Council Meeting

Albuquerque, 17^th-21^th October 2000

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Attendees

President John Trinder (JT)
Secretary General Ian Dowman (ID)
First Vice President Lawrence Fritz (LF)
Congress Director Orhan Altan (OA)
Treasurer Ammatzia Peled (AP)

Apologies

Second Vice President Gerard Begni (GB)

In attendance for certain items

Editor ISPRS Journal Manos Baltsavias (MB)

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AGENDA

1. Opening (JT)

2. Approval of Agenda (JT)

3. Review of previous Council Meetings in Friesland and Amsterdam (JT/ID)

4. Actions of Council (JT)

4.1 Strategy Meeting actions

4.2 Continued actions from the previous Council

4.3 Council responsibilities

4.4 IPAC & ISAC

4.5 Task Forces

- Educational Opportunities
- Communications
- Remote Sensing for International Policies and Treaties

5. Review of Technical Commission Plans (JT)

6. Exchange of views from Council. (Council)

A brain-storming session about the role of the Council, the contributions that each member can make and perceived innovations and developments that should be made in the next 4 years.

7. Ratification of Commission Plans

7.1 Working Groups

7.2 Dates, locations and themes of Symposia, tutorials and other ISPRS meetings

7.3 Distribution of WGs on a National Basis

7.4 Other Matters

8. Congress (OA)

8.1 Lessons learned from Amsterdam Congress (Technical Program, Registration, Exhibition, Abstract and paper submissions, Poster sessions and attendance, social program, General Assembly, National Reports)

8.2 Plans for Istanbul

8.3 Archives - hardcopy/CD

9. ISPRS Membership (ID)

9.1 Ordinary Members

9.2 Associate Members

9.3 Sustaining Members and fees

9.4 Regional Members

9.5 Actions on defaulting Members

10. ISPRS Publications

10.1 ISPRS Journal (EB/JT)

10.2 ISPRS Bulletin, including Calendar, Editorials (ID)

10.3 Brochure (ID)

10.4 Home Page (ID)

10.5 Archives and RICS contract

11. Financial Affairs (AP)

11.1 Handover to new Treasurer

12. Relations with International and other Organisations

12.1 MARISY2000

12.2 OICC

12.3 CEOS

12.4 Joint Board

12.5 COPUOS

12.6 UATI

12.7 Others

13. Other Business

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MINUTES

 

COMMENT: We usually us Ordinary Member, Sustaining Members etc ie with CAPS, so it is clear what the words refer to.

1. Introduction

Stan Morain welcomed Council and formally thanked NASA for funding the meeting

JT thanked Stan Morain and Amy Budge for organising the meeting.

JT welcomed Council to the first meeting and stresses that we will be working together as a team. The main issue for the meeting is to set the direction of commissions and to take note of ISAC comments, including the ISAC recommendation to restructure the commissions.
 

 

2. The agenda was revised

to include the contract for the Congress (8.4) and the blue book (10.6). Item 6 was postponed to the next meeting.
 

 

3. Minutes of previous meetings

JT reviewed the minutes of the Friesland meeting and the following actions were to be followed up:

1. 9.1 AP to follow up rejection of sustaining members.
2. ACTION 00/18 AP to confirm elimination of defaulting sustaining members.
   Council to get copy of guidelines prepared by HR
3. ACTION 00/19 HR to send the 5 year financial plan to Council
   ID reviewed the minutes from Amsterdam .

4. Actions of Council

4.1 Strategy Meeting actions

4.1.1 LF requested Council to review the Strategic Plan and to note the actions for which they are responsible. A more thorough review will be covered in the next CM. AP asked what to do with regional promotion. ISPRS ought to have joint activities as set forth in the Plan. But what about overlap? This will be on the agenda for the next meeting and Council should prepare for this. The matrices of links are to be assigned to WG VI/3.

ACTION 00/20 ID to put regional promotion on agenda of next Council Meeting.

4.1.2 International Industry Forum

LF reported on progress as referred in an email from John Neer. (CM4.1). Industry is unwilling to proceed at present as hoped. The issue will be taken forward in January.

ACTION 00/21 LF to continue acting on IIF, JT to report to CEOS.

 

4.2 Continued actions from the previous Council and regular actions were reviewed and adjusted.
The revised lists are at appendix CM4.2

The following new items were noted for action:
ACTION 00/22 SG to gather all ald and new TCP reports for Annual Report.

ACTION 000/23 OA to organise meeting of sustaining members at InterGEO Frankfurt in 2002.

 

4.3 Council and TCP responsibilities

The list of responsibilities was reviewed and is included at appendix CM4.3

ACTION 00/24 ID to make sure organisations know about our representation

 

4.4 ISAC and IPAC

1. The terms of reference and membership were reviewed.
2. Membership of ISAC is now as follows:
   Prof. Dr. Michael F. Goodchild, USA
   Prof. Dr. Martien Molenaar, ITC, Netherlands
   Prof. Dr. David Rhind, City Univ., UK
    
   Photogrammetry
   Prof. Dr. Clive Fraser, University of Melbourne, Australia
   Prof. Armin Gruen, ETH, Switzerland (Chair)
   Prof. Edward Mikhail, Purdue University, USA
   Prof. Dr. Wolfgang F�rstner
    
   Remote Sensing
   Prof. Dr. Paul Curran, UK
   Dr. David G. Goodenough, Canada
   Professor Howard Zebker
    

ACTION 00/25 JT to contact Ray Harris to ask him to renew membership of IPAC.

 

4.5 Task Forces

1. It was noted that the role of a Task Force is to advise Council, and that task forces normally last no longer than a four year period. The current Task Forces were reviewed:
2. The role of the Education Task Force to be transferred to Comm VI
3. The Communication Task Force was closed before the Congress.
4. Task Force on UN protocols could go into Comm VII but it is probably best if independent of a Commission.
5. ACTION 00/26 JT to approach individuals who might be interested.

 

5. Review of TC plans

Council reviewed all proposals and their conclusions were put to the TCPs at the Joint Meeting.

 

6. Brainstorming session

Postponed to next meeting.

7. Ratification of Commission Plans

7.1 Working Groups

Council discussed the plans put by TCPs during the Joint Meeting and it was agreed that the proposals were generally good and a productive four years was predicted. Some outstanding items remained and ID would summarise these and remind TCPs that revised proposals should be submitted as soon as possible but by 30^th November at the latest for Council approval.

 

7.2 Dates, locations and themes of Symposia, tutorials and other ISPRS meetings

The dates were approved subject to confirmation of I, III and VII and are given in appendix CM7.2

 

7.3 Distribution of WGs on a National Basis

The distribution was satisfactory in general but Commission I, which has not yet finalised chair and co-chairs, was asked to reduce the number of chairs from USA.

 

7.4 Contract

It was reported that it was agreed in Friesland that 3% of exhibition revenue shall come to ISPRS. OA noted that he has faced with this as a new fact and he needs time to act on this. He will prepare a proposal for this item in the contract.

Free registration for Council to be added to contract.

 

8. Congress

8.1 Lessons learned from Amsterdam. A general discussion generated the following points for consideration:

1. Attendance at first GA was poor and needs to be addressed.
2. Length of the exhibit on each day a problem for exhibitors - to end earlier.
3. The scientific and national exhibition is supposed to be free..
4. Registration of delegates for GA immediately before the GA commences, could be done by someone responsible only for that task. Room near to GA would be helpful.
5. Congress Director should be responsible for guidelines for presentation and preparation of manuscripts.
6. ACTION: 00/28 AO to review guidelines for presentations at Symposia and Congress
7. Lesson - things get done properly if the right people are responsible.
8. Technical programme must be in control of TCPs
9. Match room size with expected numbers.
10. All award winners to be announced at beginning of the Congress.
11. Accommodation for supported people from developing countries should be of reasonable standard.
12. Printed programme needs to be clear and easy to follow.
13. Special sessions should not conflict with technical sessions
14. The Joint Meeting in March 2004 should be able to review the programme.
15. Archives A: need to start collecting material during 4 years and at Congress.
16. National reports need attention - revised guidelines required
17. Tutorials were successful but workshops were not.
    

8.2 Contract for Congress

Revisions agreed:
Para 4 Payback of seed funding to be : 50% on contract, 20% in 6 months, 30% 12 months
Add archives A in appendix B

ACTION 00/29: JT to revise contract for signature

 

9. ISPRS Membership

9.1, 9.2, 9.4 Ordinary and Regional members

The following actions were agreed:

ACTION 00/30: ID should check all changes made at Amsterdam and update address lists.

ACTION 00/31: ID to send out certificates to new members .

ACTION 00/32: ID to prepare new certificates for members, awards and special occasions, and prepare plaques for presentation

ACTION 00/33: LF to send ID examples of certificates

ACTION 00/34: ID to produce new certificates (See Office professional 2000)

 

9.3 Sustaining Members

It was agreed to increase rates for sustaining members from the current rates of:

A SwF2800, B SwF1400 C SwF700 D SwF350

to:

A: SwF3000, B SwF1500, C SwF800, DSwF400

Treasurer should refer to Friesland Minutes for action on delinquent Sustaining Members.

It was agreed that all fees should also be quoted also in $US , the amounts to be fixed for a certain period.

 

9.5 Actions on defaulting Members

ACTION 00/35: AP to send reminders and ask members to contact JT if a there is a problem in payment. . Council to reconsider the position at next meeting.

 

10. ISPRS Publications

10.1 ISPRS Journal

EB introduced his paper and highlighted important points for discussion which include the replacements for Advisory Board and the book series.

Council discussed membership of Advisory Board and agreed on 12 possible new members.

Book series: Council expressed doubts about whether there would be enough input to maintain a good series. LF suggested that we need to get competitive bids from other publishers, EB said this is not a problem but Elsevier knows ISPRS. It was proposed to publish 2 books per annum.

ACTION 00/36 EB to prepare a business plan for Council for 15th November.

ACTION 00/37 EB to preprare letter for ID to send to national members regarding subscription rates.

 

10.2 ISPRS Highlights, including Calendar, Editorials

The following schedule for preparing editorials for Highlights was agreed: 12/2000 ID

3/01 JT

6/01 OA

9/01 AP

12/01 LF

3/02 JT

6/02 GB

9/02 ID

12/02 OA
 
 

Council reviewed the proposed content for December Highlights and agreed that it was not desirable to have such an emphasis on awards. ID to look at alternatives.

It was noted that a programme for issues related to activities exists and that ID should look at the last version published in Sept 1997.

ACTION 00/38: ID to review content of Highlights.

 

10.3 Brochure

ID would update the brochure with input from Orhan and distribute it with Silver Book. JT advised using a graphic designer.

ACTION 00/39: ID to revise Brochure with input from OA.

 

10.4 Home Page

Fabio Remondino was commended on the excellent way in which he has worked on the web page. A number of issues were discussed:

ACTION 00/40: JT to send webmaster contract to AP.

ACTION 00/41 ID to check on status of archives at ITC.

ACTION 00/42; FR to clear old sites with outdated information.

ACTION 00/43: FR to consider whether services such as sales of publications should be offered on the web site such as those offered by ASPRS.

 

10.5 Archives and RICS contract

There was discussion on this issue in the light of RICS Books notice that they would not renew the contract. The following decisions were made;

The Amsterdam Archives will be distributed by GITC who will handle orders and collect payment.

ACTION 00/44 ID to set up arrangement with GITC

The symposia Archives will be distributed by AP (TCPs will send 20 copies, maybe in batches of 10). All orders and payment will go to AP.

ACTION 00/45: AP to set up system for distribution of all archives for the period 2000-2004

The question of stock was discussed. AP would hold limited current stocks in Israel.

ACTION 00/46: ID would investigate storage for archives currently held by RICS Books.

ACTION 00/47: ID to ask RICS to have sale of current holdings and tell RICS Books that all proceedings to come to ISPRS in future.

 

10.6 Blue Book and database

Council approved proposals for GITC to set up and maintain the database and produce the Blue Book. The format proposed by ID was approved except for a need to rethink the format for ordinary members.

ACTION 00/48: ID to set up arrangement with GITC to and maintain the database and produce the Blue Book.

 

11. Financial Affairs

11.1 AP reported that the hand over to new Treasurer was not completed. The new signature form were with ID.

 

11.2 AP proposed that a unique ID-number should be attached to each members in the database.

The database should contain information on the members? record and a link between the Treasurers? databases and by the general database will be an ID-number.

ACTION 00/49: AP to set up ID-number and inform ID of what is required in database

 

11.3 AP needs to get PIN number to access account details.

11.4 Agreed that AP should get credit card and investigate getting a cheque book.

ACTION 00/50: AP to get PIN number, cheque book and credit card.

 

12. Relations with International and other Organisations

12.1 MARISY2000

ISPRS would be represented at the conference by GB and CA.

 

12.2 OICC

An MOU had been drafted and Council approved this.
JT will attend Cairo meeting.

 

12.3 CEOS

Noted report on WGISS activities and especially meeting with commercial vendors.

Noted report on CEOS/IGOS disaster management support project.

ID would be attending WGCV meeting and would discuss collaboration with ISPRS. JT would be attending 14^th Plenary.

 

12.4 Joint Board

Council noted minutes of Joint Board meeting. A commitment to offer scholarship of $800 for attendance at workshops was agreed.

 

12.5 COPUOS

ID to contact COPUOS to inform of meetings at which workshops could be held. The following meeting were identified as potential sites:
   Cairo Jan 2001, Mobile Mapping
   Cairo February, 2001 OICC
   Dar es Salaam March 2002 Education
   Brasil 2001 Education
   Bangkok, Feb 2001 Cultural Heritage
   Bangkok , March 2001 Dynamic GIS
   Beijing, August 2001, Map revision (with ICA)
   Budapest IAG 2001

ACTION 00/51: ID to contact COPUOS regarding workshops.

 

12.6 UATI

It was reported that ISPRS would eventually be dropping membership of UATI.
LF reported on UN issues. (See LF report C13)

 

13. Other Business

It was confirmed that the procedure for distribution of the minutes was:

1. Draft to Council
2. Final full version to Council.
3. Public version produced for TCPs, Web master ((for posting on web), Finance Committee, Editors etc.
4. Abbreviated version for Highlights.

Council expressed a preference for all papers for Council meeting to be distributed at the meeting in hard copy. These could be shipped by courier in advance.
The next meeting would be in Ayuttaya at the end of February, hosted by Shunji Murai. Preferred dates were 24^th and 25^th February. ID to confirm dates

 

Ian Dowman 6th November 2000
Secretary General