The Institute of Marine Engineers has maintained a long, distinguished and successful programme of evening technical papers, conferences and seminars. Together with the library, associated information services, production of transactions, journals and books, combined with the operation of the Technical Papers and Conferences and the Technical Affairs Committees, this underpins the fundamental role of the Institute as a Learned Society. The imminent changes to the Institute now that it is evolving into the IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology) will demand considerable development of the technical programme, so that the needs of the wider marine technical and scientificcommunity can be served equally successfully.

In consequence, the Institute established the Learned Society Working Group to identify the new broadened function within the new Institute. The Group has a wide reaching objective: ‘To identify the broader MIC, Web, publications, conference and technical output requirements to reflect the new membership structure.

The Working Group is also to propose practical methods for implementing these changes.’ Formed from as wide a background as possible, members are drawn from permanent institute staff, current institute members and most importantly prominent members of the marine scientific and technological community, who can reflect the needs of the new membership groups that the Institute will seek to support.

The scope and quality of the Institute’s technical papers are considered very important. An EditorialBoard is being created to obtain papers for a separate set of ‘Transactions’, which will have internationallyrenowned experts as members, in order to attract high-class academic papers. More emphasis is also to be placed in obtaining the operational and practical papers that have perhaps characterised the recent technical programmes, and these will continue to be published.