What type of skills are required to organize a sequence of successful annual conferences which move around the world ? Regardless of the answers to this question, it is clear that continuation of both relevant experience and accumulated expertise from previous conferences is of vital importance. A second key component is adaptability to the particular conditions in each country where the conference is held.

Accomplishment of both these requirements is provided by the Extended Executive Committee (EEC) of the OOAE Division. This Committee represents a multinational group with multiple technical skills and profound understanding of a variety of different cultures around the world. Members of the EEC comprise (in addition to the Executive Committee itself) past Division Chairs, OMAE Conference Organizers and Symposium Coordinators.

The symposium coordinators, viz., Subrata Chakrabarti, Carlos Guedes Soares, Mamdouh Salama, Segen Estefen, Takeshi Kinoshita, Cengiz Ertekin, Daniel Valentine, Walter Kuehnlein and Owen Oakley have organized very successful and well-timed sessions throughout the sequence of OMAE conferences. We look forward to realizing the fruits of their efforts also when we meet at OMAE in San Diego in 2007. The coordinators are truly dedicated and knowledgeable individuals, who have served the Division and its members for many years.

The Division is in the excellent hands of an outstanding group of colleagues who serve in the Executive Committee. This committee is furthermore a vehicle for recruiting and bringing in new people with the up-to-date skills and ideas which are required at any time. This ensures a high degree of adaptability to changing conditions and new technical areas that become important.

The Executive Committee (EC) and the extended Executive Committee (EEC) are the main pillars of the OOAE Division. I am proud to serve as the chairman of this Division and its Executive Committee during this term which runs from 1 July, 2006 to 30 June, 2007. The three previous Division Chairs were our distinguished colleagues Professors Michael Bernitsas, Daniel Valentine, and John Halkyard. I look forward to continue their successful work.

The OOAE Division mission is to serve and promote our field of Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering. As a group, we will continue projects we started in previous years to better serve our membership, such as

1. Expanding our membership

2. Attracting young engineers to the Division

3. Organizing the annual OMAE Conference

4. Maintaining our web page through ASME

5. Supporting the Student Design Competition

6. Electing new members to the EC

7. Achieving a healthy balance and collaboration between industry
and academia in all OOAE activities.

We will also focus on particular issues, such as

1. Increase the number of special events which are targeted to reflect on-going developments within the industry as well as academia.
2. Industry participation at OMAE to ensure that the industry needs and interests are taken care of

3. Continuous work on long-term strategic plans for the Division.

4. Recruiting new members, also internationally, to the OOAE Division, including student members

The Chair takes this opportunity to thank all of the members of the Extended Executive Committee for all of their help this year. Without this help, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to handle all of the business of this Division. The Chair thanks the active members of the OOAE Division and welcomes others interested in volunteering to participate in the activities of the Division. The Chair also thanks the ASME staff for their help. A special thank goes to our webmaster, Cengiz Ertekin, for all of his efforts in maintaining the website and organizing the required activities.

The participation of the EC at the annual meeting in Houston of Xiaozhi (Christina) Wang, Segen Estefen, Ron Riggs, Walter Kuehnlein, Jon Mikkelson, John Halkyard and Owen Oakley is greatly appreciated. The Chair also recognizes Sarah Lowis who played an important role in relation to the Hamburg conference this year. The involvement of the ASME staff for IPTI, viz., Manny Mones and his group in Houston is greatly recognized.

The OMAE 2007 International Conference, our main event, is to be held this June in USA. This conference venue is San Diego, and it is expected to be a high-quality and highly successful event with the great efforts of John Halkyard, Conference Chairman and Solomon Yim, Technical Chair. Co-chairmen are Richard Seymour and Barbara Fletcher.

As part of the conference, there are several special events:

The OMAE 2006 in Hamburg was another technical and social success thanks to Daniel T. Valentine, Technical Chair and Walter Kuehnlein, Chair. This conference celebrated the 25th anniversary of the OMAE series of international conferences. In a plenary session lead by Denby Morison, the past chairmen were present and highlighted the features of each conference.

The first conference outside North America was in Tokyo in 1986, and it was a huge success. Some of the international sites for previous conferences include The Hague, Netherlands; Stavanger, Norway; Glasgow, Scotland; Copenhagen, Denmark; Lisbon, Portugal. In North America, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, and Calgary, for example, have hosted OMAE conferences (see the Table on the home page of OMAE for a list of all sites). With the merger of the OMAE and OE Divisions of ASME into the OOAE Division, the Ocean Engineering Symposium is added to the venue starting with OMAE ’02 in Oslo.

In 2008 the OMAE will be in Estoril Portugal. In 2009, the venue is Hawaii. The host in 2010 will be Shanghai, China.

The OOAE Division has its own Journal. The quarterly ASME Transactions Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering (JOMAE) started with its first issue in February 1987 and publishes transaction quality papers from the OMAE conferences and through direct submissions. All papers go through a peer review process to ensure high quality and technical accuracy. JOMAE is sponsored solely by the OOAE Division and published by ASME. The editor of the Journal, Professor Stephen Liu, has provided excellent management and dedicated work through many years. Regretfully, he has decided to retire from this position in the near future. Presently, we are looking for new candidates for this position.

I look forward to working with the EEC to achieve our goals and seeing all of you at the 26th OMAE Conference in San Diego.

Bernt J. Leira