A short report from ISCO President, David Usher.

In the picture: On left, Bob Umbdenstock of ISCO Corporate Member, Resolve Marine and, on right, David Usher, President of ISCO

Mary Ann Dalgleish, ISCO’s Membership Director, and I attended the Clean Gulf Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans last week.  ISCO had a booth in the exhibition area and this worked well as a focal point for meeting with a large number of you who were at Clean Gulf.

We were warmly welcomed by attendees and the number of people who stopped to say “hello” and ask questions about ISCO’s current activities was very high. We were kept very busy !

It was good to meet with so many old friends and speak to so many I had not met before. Many of those stopping by expressed how much they liked the Newsletter and how they enjoyed reading it weekly.

There was a great deal of interest in what ISCO is doing for the spill response community, including the new professional membership initiative and ISCO’s active involvement, through our membership of the IMO OPRC-HNS Technical Group, in the International Offers of Assistance (IOA) and Response Resource Inventory (RRI) initiatives.

In the picture: On left, Matt Goldsmith of Marine Well Containment Company with, on right, ISCO President.. The traditional draw for a bottle of fine malt whisky was won by Warren Christopherson of Chukar Waterjet Inc. but, as Warren had to leave early to travel back to Minnesota, he nominated Matt to receive the prize on his behalf.

During the event I was able to attend the Spill Control Association of America (SCAA) afterglow event and speak with many in our colleagues. Several SCAA members are also Corporate Members of ISCO.

I also attended a meeting of the IOA Core Group (of which ISCO is a member) convened by Heather Parker of the US Coast Guard.  The work being done in the development of the IOA and RRI is of high value to our members, because the private sector (response contractors, manufacturers, consultants and training providers) are recognised as having an important role in planning for improved international co-operation in response to future major spill events. Separate reports on this meeting will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Newsletter and circulated to members of the ISCO RRI Correspondence Group.

All-in-all I think that ISCO’s participation in the Clean Gulf event was very successful and will undoubtedly result in an increase in the number of our members – something that is very important for the organization.  Without the contributions of our members the work that ISCO is doing on behalf of our community could not continue.

I would like to express my thanks to all of our members for their continuing support. Together, we have achieved much over the past years.  With more members, we could do more and I urge all of you who have not yet joined us to do it now.

David Usher