A Page in History

This is a collection of interesting historical highlights taken from the pages of past association publications.

Forty Percent Increase in Membership

The Association of Professional Engineers of the Province of Manitoba is fast becoming one of quantity as well as quality, At the meeting of Council held on August 9th, 141 new members were admitted. At the time of publication of the last issue of The Manitoba Professional Engineer, there were 677 members. At the present time membership stands at 809. (Read the full article in the September 1956 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)

Another Step Forward

With the publication of this issue, the Association of Professional Engineers of the Province of Manitoba takes another great step forward...Assisted by N. S. Bubbis, P. Eng., the Association's Vice-President, who is liaison officer between Council and the Public Relations Committee, this Committee laid the groundwork for the publication of The Manitoba Professional Engineer and named G. T. Christie, P. Eng., as editor. (Read the full article in the 1st Edition of the The Manitoba Professional Engineer from July 1956.)

The Case for a Fee Increase

In the past few years, since the Association has opened an office, it has attempted to provide a service to its membership which would rank it with the leading Associations, in Canada. This was a tremendous task to undertake and the men who undertook this job are to be commended, particularly Professor Hoogstraoten, for his efforts. The work of the Association began to expand when the office was opened, and the membership has continued to request more and more service from council... It is for these expanded services that Council unanimously endorses a fee increase of $3.00 per member, to be effective January 1st, 1960. (Read the full article in the November 1959 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)

Salary Survey: Letter to the Editor

Dear Sir: The Dominion Council of Professional Engineers is again conducting a survey of salaries paid to members of the Engineering Profession in Canada. Similar surveys were conducted by the Dominion Council in 1955 and in 1954, and by the A.P.E.M. for Manitoba in 1953 and in 1952. Returns to all four of these surveys from Manitoba engineers were disappointingly low being only about one third of the membership. It is not possible to obtain a completely true picture of engineering salaries in Manitoba from such a low number of replies to the questionnaires, and consequently it is not possible to make much use of such returns. Those in charge of engineering salaries will not, and cannot be expected to accept salary surveys which represent only a minority of the members of our Association. (Read the full article in the December 1956 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)

Application No. 1500

In November 1952, Nestor Mudry, whose application number was 1000, was admitted by Council to membership in this Association. In the four years since that time, 500 applications have been received, and on October 9, 1956, application number 1500 was submitted to the Association. The applicant was James Porter Blayney. Jim Blayney was born in Brantford, Ontario, and was raised in Weston. He received the degree of B.A.Sc. (Mechanical) from the University of Toronto in 1945. For two years following graduation, Jim Blayney was employed by Dow Chemical of Canada Limited at Sarnia, as maintenance engineer of the Styrene Plant. In 1948 he went to work for International Petroleum Company Limited... We welcome applicant number 1500, James Porter Blayney, to Manitoba and to this Association. (Read the full article in the December 1956 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)

A Report from the Ladies

Beginning with this issue, the Manitoba Professional Engineer will report on the activities of the Professional Engineers Wives Association. This Association has a membership of 147. A luncheon is held each month. The highlights of the meetings are the pleasant associations and the guest speakers. This season the ladies have heard Mrs. Anderson from the United Nations Association and Rev. W. G. Martin, who related experiences of his east Arctic travels. A membership tea is held each Fall, and this season 24 new members have joined the Association. In February a coffee party is held to raise money for scholarships for deserving engineering students. On December 5th the annual tea and shower was held at the home of Mrs. J. C. Davis. Gaily wrapped gifts were brought for distribution among T. B. patients. (Read other articles in the December 1956 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)

University News, December 1956


 * Freshie Week
 * The 1956 Freshie Week got off to a big start this year with the Engineering freshmen displaying the usual antics that are expected of them by the freshmen of the other faculties. As usual, the other faculties devoted most of their singing and yelling to panning the engineers. A serious setback was encountered when "unknown persons" replaced the bronze letters at the front of the new Engineering building with a sign proclaiming the building to be the "Science Annex." The age-old feud between Medicine and Engineering once more flared up when the Meds stole an Engineering banner and had the audacity to print a picture of the Medicine freshmen holding the banner in the University paper. When the second, third and fourth year engineers registered, the excitement of Freshie Week had died down and the first year Engineers had settled down to their studies.


 * Freshie Queen
 * The Engineering Freshie Queen was Wendy Woods of 77 Kingston Row, and for the first time the Engineers had a full-fledged girl engineering student as their queen. Wendy is registered in first year Engineering and is the fourth girl to enter this supposedly all-male faculty. The faculty is also represented on the University cheerleading squad, for Wendy has included cheerleading in her activities. She has always liked mathematics and physics, and likes the first year Engineering course very much. Wendy has no plans yet as to which branch of Engineering she will enter.


 * Enrolment
 * There are 267 students entered in first year, an increase of 10 over last year's registration. The class has been split up into morning and afternoon sections for their drafting. The registration of students in their final year totals 116, this number being split up into 48 mechanicals, 40 civils and 25 electricals. There are no geological students graduating this year. Approximately 85 of the graduating engineers are of the original class of 227 which started first year Engineering in 1953.


 * Contest
 * It is doubtful whether the "40 Beer Contest", which was held last year at one of the local parlors, will take place this year. The object of the contest is to see which of the students can consume 40 or more beers in 12 hours and last year's winner was a second year student who ended up with a total of 64. The event received much publicity and one Ontario student, who had a low opinion of Manitoba beer, wrote in saying he had sent a sample to an analyzing lab and received a report that his horse was sick.


 * The Future
 * Employers are now on the campus and indications are that more than ever will be interviewing graduating students. Imperial Oil, C.I.L., Westinghouse and Marconi are a few of the many that have already been here. The largest demand, as last year, is for mechanical engineers and many of them will probably receive four or more offers of employment. Many companies are reluctant to name a starting salary for the graduates. Most of the companies that will be interviewing civil graduates will appear after Christmas exams, although many of the industrial companies are willing to accept the civils for work in the mechanical line.

(Read other articles in the December 1956 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)