A Welcome Note

Welcome to our Myanmar Engineering Association of Australia Inc. site. You are welcome to visit our site and view the items published and familiarise yourselves with our community based organisation.

MEAA has been formed to group together Engineers, Architects and Information Technology professionals of Myanmar origin and ethnicity who are residents of Australia. Although the majority of our members are alumni of the Rangoon Institute of Technology in Myanmar, we welcome all Australian Myanmar Engineers, Architects and IT professionals who are alumni of other universities in Australia and overseas countries.

Together we will form a cohesive group for the betterment of our Myanmar community in Australia and also maintain links to the ethnic Myanmar professional organisations in other countries across the world including Myanmar.

If you are an architect, an engineer or an IT professional of Myanmar ethnic origin residing in Australia, please register yourself to become a Friend of MEAA. The MEAA Executive Committee members and the web site Administrator will then review your eligibility to be accepted to the Associate level. As an Associate of MEAA, you will be eligible to become a full fledged member by paying the membership fees. Please see ‘Letter of Appreciation” in ‘Latest News” column).

As a full fledged registered member of MEAA, you can enjoy many benefits including having a dedicated POP3 email address(@meaa.org.au) and free attendance or member discounts for our events and activities throughout the year among other things. As a fully registered member, you will be eligible to vote or nominate the Executive Committee (EC) members and/or nominate yourself to become an EC member to participate in the decision making process of the organisation and chart a future course to make our organisation develop and expand into a veritable organisation catering to the needs of the Australian Myanmar community.

Please feel free to visit our website on a regular basis and be updated of our plans for the year 2012.
The Origins of MEAA

The arrival of RIT Alumni, faculty members and other Myanmar engineers in Australia would have to be dated back decades ago. Of all the Australian states and territories, New South Wales, especially Sydney have attracted a large portion of Myanmar engineers and technicians. In fact the majority of engineers of Myanmar ethnic origin who are alumni of BOC Engineering College, BIT, RIT and for the later part, YIT, YTU, etc. have settled down here in Sydney being the most well known and populous city in Australia with its famous Opera House, Harbour Bridge and many scenic bays along the waterfront.

There have been many social gatherings of RIT Alumni – especially during the religious gatherings at the monasteries and festivals. But as the Myanmar engineer population grew larger, more and more social gatherings were organised and meetings were planned to make these gatherings happen. Soon some suggestions and voices were heard to have our engineers formed as a formal group or association so that we can function and organise officially and be able to help other fellow engineers or RIT Alumni as an official organisation. This idea appealed to the majority and very soon, plans were made and initiated to register the Myanmar engineers in Australia as an incorporated association.

Finally a constitution was drafted and agreed upon by the members and the “Myanmar Engineering Association of Australia” became an officially incorporated association in the state of New South Wales, Australia with the alumni of the Rangoon Institute of Technology forming the majority of members but also local graduate Australian Myanmar engineers and IT professionals joining in to make up the association. Official registration with the New South Wales Department of Commerce, Office of the Fair Trading for Consumers and Traders was done on the 27th of May, 2008 and the birth or the beginnings of MEAA came into being.

MEAA has also applied and been granted a status of a non-profit charitable organisation and hope to become a donor partner with the Australian government to grant more humanitarian aid to Myanmar and if situation permits, to act as a NGO in Myanmar managing and canvassing humanitarian projects for the victims and refugees of natural disasters.