Page 4 - NF 2019 Q1-2

NEWSFLASH Q1 - 2 2019
Q4 2018

ICS AGM BSA Annual
General Meeting
The ICS AGM was held in Torshavn on the Faroese
Islands on 13 June and jointly held with a BoD meet-
ing the day before. It was a very well organised event 2020 Vision - Seeing things the way they are
hosted by the Faroese Shipowners Association and the BSA
was represented by our Chair as well as our Manager. The BSA Annual General Meeting and Conference will be
Some of the major issues at the meetings were of course the held on 9 October in Athens at the Yacht Club of Greece. As
IMO GHG Strategy and the Sulphur Cap, as can be read about always the BSA Secretariat aim to provide an afternoon of
in the ICS Press release on the meeting. Also, the BSA Chair, very high quality speakers to discuss the most current top-
Mr John Adams, was re-elected as Vice Chairman of the ICS. ics in shipping.
Communications Strategy With the coming of 1 January 2020, there is
still a lot of uncertainty about the effects of
Also discussed at the ICS meet- the Sulphur cap. With the late decision on not
ings was the development of a introducing an experience building phase,
new Communications Strategy. worries have grown even stronger among
The work has been initiated by shipowners and operators as to how the intro-
the newly appointed Communi- duction of the new regulation will be applied
cations Director at the ICS and it by various States.
was agreed a Working Group As always, the BSA will have a line up of highly
would be established as a means reputable speakers to present and discuss the
of identifying the major target issues at hand. Together we will strive to
audience for the ICS as well as straighten out some of the major topical
developing a initial draft strate- Curtesy of Stuart Neil, ICS Communications Director questions to support owners and operators in their strate-
gy as a means of supporting the ICS Strategic work. In such gic decisions.
areas such as the Sulphur Cap Guidelines.
The afternoon promise a good event for meeting and net-
New Fee Structure working with colleagues from around the shipping indus-
There has been requests for a more transparent fee struc- try as well as with our colleagues at the Bahamas Maritime
ture, and the newly appointed Chief Financial Officer pre- Authority Athens and London offices and part of the BMA
sented a proposal to address these concerns. It is not envis- Board.
aged that the new fee structure will have any major implica- The BSA Board and Secretariat look forward to welcoming
tions for the BSA. you to the AGM on 9 October in Athens.

ILO Sectoral Meeting USCG & EPA

The ILO Sectoral Meeting on the Recruitment and Retention The annual meetings with the United States
of Seafarers and the Promotion of Opportunities for Women Coast Guard and the US Environmental Protec-
Seafarers was held in Geneva at the ILO Headquarters on 25 tion Agency will take place on 4 and 5 Septem-
February to 1 March 2019). ber respectively.
As is suggested by the meeting title, the focus of the meet- Members are advised that a separate call for
ing was recruitment and retention of women seafarers. How- agenda items to be discussed at the meetings
ever, the issue of increased automation and autonomy was
also part of the discussions, although to a much lesser de- will be sent during the first half of August. Members with a
gree than had been anticipated. Both the ICS and the ITF specific interest in participating at the meetings are ad-
published reports on the socio-economic consequences for vised to contact the BSA Manager, Anders Brodje, to dis-
seafarers during the latter part of 2018 and early 2019 as a cuss the possibility of participating. Please keep in mind
means of forming a base for such discussions. space is limited, and that the BSA delegation should in-
Our Manager, Mr Anders Brodje, was part of the shipowners clude appropriate subject matter experts.
delegation and also the delegation’s expert on automation Similarly to last year, the BSA is considering a small recep-
and Human Factors. Anders has a research degree in Mari- tion with maritime stakeholders such as CLIA, the Chamber
time Human Factors from Chalmers University of Technology of Shipping of America, INTERTANKO and World Shipping
and was also part of the team writing the ICS report on in- Council.
creased automation. Anders also formed part of the ship-
owners negotiating team at the ILO together with Mr Stew- Members in the area, permanently or on temporarily on
art Inglis, ICS, and Mr Tim Springett, UKChS, negotiating the business are more than welcome to participate at the re-
terms of the final resolution of the meeting. ception. This will be a good industry networking oppor-
As part of discussions on the main issue of the meeting, re- tunity and allow both members and BSA BoD representa-
tention and recruitment of women seafarers, one of the ma- tives and the Secretariat to meet and discuss matters at
jor focus areas was pregnancy testing of women prior to hand, member support issues and more.
working onboard. Although there was no formal outcome of The BSA Secretariat will endeavour to invite members in
the meeting, there was a striking difference in approaches
between the shipowners focus on duty of care for onboard the relative close vicinity of Washington D.C., but mem-
personnel vs. the integrity and equal treatment of women bers are advised to contact the BSA Secretary to ensure an
seafarers as argued by the ITF and supported by the ILO. invite is sent.