MINUTES OF ISPRS JOINT MEETING
COUNCIL AND COMMISSION PRESIDENTS

Hotel Yamaguchi, Oigami Hot Spring,
Gumma Prefecture
JAPAN
1-3 October 1996

Council Attendees

Commission President Attendees

In attendance

AGENDA

1. Opening (LF)
   • Purpose
   • Objectives
2. Review of Minutes C & TCP Meetings (JT)
3. Review of material distributed in Vienna (JT)
4. Review of communication lists of C & TCP (JT)
5. Review of Vienna Resolutions (SM)
6. Presentation of Commission Plans for Working Group ToR and Chairs (TCPs)
   • Terms of Reference
   • Chair, Co-Chairs, members
   • Addresses, phone, fax, E-mail
   • Confirmation of Symposium dates, location, theme
   • Planned colloquium meetings, tests etc
   • Tutorials, contents, timing, place
7. Proposed Intercommission and other Working Groups as a result of discussion and Council Initiative (LF)
8. Guidelines and Publications Policy (JT)
   1. Format, cover, copyright of Archives. Instructions for Preparation of the Archives of the Symposia
   2. Authors' Guide
   3. Presenters' Manual
   4. RICS Contract for Sale of Archives
9. Plans for Congress (KB)
   • Location
   • Draft Program
   • 1996-2000 Program
10. ISPRS Publications (LF)
    1. Journal
    2. "ISPRS Highlights"
11. Relationships with Other Organisations (LF)
12. Preview of Council Agenda (JT)
13. Future Technical Commission Presidents Meetings (LF)
14. Other Business
    1. Plans for Symposia
15. Closing

MINUTES

1. Opening

President Fritz stated that the purpose of the Joint Meeting was to review and ratify the selection of the Chairs and the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the Technical Commission Working Groups (WG), the Commission Boards and Rapporteurs. Commission Rapporteurs are intended to assist the Council and Commission Presidents in the operations of their Commissions. The Technical Commission Presidents (TCPs) must ensure that the Terms of Reference of their Working Groups comply with the Congress Resolutions, and Terms of Reference of the Commissions defined in the Bylaws. TCPs may have plans for modifications of ToRs of the Commissions, but this will have to be formulated in coordination with Second Vice President Marcio Barbosa, who has the responsibility for reviewing the Statutes and Bylaws for the next Congress. The TCPs must also establish priorities for technical activities of the Society. The goals of the Society are to establish good relationships between its members, and to develop new topics of study that will benefit the Society.

Lawrence Fritz referred to the table in Attachment 1, which formulates the structure of the management of the Society. The General Assembly is the supreme body of Society, representing the 97 Ordinary Members, 5 Associate Members, and 7 Regional Members. One new Associate Member is likely to be admitted in the near future. There are 35 Sustaining Members including one new member to be admitted at the Council Meeting. Technical and scientific activities are the responsibility of the Technical Commissions and Working Groups.

The Council is the primary decision making body of the Society. It works with the Technical Commissions to ensure effective operations of the technical and scientific activities. The Financial Commission monitors expenditures of the Council in accordance with the Statutes and Bylaws. Ad hoc Committees are assigned from time to time to undertake particular tasks for Council: there are none at present. The Bulletin (henceforth referred to as "ISPRS Highlights" following the decision of CM on 3 October) and Journal are the publication outlets of the Society. Two Task Forces will be established by Council to carry out activities in Commission VI, related to areas of Information and Communication, and Educational Opportunities.

2. Review of Minutes C & TCP Meetings

(i) The Guidelines for Publication of the International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

(ii) The requirements for the 1996 Annual Report, which includes the summary of the activities of Commissions at the Congress to be prepared by the Outgoing Technical Commission Presidents. John Trinder will send Congress reports to TCPs as they become available. TCPs must liaise with their Outgoing counterpart in preparing their contribution to the Annual Report, which will be required by the Secretary General by 15 December.

Action Item 96/6: JT to provide Congress Reports to TCPs

3. Review of material distributed in Vienna

Action 96/7: Tr to inform TCPs of the availability of funds for new initiatives by 1 March of each year.

4. Review of Communication Lists of C & TCP

John Trinder indicated that he intends to use E-mail as a primary source of communications between Council and TCPs. He operates on a Macintosh word processor and Eudora mail software. Messages can be sent as ASCII text files or formatted files as MacWord or PC Word 6 attachments. Other methods of sending formatted files will also be investigated. Council and TCPs should inform the Secretary General if they have any problems in reading E-mail messages.

5. Review of Vienna Resolutions

The Task Force on Information and Communication recommended in Resolution G.2, will be chaired by Keith Atkinson from UK. Klaas Villanueva should appoint members to the Task Force, including the editors of the Journal and "ISPRS Highlights" as ex-officio members, with the agreement of Keith Atkinson. Marcio Barbosa will chair the Task Force on Educational Opportunities recommended in Resolution G.3, with the responsibility of exploring opportunities for scholarships and grants.

Council will discuss the program for the 2000 Congress with Klaas Beek in order to satisfy Resolution G.4 and to avoid clashes of content of the Technical sessions. Council needs to determine the extent of duplication that exists in the Society's scientific activities. Marcio Barbosa should review the ToRs of the Commissions, as part of his duties in Council, to ensure that duplication is avoided where possible.

6. Presentation of Commission Plans for Working Group ToR and Chairs

• Terms of Reference of Working Groups (WG)
• Chairs, Co-Chairs and members
• Relevant addresses, phone, fax, E-mail
• Confirmation of Symposium dates, location, theme
• Planned colloquium meetings, tests, where available
• Tutorials, contents, timing and place

General items arising from the discussions were:

• The Silver Book will contain details of Chairs and Co-Chairs by first name and family name, the latter being in capitals, without titles
• All details of telephone, fax numbers, must include country and city codes
• All meetings proposed by TCPs must be deconflicted by Council through Secretary General
• An events calendar will be developed and published in the "ISPRS Highlights".

The meeting discussed in detail, plans for the TCP Working Groups to ensure that they adhere to the Commission Terms of Reference and the Resolutions.

The meeting adjourned at 2.45 pm on 2 October and reconvened at 1.30 pm on 3 October. Lawrence Fritz announced the ToRs of the WGs, as approved by the Council Meeting on the morning of 3 October. TCPs were instructed to formally establish the WGs according to these plans. The full details of ToRs of the WGs will be published in the Silver Book .

The updated schedule for the Inter-Congress Symposia is shown in Attachment 2.

7. Proposed Intercommission and other Working Groups

8. Guidelines and Publications Policy

8.1 Instructions for the Preparation of the Archives of the Symposia

Action 96/8: JT to provide example of front and back covers of Archives to all TCPs

Discussions on the issue of producing the Archives on CD ROM revealed that all TCPs were in a position to do so. Some TCPs may only produce 50 printed copies of the Archives to satisfy the RICS contract conditions.

8.2 Authors' Guide

8.3 Presenters' Manual

Action 96/9: JT to provide Presenters' Manual to all TCPs

8.4 RICS Contract for Sale of Archives

Action 96/10: TCPs to determine the form of publication of the Archives and approximate costs by JM in Brazil, September 1997

9. Plans for Congress

• Location
• Draft Program
• 1996-2000 Program

The Congress will be held from 14 - 26 July 2000 in Amsterdam. It will comprise 3 components: tutorials and refresher courses prior to the Congress; the Congress; and in-depth workshops. Preparations for the Congress are in their early stages. Klaas Beek presented details of the Organising Committee and options for planning the Congress, in terms of the number of papers per session, length of paper presentation, numbers of days and numbers of poster sessions, and compared them with the two preceding Congresses. Each day will comprise 4 x 1.5 hours of technical sessions/poster sessions. Four General Assemblies will be planned. There was no discussion on the plans for the Congress at this meeting, but it will be discussed in detail at future Joint Meetings.

10. ISPRS Publications

10.1 Journal

10.2 "ISPRS Highlights"

Typical content of ISPRS Highlights, as detailed in the contract will be:

• Annual Reports
• General news of ISPRS activities
• Event reports of all ISPRS sponsored conferences. Reports of other conferences may also be included
• Book reports
• Project reports
• Officers list
• Invited keynote speeches
• Technology reviews
• Minutes of JM and CM
• Calls for papers etc

TCPs are encouraged to provide copy for '"ISPRS Highlights". This could typically be the content of Commission or Working Group newsletters, calls for papers, Symposium keynote addresses, reviews, conference reports etc.

11. Relationships with Other Organisations

Commission I should converse with ISO/TC 20 'Aircraft and Space Vehicles', ISO/TC 42 'Photography', and ISO/TC 172 'Optics and Optical Systems' , and possibly attend meetings. Commission IV should communicate with ISO/TC 211 'Geographic Information/Geomatics'.

The updated version of the Table of Responsibilities for Council and TCPs was discussed and modified as given in Attachment 3 Recommendations were made to include:

• CEN 287, the European standards group for Geomatics.
• EUROGI, which Lawrence Fritz will again approach to become a Regional Member, with the assistance of Dieter Fritsch. Gabor Remetey is also prepared to act as a contact.
• IUFRO, of which Thelma Krug is Chair of the Committee of Tropical Forest data.
• ISSS (International Society for Soil Science) which has a committee on remote sensing.

ISPRS has been requested by organisers to co-sponsor the Third ERIM International Airborne Remote Sensing Conference. TCPs were requested to provide information to Secretary General before the end of 1996, of any clashes between the ERIM Conference and other ISPRS Commission events, before Council agrees to participate.

Action 96/11: TCPs to provide information on clashes with ERIM Conference to JT by end of 1996.

Lawrence Fritz and John Trinder attended the ICSU General Assembly in Washington from 23 to 27 September. A general description of ICSU was presented. It is comprised of 22 international unions, 40 national members and associate members, including ISPRS. It addresses topics such as global problems and sustainable development, and has a publication outlet, ICSU Press. Lawrence Fritz's thoughts on the possible involvement of ISPRS in ICSU were as follows:
Commission I: all earth observation systems
Commission II: the Society's technical capacity for data mapping
Commission III: algorithm development
Commission IV: development of databases for global monitoring
Commission V: applications and exploitation of technology
Commission VI: education options
Commission VII: statistics on land cover, annual data for global problems

ISPRS has direct relations with the Earth Sciences group of ICSU.

Klaas Beek indicated that ICSU is already using various types of earth data, but the quality of much of it is poor. ISPRS can play a significant role in improving the quality of this data. He queried whether ISPRS should apply for full member, but this would depend on costs and whether ISPRS satisfies the conditions.

12. Preview of Council Agenda

13. Future Technical Commission Presidents Meetings

14. Other Business

14.1 Plans for Symposia

At the Symposia, TCPs should arrange for meetings of the Commission Board, and with Council to review progress of the Commission. They should also set aside time at a plenary session when Klaas Beek can present details of the Congress to the Symposium participants.

15. Closing

     LF = Lawrence Fritz      GJ = George Joseph 
     JT = John Trinder        ID = Ian Dowman
     SM = Shunji Murai        TS = Toni Schenk
     KB = Klaas Beek          DF = Dieter Fritsch
     HR = Heinz Ruether       HC = Hirofumi Chikatsu
     MB = Marcio Barbosa      KV = Klaas Villaneuva
     AG = Armin Gruen         GR = Gabor Remetey-Fueloepp
     TK = Thelma Krug

John Trinder
Secretary General
November 1996