The Secretary General of the International Association of Geodesy is pleased to submit to the XXIIth General Assembly his report on the activities of the Association for the period between the XXIth and the XXIIth General Assemblies.

In accordance with the Statutes and By-Laws, the Secretary General reports on the administrative and financial affairs, the President reporting on the scientific work of the Association.

During the past period the main administrative activities were: (i) meetings of the Bureau and Executive Committee where decisions were taken on future actions of the Association (ii) publication of scientific and administrative information.

During this period the Executive Committee met three times:

- in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 1995,

- in Potsdam, Germany, April 1997,

- in Paris, France, in March 1999

and the Committee, held an informal meeting during the Scientific Assembly in Rio de Janeiro, September 1997. All those meetings were prepared by meetings of the Bureau.

The detailed reports of these meetings were published in the IAG Newsletter which is published in the Journal of Geodesy. A large parts of those meetings were devoted to the preparation of the Scientific Assembly in Rio de Janeiro and of the present General Assembly.

I.2.1. Journal of Geodesy - This is the official journal of the IAG which is published since 1991 January 1st by the German publishing company, Springer Verlag, following a merging of Bulletin Geodesique and manuscripta geodaetica. The Editor-in-Chief, Prof. P.Teunissen, will deliver a report on the Journal a the General Assembly.

The Journal of Geodesy also included the IAG Newsletter in generally each second issues. This Newsletter was edited by Dr Ole Baltazar Andersen, IAG Assistant Secretary and contained information about IAG activities, symposia announcements and reviews, book reviews, bibliography..;

The content of the newsletter is also found on the Internet as a part of the IAG Home-page (I.3)

I.2.2. Geodesist's Handbook - The Handbook reporting on the last general assembly and the structure of IAG was edited by the former Assistant Secretary General Pascal Willis in the spring of 1996. Due to his effort the handbook were created on digital form, so that it could be made available immediately after its publication through the IAG Home-Page. It has been corrected and maintained during the period 1996-99 by the Central Bureau. Especially the maintenance of the address list has been a major task. The next Geodesist's Handbook will be published by Springer Verlag in 2000 in place of one regular issue of the Journal of Geodesy. This publication is now well appreciated by geodesists and non-geodesists, and the Bureau will try to make it available early after the General Assembly. Dr Ole Andersen will act as the editor of this forthcoming issue.

I.2.3 Travaux de l'Association Internationale de Géodésie - Volumes of the Travaux will continue to be published by the Central Bureau of IAG. They contain the quadrennial reports concerning the activities of Sections, Commissions, Special Study Groups, Bureaus, and other Permanent Services, with the relevant bibliography. Dr Ole Andersen will be the editor of this forthcoming issue and has already sent specifications to collect in due time individual reports from authors. The target is to publish this volume in the fall of 1999. It will be made available on the Web, and contingently also on a CD-ROM:

I.2.4. Publication of Symposia Proceedings - The IAG Symposia Proceedings are published in a special series by Springer Verlag, having the association president as the editor. This procedure has been used for the publication of several Symposia (Proceedings no. 101 to 114).The following have been published since Boulder:

117 Gravity, Geoid and Marine Geodesy, 1997.

119 Geodesy on the Move, 1998.

For the other Symposia and Workshops which are only sponsored by IAG or which are organized by IAG bodies (such as meetings of commissions or SSG) the organizers are free to choose their own publishing agency. They are however requested to have the proceedings published early after the Symposium and to inform the Central Bureau.

The IAG Information System (IAGIS) which was established by P.Willis has now been converted to a web-based system maintained by the Central Bureau since 1995 (http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~iag/ ). This system includes information on various topics of potential interest which are partly identical to sections of the Geodesist's Handbook:

The system of sending out informative e-mails has been discontinued due to the problem of maintaining a correct list of e-mail addresses. The person interested in the information must now link up to the IAG home-page where news are flashed.

The Central Bureau has participated in experiments using Computer Supported Collaborative Work Systems (CSCW) within the framework of the EU project MANICORAL. The CSCW Systems will, when more mature, be important tools in the international cooperation.

I.4.1. Symposia and Workshop - The list of meetings sponsored by IAG is given in Appendix A. One can note the large variety of topics treated and the effort towards a good geographical distribution. It is necessary to receive from the organizers information in due time on announcement, report and publication of proceedings. This information is redistributed as soon as possible by the Central Bureau through the IAG Newsletter and announced on the home-page.

I.4.2. Scientific Meeting - was held in Rio de Janeiro, September 1997. It was the fourth General Meeting of IAG after the first one in Tokyo, May 1982. As the previous ones, this meeting was a real success (much due to the effort of Dr. D.Blizkow and co-workers) with a very active participation of geodesists from all continents. Proceedings are published as Volume 115 and 116 in the proceeding series (see I.2.4.) and in the publication "Science Services". The publication was edited by Prof. I.Mueller, and its printing was supported by FAGS and The Ohio State University.

The financial report for the period 1991-1994 is presented in Appendix B. The following comments may be added:

The receipts were stable from subvention point of view. The incomes from sales of publications did considerably decrease. The "head charge" per participant, (at both the Boulder and the Rio de Janeiro meetings), is an important new source of income.

The expenditures were close to what was predicted with some significant differences:

The administrative expenses decreased compared with the previous period due to

A significant increase of travel supports for scientists (young and from developing countries) was possible due to the extra income from the "head charge".

The IAG Fund is now well established through voluntary contributions from IAG affiliates and fellows. Since 1995, more than 70 individuals have contributed a total amount of 9500 US $. The fund is primarily used to provide travel grants for young scientists and scientists from developing countries.

Dr.Veronique Dehant was declared the winner of the Bomford Prize 1999 by the IAG Bureau, on the recommendation of a review committee consisting primarily of the Presidents of Section. A cheque of 2000 US $ will be presented to her during this session.

Several schools have been successfully organized, with a participation from many countries:

Proceedings or lecture notes have been published from nearly all the schools.

Since the transition of the Central Bureau from Paris to Copenhagen much assistance has been obtained from the Department of Geophysics, University of Copenhagen. Especially thanks are due to the Department Secretary, Mrs. Henriette Hansen, who also has functioned as the secretary of the Association.

Sponsored meetings and symposia.

(All amounts in USD)