Meeting report.

 

Minutes of the IAG-EC meeting in Nice 26. and 27. April 2002. 

 

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

G. Boedecker                                Secretary Sec 3

C. Wilson                                     President Sec 5

V. Dehant                                      Secretary Sec 5

H. Drewes                                    President Comm. VIII

C. Boucher                                    President Comm. X

S. Zerbini                                      President Comm. XIV

K. P. Schwarz                                                     Past President

P. Xu                                             Rep. IAG intercommission committee on theory.

S. Takemoto                                                       President Comm. V.

 

 

0. Memorandum

The IAG honoured the past president of IAG P. A. Leppan and past secretary general of IAG.

J. J. Levallois. Both passed away in 2001.

 

1. Approval of agenda

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

 

2. Brief reports from each section (Section Presidents)

The section presidents of section 1,2,3 and 5 reported that the sections are working well.

The EC appointed C. Wilson to liaison with IERS in preparing a resolution on the celestial reference frame, which IAG can carry forward at the IUGG meeting in Sapporo. IERS should also be asked for a brief article for Journal of Geodesy on the celestial reference frame.

 

3. Report from the IAG planning committee.

G. Beutler presented the minutes from the planning committee meeting which had taken place the same morning. The minutes are available from http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~iag/newstructure/newstructure.htm

 

G. Beutler had received a proposal to set up an entity dealing with fundamental constants. The EC decided to establish a planning group, which should report at the IUGG2003 meeting in Sapporo. C. Wilson agreed to chair this planning group. G. Beutler and C. Wilson will make a letter to the head of the services with a request for nomination of a person to join the planning group. 

 
C. Tscherning reported on the establishment of an IAG outreach branch. The announcement had been widely distributed and published in the IAG newsletter. Until now only a few institutions had shown interest. K.-P. Schwarz stressed that the institutions should contribute with one full-time secretary. The EC decided that IAG must be active in finding a suitable place for the IAG outreach branch (C. Tscherning).

 

4. Report from the Planning Committee for the Intercommission Committee on Theory
Peiliang Xu presented the report of the Intercommission Committee on Theory. P. Xu stressed the importance of establishing joint working groups with the different IAG commissions in the future structure. 

 

5. Report from the planning committee on the IAG project

G. Beutler distributed and presented the status report from the planning committee on the IAG project IGGOS, which was prepared at the third meeting of the group on Thursday 26 April. The EC approved to appoint G. Beutler to chair the IGGOS planning group until the IUGG meeting in Sapporo with H. Drewes serving as secretary.

 

6. Comments received on the new Statutes and by-laws.

C. Tscherning reported on the comments received on the new statutes and by-laws from the National Committee of Poland. These are available on http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~iag/Compol.htm

The EC decided to adopt the editorial changes suggested by the national representative of Poland. The suggestion of omitting the word astrometric in the description of commission 1 in the by-laws that reads: “Theory and coordination of astrometric observation for reference frame purposes”, was not adopted. V. Dehant will contact the national representative of Poland.

Updated Statutes and By-laws are available at the IAG website. K.-P. Schwarz agreed to look into re-formulating the Statutes and By-laws on the subject of personal membership as this still causes some confusion.

 

7. Experience from the Budapest Scientific Assembly

K.-P. Schwarz presented the report from the Budapest Scientific Assembly which has been published as part of the IAG newsletter in the Journal of Geodesy. All comments have been very positive, and the EC thanked K.-P. Schwarz and the LOC for the great work done in association with the Budapest meeting. The reviewed proceeding is in press with Springer.

 

The EC discussed the publication of reviewed publications in association with the IUGG2003 meeting. It was decided to have reviewed proceedings and that the cost of the proceedings should be added to the registration fee. The EC decided to form an editorial board for this meeting. This will consist of 8 members: the convenors from each geodesy session, and F. Sanso. It was decided that this board should set up set up a clear set of rules for reviews and deadlines before the IUGG2003 meeting. The Joint Symposia chaired by the IAG will not be published as part of the IAG reviewed proceedings.

The EC appointed C. Tscherning to liaison with the LOC and to prepare the final program. Abstracts will be handled by IUGG, but C. Tscherning was appointed to assist in the assignment of abstract to the different IAG sessions in corporation with the session convenors.

O. Andersen was appointed editor by the EC for the 2003 version of the IAG Travaux and Geodesists Handbook.

 

8.  IUGG2003 - General Assembly in Sapporo 2003.

C. C. Tscherning reported on the preparation for the next IUGG meeting. IAG related meetings will be confined to 7 days (Wednesday, first week (July 2, 2003) to Thursday, second week (July 10,

2003). The EC will meet on Tuesday the first week (July 1, 2003). Each session has 1.5 days except for IGGOS which has two days. A preliminary time schedule was presented, see

http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~iag/iugg03time.htm .

 

9. Nominations of IAG and IUGG officers.

The nomination procedures for the IUGG and the IAG elections were presented by K-.P.Schwarz. A draft call for IAG nominations was discussed. The final call is available at http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~iag/callnom.htm.

It was considered important that a geodesist became a member of the new IUGG Bureau. The President and the Secretary General were asked to contact possible candidates. Proposals from the EC should be send to the Secretary General before June 1, 2003.

 

10. Resolution on permanent earth tides effects.

The issue was postponed to the next IAG meeting.

 

11.  Best paper award

Two of the three suggestions from the Editor in Chief of Journal of Geodesy P. Teunissen were send out for e-mail vote after the EC meeting to enable the members to read the papers. The winner of the award has subsequently been found, and is: S. Skone, Calgary.

 

12 Any other business.

K.-P. Schwarz mentioned that Springer will take over “GPS Solutions”.  IAG appointed C. Tscherning to keep in close contact with Springer to clarify how the best synergy with Journal of Geodesy could be obtained.

 

United Nations and GNSS will have a meeting in Zambia in July. IAG should be represented at the meeting especially with respect to the AFREF

 

The EC appointed  C.K. Shum, G. Beutler and A. Doodson to lead a planning group for an IAG project on GNSS.

 

K.-P. Schwarz pointed out that there is a potential problems with the new IAG By-laws, as they opens for re-election of Commission presidents. This was not possible for Section Presidents in the old IAG by-laws. The EC decided to clarify the text as to ensure that Commission presidents can not be re-elected.

 

 

13. Next meeting.

The next EC meeting will be held 10-11th April, 2003 in association with the joint EGS-AGU meeting in Nice, France.

 

Ole B. Andersen, IAG information editor