Meeting Reports.

 

Minutes of the EC meeting in Nice, 30-31th March, 2001. 

 

The following were present.

F. Sanso                                                 President

G. Beutler                                               First Vice President.

D. Blitzkow                                            Second Vice President

C. C. Tscherning                                  Secretary General

O. Andersen                                         Ass. Sec. General

A. Dodson                                            President Sec 1

C. K. Shum                                            President Sec 2

M. Sideris                                              President Sec 3

B. Heck                                                  President Sec 4

C. Jekeli                                                  Secretary Sec 4

Y. Yang                                                  Secretary Sec 4

C. Wilson                                              President Sec 5

H. Drewes                                              President Comm. VIII

C. Boucher                                            President Comm X

S. Zerbini                                               President Comm XIV

K. P. Schwarz                                        Past President

J. Adam                                                  LOC of IAG SA meeting in Budapest.

 

1. Approval of agenda

FS presented the agenda containing several additions, and this was approved.

 

2. Confirmation of adoption of minutes of the 2000 IAG meeting in Nice, France

The Minutes of the EC meeting in Nice, 28-29th April, 2000 were published as part of the IAG newsletter in JoG 74/06 and on the IAG web page. The Minutes were adopted by the EC with the following correction under item 7 (Report from the review committee, IAG structure): Inter-commission/service bodies reside within sections and not within commissions.  

 

3. Report from the Review Committee.

G. Beutler presented the IAG review 2000-2001 Executive Summary and went through the IAG Missions and Objectives. These were adopted with minor revisions.

The key elements of the IAG structure were presented. EC adopted the following titles for commissions with the provisional content specified in the proposal for new Statutes and By-laws.

Comm 1. Geometric reference frames

Comm 2. Gravity field

Comm 3. Earth Rotation and Geodynamics

Comm 4. Positioning and Applications.

The Bureau will distribute the adopted executive summary to the National Representatives within two weeks of the EC.

 

The review committee was thanked and the committee was dissolved. G. Beutler was asked to present the executive summary in Budapest.

It was decided that if the Council in Budapest passes the change of structure, a committee for the realization of the new IAG structure should be established. G. Beutler assisted by the section presidents should lead this committee. The committee should have the freedom to invite additional committee members.

 

A procedure for handling amendments to the Statutes and By-laws was established by the EC:

It was underlined that amendments should be send through the National representatives and should be send to the Secretary General before the end of June.

All amendments will be presented to the Council in Budapest. Amendments will be mailed to the EC prior to the Council meeting for possible support. The Amendments will be posted on the IAG internet site and distributed to the National Representatives before the Council meeting.

 

4. Proposal for new statutes and by-laws.

The Secretary General received the proposal for new statues and by-laws 6 months ahead of the Council meeting Budapest, which is why they can be considered at this meeting.

According to the new Statutes a review committee shall review the Statutes and Bylaws every eight years to ensure an up-to-date structure IAG. The first review shall take place in 2007.

 

The proposals for new Statutes and By-laws with the amendments made at the EC meeting were unanimously adopted by the EC for presentation to the Council in Budapest.  The Bureau will distribute the proposal to the National Representatives within two weeks of the EC.

 

IAG Guidelines for the Establishment of Sub-commissions, Study Groups, Commission Projects, Inter-commission Committees and IAG Projects were distributed for information at the EC meeting. It was decided that they should not be included to the By-laws.

 

C. Jekeli put forward a motion for a mechanism to change the status of the inter-commission committees. B. Heck supported the motion. The motion reads: “The EC may recommend to the council and seek its approval to grant full commission status to an inter-commission committee”. The motion was not adopted by the EC.

 

 

5. 20001 IAG Scientific Assembly in Budapest.

K.-P. Schwarz and J. Adam presented the status of the preparation for the IAG meeting. Presently 274 have pre-registrated representing 58 countries.

Advertising was discussed. IAG agreed to advertise GPS World and Galileo World at the meeting in Budapest by distributing free sample copies. O. Andersen was asked to contact Springer with respect to similar arrangement with the Journal of Geodesy. C.C. Tscherning should explore the possibilities of advertisement in EOS, and C. K. Shum agreed to announce the meeting at the upcoming spring AGU.

 

The meeting arrangement proceeds as planned and the second circular had been distributed. The list of symposium convenors and session chairs was distributed for information.

K.-P. Scwartz will establish a small committee to elect best poster and oral presentation among  young scientist.

Financial support has been obtained from ESA and NASA, and IAG will be able to support a substantial number of scientists.

 

 

6. Bi-annual report.

Bi-annual reports from all the entities within IAG will form an official IAG publication. This publication will be distributed on CD in Budapest and will published on the IAG Internet site. The section presidents are responsible for compiling the material within their sections. Status were:

Sec 1. All entities have been contacted and have responded positively

Sec 2. All entities have been contacted. Reports are already available on the Section web site.

Sec 3. All entities have been contacted. Most have responded positively

Sec 4. All entities have promised to send material at end of April.

Sec 5. All entities have been contacted and have responded. The section will report via the section website.

 

7. Collaboration with sister societies.

F. Sanso reported on a meeting with ISPRS, IUG, FIG, IHO, ICA and IAG at the ISPRS meeting in Amsterdam, July 2000.

A proposal for establishing a joint board of spatial information societies will be addressed at the next meeting with the societies, which will take place 2. Sept. 2001 in Budapest.

It was decided to discuss how the collaboration could be enlarged with other organizations/societies at the EC meeting in Budapest.

 

FIG has drafted a memorandum of understanding, which had been distributed prior to the meeting. The EC adopted the memorandum of understanding.

It was decided that F. Sanso should ask R. Neilan to become IAG representative to the Institute of Navigation (ION).

C. Boucher was asked to prepare a proposal for establishing a group to look into implementation of ITRF including communication between the involved organizations.

 

8. Report from the Committee for Developing Countries

D. Blitzkow presented the work of the CDC. A South American geoid workshop was successfully held in Sao Paolo in 2000 with participation from most South America countries. The committee’s work in South America is very successful.

Meeting was held with C. Merry (S. Africa) on establishing a working group on creating an African geoid.

Commission X and the IGS central Bureau suggested the establishment of an African continental reference system (AFREF). The “Interest and motivation for establishing AFREF” document was distributed prior to the meeting and presented by C. Boucher.

 

9. Report on the Journal of Geodesy.

P. Teunissen reported on the Journal of Geodesy. Printed and online versions are available. Volume 74 contains ten issues (two double issues) and the Geodesists Handbook and will be finished shortly. Volume 75 will be finished in 2001 and will contain three double issues).

Review process has been lowered from 10 to 9 month on average, but the production time has been increased from 4 to 5 month.

Special issues on “GLONASS” (guest editor P. Willis) and on “New parameters for Earth orientation” (guest editor T. Herring) are foreseen, and review papers are also planned. It was stressed that interaction with the section presidents is important in defining special issues.  

The IAG newsletter suffers from Springers production time. Springer has agreed that IAG can issue electronic news on a regular basis.

 

10. Gravity Field and Figure of the Earth Service. (GFFS)

M. Sideris presented a suggestion for establishment of a new IAG service “Gravity Field and Figure of the Earth Service (GFFS)” formed by joining the following services (BGI, ICET, IGeS) supplemented with the following centers/services (PSMSL, ICGEM (international center for global earth gravity models)). The EC agreed to set up a coordination group headed by M. Sideris to create/prepare the terms of reference for the service. The coordination group should prepare the material for establishment of the service at the Budapest meeting.

 

11. IAPSO Scientific Assembly (Mar de la Plata, Argentina, October 2001)

The EC approved to co-sponsor the IAPSO meeting in October and to have a joint IAG/IAPSO symposium called “Gravity, geodesy and the ocean circulation as inferred from altimetry”. 

 

12.  IUGG General Assembly in Sapporo 2003.

C. C. Tsherning asked for input on themes for the IUGG GA as well as names of union symposia for the IUGG GA by the end of July.

 

13. Next meeting.

The next EC meeting will be held in Budapest, Tuesday 4. September 2001. The subsequent meeting will be held 26-27th April, 2002 in association with the next EGS meeting.