At the end of March, the Southeast Area Committee invited its members and their families/friends to attend the Annual General Meeting for 2002 at the world famous ZSL London Zoo in Regent’s Park.
Opened in 1828 by the Zoological Society of London, ZSL London Zoo is the world’s oldest scientific zoo and the brainchild of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who was also renowned for founding Singapore. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828 and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. In 1831, the animals of the Tower of London menagerie were transferred to the zoo's collection. It was opened to the public in 1847. Today, it houses a collection of 673 species of animals, with 19,289 individuals, making it one of the largest collections in the United Kingdom. London Zoo is home to a wide variety of animal species in an equally wide variety of recreated habitats. The zoo is huge, and just about any animal species you can imagine from around the globe can be found there! Highlights include the Gorilla Kingdom, with western lowland gorillas, colobus, mangabeys, and monkeys. The Rainforest Life exhibit is a walk-through habitat for rainforest animals including marmosets, tamarins, sloths, armadillos, and sunbitterns. The exhibit also has a darkened area for nocturnal animals like water rats, blind cave fish, lorises, and pottos.
Although the surroundings were exhilarating, there was also the excitement of our Southeast Area AGM! This included updates from the 20021/22 committee activities and of course voting in of the new committee for 2022/23.
The area committee talked about their event highlights over the last year, including the Dinner with a CEO event, Innovation Awards, the visit to the Weald and Downland Museum, talking to Fleur Anderson MP about her bill to ban plastics in wet wipes and of course the flagship (and fast becoming famous) Weekend School! The difficulties of dealing with the pandemic were recognised and a definite consensus was that we are all pleased to see our members in person again over recent months!
We listened to incoming President, Sarah McMath (Chief Executive, MOSL), speak eloquently about her career journey and what the Institute of Water means to her and her commitment to diversity and inclusion that will certainly be top of the area agenda for the forthcoming year! Anna Boyles (Head of Performance, Risk and Optimisation, Thames Water) gladly accepted the position of Chair for the next 2 years and spoke about the opportunities the Institute have given her over her career and the importance of being passionate about what you do, regardless if it is the water industry, football or cats!
The committee would like to formally extend their thanks to outgoing President Alison Hoyle and outgoing Chair, Paul Holton for their commitment and dedication over the last 2 years. They have been brilliant ambassadors for the area and the Institute in general and will certainly continue to be involved with the committee!
