Last but not least

This was my last trip as President and it was to the AATCC conference in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. This was the first visit where I have been and not actually worked but acted as a pure ambassador for the Society. We met with our old friends Jack Daniels, head of AATCC, past President Martin Bide and the new President Fred Cook. I presented Fred with a present to mark his being made honorary member, a reciprocal agreement for Presidents of either society. Martin Bide made me honorary member of AATCC in April last year. There were two brits winning awards our own Professor David Lewis and John Provost. David Lewis won the prestigious Olney award for outstanding achievement in textile Chemistry and John won the Millsen award together with Wim Prinsen for the invention of the first commercially available ink jet printer for textile fabrics. The conference had about 150 to 200 attendees and I attended the C2C track which I found to be very interesting.

Visit to UK events

In February I attended the AGM of the London Region together with Susie Hargreaves who spoke about the SDC in the 21st century. March has been a very busy month. I started by visiting two dye houses in the North West to see why they were successful and what the SDC could do for them. The two companies were Blackburn Yarn Dyers and Pincroft Dyeing and Printing Ltd an I hope to visit two more before I finish my Presidency. I attended the Midland regions’ AGM and seminar as well as being a judge at the Midland heat of the design competition. It was my honour to present the 50 year membership awards at this time. Shortly after this I flew to Northern Ireland for their AGM and was also a judge at their design competition. I was welcomed at both events which I really enjoyed, and was amazed about the sheer talent of all the young designers, their enthusiasm and eloquence of the presentations. It was really hard to decide the winners! The winners were Cassandra Hawkins in the midlands and Aiofe Twomey in Northern Ireland, both will go on to the final in Bradford at the end of April.