FIG Council meets at the FIG Office to prepare General
Assembly 2009 and activities for 2009-2010
Copenhagen, Denmark, 6-7 February 2009
The FIG Council had a two-day meeting at the FIG Office in Copenhagen,
6-7 February 2009. This was the first meeting for the new Vice Presidents Teo CheeHai and
Iain Greenway, whose four-year term of office
started in January. The Council used the meeting to discuss all issues
related to the FIG General Assembly to be held in Eilat, Israel during the
FIG Working Week, 3-8 May 2009. Other issues included future FIG events and
other activities that the Council will implement during its remaining term
of office 2009-2010. A special focus was given to discussion on FIG finance
issues and also in development of the FIG administration.
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Members of FIG Council 2009-2010 at the first
Council meeting in the FIG Office in February 2009: Vice President
Teo CheeHai (Malaysia, left), ACCO Representative Dr.
Chryssy Potsiou (Greece). President Prof. Stig Enemark
(Denmark), Vice President Iain Greenway (United Kingdom) and Vice President
Matt
Higgins (Australia). Vice President Dr. Dalal S. Alnaggar
(Egypt) was not able to attend this meeting. New General Manager of
FIG, John Neel on the right. |
The most important decisions that will be brought for decision of the
General Assembly in Eilat include:
- The Council agreed on a new accounting model and reporting concept
for the General Assembly with the goal to increase transparency in the
finances. In addition the Council decided to propose to freeze all
membership fees in 2010 to the level of 2009. The Council further
proposes to give up on the sliding scale on the membership fees for the
biggest member associations from 2010 (so that the new maximum fee will
be permanently at the level of 5,500 members). At the same time the fee
for smallest member associations will be reduced to 20 members or 50 EUR
(instead of current 200 EUR) from 2010. This will favour especially the
poorest (and smallest) associations.
- Election of Commission 8 Chair Elect. There are two candidates for
this position: Wafula Nabutola from Kenya and Richard Sliuzas
from the Netherlands. There is no candidate for Chair Elect to
Commission 10. The Council decided that if there will not be any
candidates by the end of 2009, the Council will propose to the General
Assembly in 2010 to close the Commission and move its tasks to other
appropriate commission(s).
- Decision on the venue of FIG Working Week 2013: The Council proposes
to organise the conference in Abuja, Nigeria and hosted jointly by FIG
and the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS). NIS is a very active
member association of FIG and it was also the only one that submitted a
bid.
- Some changes are proposed to the Internal Rules that relate to
making nominations for elections.
The Council confirmed the responsibilities of the Council members for
2009-2010. Two new Task Forces were established: 1) Spatially Enabled
Societies (SES), chaired by Daniel Steudler, Switzerland; and 2) FIG
Task Force for Africa, chaired by Diane Dumashie. The Council also
adopted terms of reference for the Young Surveyors Network that is chaired
by Cecilia Lindén from Sweden.
The Council appointed Warwick Watkins from Australia as a Director
in the Board of Directors of the FIG Foundation and Paul van der Molen
as the FIG Liaison Ambassador for the United Nations. David Martin
from France will succeed Iain Greenway as the chair of the Standards
Network.
Under membership issues the Council decided to propose to the General
Assembly that it admits the Association of Niger Surveyors (Association des
Géomètres Experts du Niger, AGEN) as a member association of FIG. The
Council accepted three new corporate members: Magellan Navigation,
(Corporate level C), REIDIN.com, (Corporate level F) and ORBITS Engineering
(Corporate level F). Further three new academic members were adopted: Bahir
Dar University, Ethiopia; School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences,
Newcastle University, United Kingdom; and the Palestine Polytechnic
University. There are some members that have not paid their membership fees
for the past 2-3 years and will therefore be expelled in Eilat, unless they
pay their arrears before the General Assembly.
13 February 2009
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New Vice President
Iain Greenway from United Kingdom gets his
FIG badge from President Stig Enemark. |
New Vice President
Teo CheeHai from Malaysia gets his FIG
badge from President Stig Enemark.
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