Dear Women in Mining,
Spring is well and truly here! The first third of 2011 is already behind us, and after the long weekends of April everyone is getting back into the swing of things. Summer will be upon us before we know it!
Over the last two months, we have continued to reorganise Women in Mining to allow it to continue to grow and deliver the services you deserve, with the addition of new Directors, stronger Committees and the organisation of our first Women in Mining Council: read all about it in WIM News below!
To support all this growth, we are still working on raising sponsorship, so if you think your company could support Women in Mining, please get in touch! Most Committees also continue to need more members, so if you want to participate, please contact the relevant Committee Chair.
Women in Mining Survey
We are launching our third annual survey, which focuses on the services to WIM Members.
Please take a few minutes to complete this brief online survey to let us know how you think we are doing, what we could do better and how you would like to see the organisation evolve. Your feedback is very important to us and will guide all the work of the Directors and Committees.
A link to the WIM Survey on SurveyMonkey has been provided in the email newsletter circulated to all WIM members. If you missed it, or if you have any trouble with it, please contact us.
Upcoming Events
19 May 2011 — Women in Energy Day — Royal School of Mines
The Society of Petroleum Engineers and Women in Mining are organising the Fifth Annual Women in Energy Seminar around the theme of “Having it All” on Thursday 19 May 2011 in the Royal School of Mines Building of Imperial College in London. This one-day seminar is designed to help women at all levels in the energy industry to shape their personal and career development, network and pick up new skills. Read more and register
23 June 2011 — WIM Summer Drinks — Deloitte
We look forward to seeing you there on 23 June 2011: this is a great opportunity to catch up and meet other WIM members in the relaxed atmosphere of evening drinks. Click here to register
New directors
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Carmel Daniele and Sabine Anderson as Directors of Women in Mining. They both bring considerable experience and recognition in their own fields. We look forward to working with them to increase our visibility and strengthen our relationships with mining businesses.
Carmel Daniele is the founder of CD Capital and CIO of the CD Private Equity Natural Resources Fund, with 25 years’ experience in natural resource investments and corporate development. Sabine Anderson is a Principal Engineer with SRK Consulting (UK) Limited with 15 years’ experience in the mineral and mining industry.
Click here for more information about the Directors of Women in Mining.
Renewed Committees
Women in Mining is operated by four Committees focusing on key services or areas of growth:
- The Education Committee, chaired by Vanessa Garling, develops links with universities throughout the UK and organises the annual Education Event in autumn and events in universities throughout the year (education@womeninmining.org.uk);
- The Membership Committee, chaired by Jennifer Maxwell, focuses on increasing membership and participation in the network (membership@womeninmining.org.uk);
- The Communications Committee, chaired by Amanda van Dyke, publishes the WIM Newsletter and other information on the WIM website and coordinates with media and other organisations to increase awareness of Women in Mining and its agenda (communications@womeninmining.org.uk); and
- The Events Committee which is currently being set up will continue to organise WIM Events and coordinate with other organisations to organise joint events, which had previously been done by the Directors. We need volunteers to create this new committee, so if this is something you could get involved in, please contact us!
Following the recruitment of new Committee Members earlier this year, each of the Committees has now had an opportunity to meet and map out the objectives and projects it will pursue. Most Committees continue to need more members, so if you want to participate, please get in touch with the relevant Committee chair.
The role of the Committee Chairs will be particularly important: in addition to specific roles required by the activities of individual committees, Committee Chairs will guide their committees and coordinate with the Directors and Senior Administrator to achieve the overall strategy.
Women in Mining Council
To allow the Directors, Senior Administrator and Committee Members to exchange ideas, coordinate their work and together shape the strategy of our organisation, on 7 May 2011 we organised the first meeting of the Women in Mining Council. Ten Council members spent the day brainstorming and discussing key issues for the growth of WIM, including the definition of the organisation’s identity and each Committee’s mission statement. Following this successful inaugural meeting, we will organise Council meetings twice a year in spring and autumn.
Looking ahead…
These are vital first steps in the creation of strong democratic bodies within Women in Mining. The objective, within the next year, is to move towards the election of representatives of the membership in key executive positions, including the Committee Chairs and a managing Director. The overall goal is to rapidly develop Women in Mining into a strong and sustainable organisation which is managed by the Committees with the support of the Directors and Senior Administrator.
We will continue to report on these matters in the coming months, and look forward to your input: please get in touch with any ideas or suggestions!
WIM Website — Please register!
We are continuing to transition all WIM members to our online database and aim to soon use the website’s Directory as our main line of communication with you: each WIM Member will need to register in order to remain on WIM mailing lists and to access the restricted Members Zone of the website.
So please click here and register today, it only takes a couple of minutes! Should you have any queries or difficulties registering, please contact our Senior Administrator, Lorna Thomas (info@womeninmining.org.uk / 077 0362 1940).
In case you missed it, we report on…
WIM Seminar — 16 March 2011 — Simmons & Simmons
The UK Bribery Act
Deemed by many to be the toughest anti-corruption law in the world, the new Bribery Act has caused a great deal of discussion in business circles, including the mining and minerals industry. The Bribery Act 2010 will come into force on 1 July 2011, requiring many businesses to (re)assess their corruption risks and anti-bribery procedures. Claire McLeod, Managing Associate in Simmons & Simmons’ Crime Fraud and Investigations Group, spoke to over thirty WIM members about the offences introduced by the Bribery Act, the defences and penalties applicable and how the Bribery Act compares with the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, before discussing some specific risk areas for mining businesses. Read more
Other News
We could not include all the news in this newsletter, so please visit our “Other News” page to read more on the following topics:
- Bribery Act 2010 – What does it mean for juniors?, in which Michelle Witton, an Ethics & Compliance Consultant and lawyer, explains that “in responding to the Act’s introduction, juniors must realise that Bribery Act 2010 compliance is primarily a practical matter of implementing policies and processes”
- The Women on Boards Report delivered to the UK Government by Lord Davies of Abersoch, which states that “In 2010 women made up only 12.5% of the members of the corporate boards of FTSE 100 companies, up from 9.4% in 2004. At the current rate of change it will take over 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the UK”!
- The Wall Street Journal Report on Women in the Economy, which examines why the progress of women in America’s workplace has stalled and how this can be addressed
- Reports on interesting mining events, including the Mayer Brown Mining Industry Seminar on “Complex geopolitical environments, expropriation and corruption: managing the risks” and the Masterclass on Asset and Company Valuation co-organised by MinSouth, the AMA and Simmons & Simmons.