Welcome to the Southern Branch Web Site. I hope that, despite the wintery weather conditions you were able to enjoy the Festive Season and spend time with your families. The Winter edition of our Newsletter was published in Mid December and posted to every member’s home address. If you did not receive a copy please contact the Branch Secretary, Tony Suter. We remain grateful to The Stilwell Partnership for their continued support to the Branch enabling us to communicate with our members both through the Newsletters and this web site.

We now look forward to the challenges that 2010 has to offer the Highway Industry. We have completed our changes to reflect that we are now The Institute of Highway Engineers and have also lined up some events that will be of interest and education to our members. Please see the Future Events page for more information. Please continue to visit us regularly to keep abreast of what we are arranging for your continued professional development and interest. As ever, please be aware that your Committee and the Web Master are all volunteers with other commitments, so if there are times when the site might appear slightly "dated" please bear with us. We endeavour to update every month or more frequently if there are events to be advertised.

If you are one of a number of members who loyally support the Institute by regularly paying your membership fees but who have not attended an event, why not make that little extra effort and visit us? We shall be delighted to welcome you and you will get even better value for money. I appreciate that some topics may not be of direct relevance to your particular appointment but the objective is to provide varied subjects and there is always the chance that sometime in the future you may be grateful for the information! Non-member guests are also welcome to events unless stated otherwise when we are restricted by numbers that can be accommodated at the event venue.

As always we value any input from Branch Members, so if you have any comments to make or suggestions for technical presentations or visits, please contact a Committee Member so we can follow it through.

We have also fixed dates of our two main events for this year. The Winchester Seminar will take place on Friday 18 June and we hope to have further information on this shortly. Also, Friday 26 November will be our Wine & Wisdom Charity fund raising evening. Put these dates in your diary – both promise to be their usual informative (yes, even the Wine & Wisdom quiz can broaden the mind!) and value for money occasions.

I and the Committee wish you a successful 2010 and we look forward to seeing you during the year.

Chris Stark Eng.Tech. MIHE. Branch Chairman