limited technical services to that of holistic infrastructure solutions.

The Workshop discussions were unanimous about the need to broaden the membership criteria and concluded with assigning the task to a smaller Team to draft amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws which will be considered by the Board meeting scheduled for February 2019. Once the Board has satisfied itself that it could support the new criteria, the documents will be circulated to the members as part of a Special AGM, round robin process, for further scrutiny and possible ratification.