The KLSM Seminar- Go Goa!

Mumbai, November 24 K-Line Ship Management (KLSM) held its 16th Annual Seminar in India, 2nd Edition, "Seminar 16B" in Goa on November 15 and 16. Guests, participants and delegates from their offices started arriving from the morning of November 14 to settle down in the rich and romantic holiday ambience the State is renowned for. The venue was the popular Joecons Resort at Benaulim in South Goa. An atmosphere of camaraderie was evident right from the start.

After the registration on Nov 15, Capt. S. K. Goyal gave a welcome address and introductory speech and introduced all the office staff who had flown in from Tokyo, Singapore, Manila, Indonesia, and Mumbai. A round of self-introduction from each delegate followed.

President Capt. T. Saito, in his opening speech, praised all seagoing staff for their exemplary work, for achieving new heights in safety, with target of Zero Accidents coming closer than ever before, and also for achieving the cherished approvals from Shell, Total, Qatar Gas, and other oil majors after Vetting Inspections.

"Our company has moved up the ladder into the Top Quarter, amongst the best 25% performers, as per the rating by Oil Majors for performance and compliance. A great pat for our seafarers, and the support given by our office, without whose dedication this could not have been achieved," he said.

Capt. H. Otsuda, Group Leader of Crewing Group, Tokyo, spoke on MLC 2006 and Rest Hours. The determination of the Tokyo office to overcome any difficulties in complying with the conditions was stressed in the presentation. Measures such as advance planning and placing extra crew and officers on board were discussed.

After a tea break and a group photograph on the lush lawns of the resort, Capt. R. Mathur, Manager, CMS, from the Singapore office, gave a presentation on the Competence Management System installed recently in the fleet. His detailed presentation explained the various aspects of the new system.

Capt. P.N. Bhaumik, Manager QSHE, Tokyo office, took the podium to conduct an exercise on media handling and emergency communications. The interactive session saw great interest being shown by seafarers, especially as the various do's and don'ts in emergency situations were explained.

After a sumptuous lunch, Capt. I. Juvale, from the Singapore office, conducted a workshop on hazard identification and KYT. The interactive session was much appreciated, as was his Case Study on injury prevention that followed.

Post tea, an equally interesting session- 'Leadership and Team building'- by Capt. S. Rele, QSHE Manager from the Tokyo office, followed. His presentation was to the point and humorous and was followed by an exercise on 'Human elements and team building'.

Capt. S. K. Goyal, the watchful coordinator and timekeeper, brought the first day of the meet to a close. Later, all the delegates could be seen letting their hair down and socialising with each other at a party in the evening. There was plenty of good food, good wine- and plenty of good dancing, too, to shake off those extra calories from the good eating!

The second day of the seminar commenced with the splitting of the entire group into deck and engine departments to conduct exercises specific to each.

Capt. P. N. Bhaumik took the 'Deck' podium, to conduct an exercise and workshop on reflective learning and BTM/BRM- "It will never happen to me". The main theme was collision avoidance, and the well conducted session was an eye opener for the audience.

Simultaneously, Mr. Deepak Seth, G.M., Singapore Fleet- conducted a similar workshop for engineers and electrical officers. His theme: "Does Equipment really fail?" and "Fire in engine room".

Capt. S. B. Rele spoke later to the deck side on TMSA, especially chapter 8 related to deck, cargo and such matters. Mr. Nagao from the Tokyo office addressed the engineers on machinery incident investigation.

Capt. Pranshu Vashisht and Mr. Deepak Seth then spoke to the deck and engine departments simultaneously, the former to address accidents and incidents related to various chapters of the TMSA- notably, mooring and environmental incidents; the latter to continue the workshop on machinery incident investigation.

All presentations were well done and very professionally conducted. Not surprising, because K-Line has been at the forefront of creating greater awareness and preventing accidents over the years. There was much useful information shared.

Post lunch, all the delegates gathered to hear Capt. Rele's update on the excellent results of recent vetting inspections. Wonderful, and a feather in the cap of KLSM and its seafarers!

Capt. I Juvale returned with tips on the closing meeting of an inspection. Very important, since much depends on a successful closing meeting and how it should be conducted.

An interesting address by Capt. Bhaumik, on KLSM Management Review and recent SIRE and TMSA audit results gave everybody more reason to cheer - and motivated them to continue to be alert and wary to avoid any accident or incident in future.

Presentations and sharing onboard experiences, made by Capt Alan Pinto and Chief Engineer Mr. Santosh Kattimani, were greatly appreciated. Both of them gave very positive and encouraging experiences during their entire tenure in KLSM.

An Open Forum followed, where seafarers had the opportunity to voice grievances, complaints, opinions and suggestions. A few seafarers spoke to the audience, but there weren't many issues since KLSM is known to be involved with its seafarers at all times.

The open forum was followed by a speech by Capt A. Fujimaru, G.M. of MHRG, K Line, Tokyo, who shared his views on CMS, the future of Indian seafarers and crewing matters, expressing thanks to all.

Capt. S. Fukuda, the M.D. of the Singapore office, also thanked everybody in a short encouraging speech.

Towards the end, an awards ceremony saw Loyalty and Cooperation Awards distributed by President T. Saito and Director Mr. I. Ogawara. Capt. T. Ibusuki - Advisor to Tokyo office, and former CEO and MD of KLSM India - gave a warm speech about his time and experiences in India, and how much he had grown to love the country, and its seafarers, over the 8 years he was in working in Mumbai.

The closing speech was given by Capt. Koji Higashijima, who has been in India for almost 4 years. The warm address was well received by everybody.

The 16B KLSM seminar then concluded, but there was still a last evening of fun, merriment, camaraderie and enjoyment- with more sumptuous food, great music and wonderful dancing.

Marex Media