As part of our exciting 80 Years of IWater campaign, we are launching a new series, “80 Years, 80 Voices”, where we will share personal insights, memories, and experiences from those who have played a significant role in shaping the Institute of Water and the wider water sector.

We are thrilled to kick off the campaign with a special blog from Simon Bennett, Market Improvement Lead at MOSL, who reflects on his journey as an IWater volunteer and member. Simon has been a valued part of our community for many years, and his contributions have helped guide IWater through a period of significant transformation.

Simon began his journey with IWater as a volunteer for the South West Area in 1988, and later served as Chair of the Board from 2008-2010 during a pivotal time of rebranding. As Chair, Simon’s dedication to fostering a collaborative environment helped lay the foundation for many of the initiatives we continue to enjoy today, including the Area Forum, which has been an essential space for knowledge sharing and strategic planning with our volunteer network.

We are excited to share Simon’s story as the first in our 80 Years, 80 Voices series and look forward to featuring more stories that highlight the growth and achievements of IWater and its members, volunteers and partners.

Simon reflects on his time with IWater over the years:

“I was advised to join the Association of Water Officers, as it was known back in 1987, as it would be good for my career, my job and my relationship with my then boss. So, I did!

Back then it was a very middle-aged male-dominated, engineering-based association that seemed to still be stuck in the 1950s.

Within a year, I was on the South West (SW) area committee as honorary treasurer, trying to locate monies from various committee members, accounts, and presenting the annual accounts at the AGM. I had to buy a ‘teach yourself accounting’ book to help me.

In the early days, I also got to meet our founder, Dr Allen Bolton, and many of the original association members who did so much for this organisation.

In 1988, the association became the Institute of Water Officers, and the average age of the SW committee dropped by 10 years, and we started catering for all sorts of events to reach out to a wider audience. We also had privatisation to deal with and get our heads around, which provided some new topics for events. Legends like Richard Barton, Barry Short and Kevin North joined the committee, and it was a great and fun place to be.

Back then the main sponsorship came from the water companies, and in 1993 the SW area successfully held its first overseas weekend school in Ireland as guests of the Dublin Corporation. I can remember staying in Bray, dancing at a traditional Irish-speaking club, taking 10 delegates to Dublin’s finest museums and, of course, the water treatment works in the beautiful Wicklow mountains. This was the start of several excellent overseas visits including France, Belgium, and Jersey (a member of the SW area at the time).

The events also started to improve, and we started to bring in industry suppliers’ sponsorship via the successful annual golf day and their own suppliers’ day, which was a first for the Institute at the time. We also started joint area events with the Midlands and South East areas, having met some of their members at national conferences. It was a successful time for the Institute and events were very well supported.

As an area we also helped put on three successful Bristol [Annual] Conferences in 2000, 2006 and 2012. I made my speaking debut in 2006 talking about the history of Bristol, my home city. Conferences – especially the sponsors’ evening – were fun events. Who can forget the Robin Hood evening in Nottingham, Wine Street in Swansea, monkeying around at Bristol Zoo, singing sea shanties on the SS Great Britain, dancing at Belfast City Hall and drinks at Stormont, and the football quiz evening at Newcastle’s St James Park.

Please note – I blame Richard Barton (former National Chair), Kevin North, Barry Light and Ian Limb (former National Chair) for everything and anything that may have happened. It was never me!

Treasurer, Events Co-ordinator, Chair and National Representative were all roles I was proud to hold in the SW area, so I jumped at the chance of being Neil Morton’s National Vice Chair in 2007, and then followed the great man into the National Chair role (2008-10). The role was generally a one-year term of office, but due to a rebrand and name change I covered two.

What an honour it was receiving my chain of office at King’s College Cambridge and working closely with then President Jack Carnell and the Gateshead head office team.

We had just started the quarterly area forum meetings, which I managed to move around the country. The forum was a great way of sharing good practice and areas supporting each other as well as putting on more joint events. It was a busy but rewarding experience and I received great support from my Vice Chair, Maureen Casagrande. I stayed on the SW committee for a couple more years after that and was made a Fellow.

I still attend events when I can, and I am still in touch with many colleagues, good friends in many cases. We did have some fun, but we also learned an awful lot and built up a great industry network. I was pleased to get involved in the mentoring scheme and share all that knowledge and experience before it was lost.

I for one will be raising a toast and wishing the Institute of Water a very happy 80^th birthday.”