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.

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