APPENDIX TO ITEM 10
Report for the 23rd General Assembly
FIG Working Week in Prague, 22-26 May 2000
Report of the Director, FIG Office
General
The FIG Office has now been in function for more than one
year. The first year was used to establish the administration structure and
day-to-day operation of the Federation. This includes the arrangements of the
FIG meetings, support to the arrangements of the Working Weeks and other FIG
events, producing publications and other information material, building and
updating databases, hosting the FIG home page and taking care of the accounts.
The Director, FIG office has also been involved in the
professional activities of FIG. These include co-operation and contacts to the
ten technical commissions, task forces, member associations and international
organisations. During the first year the Director visited 11 FIG member
countries and used about 25 per cent of his time when attending meetings and
events outside Denmark.
Visits
In 1999 the Director visited annual meetings of the member
associations in Denmark, Sweden, Finland normally giving also presentations
about FIG during these visits. Further he met with the representatives of the
Institution of Surveyors of Kenya during his visit to the UNCHS (Habitat) 7th
Session in Nairobi in May 1999. This visit was repeated some weeks later when
the FIG high-level delegation visited UNCHS and UNEP on the way to the FIG
Working Week in Sun City and met also with the members of ISK, the University of
Nairobi and the Surveyor of Kenya.
The Director also met with Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Ag. Executive
Director of UNCHS (Habitat) during the Informal EU Meeting of Ministers of the
Environment in Helsinki in July 1999. In September he attended the Intergeo 1999
in Hanover, Germany together with Robert Foster, President elect of FIG. During
the Intergeo informal meetings with the sponsors and commission chairs were
arranged.
After the Intergeo both Robert Foster and the Director
visited Prague to check the arrangements for the 23rd Working Week in
Prague 2000.
In October 1999 the Director attended the FIG/UN Conference
in Melbourne following the UN/FIG Workshop in Bathurst. He also participated to
the round table between several UN agencies and FIG representatives at the
Melbourne University. On the way back from Australia the Director met with Gerda
Schennach, the Secretary General of CLGE, in Vienna.
In 2000 the Director has participated the annual meetings of
the member associations in Denmark and Finland. He also attended the Steering
Committee Meeting of the Habitat Professionals Meeting in Frankfurt in March.
Before the FIG Working Week in Prague the Director is invited to attend the
International Seminar on Cadastral System, Land Administration and Sustainable
Development in Bogotá, Colombia in May.
Further he will represent FIG and the Habitat Professionals
Forum at the First Substantive Session of the Preparatory Committee for the
Special Session of the General Assembly on the over all review and appraisal of
the implementation of the Habitat Agenda (called Istanbul+5) in Nairobi, Kenya,
8-12 May 2000.
Member support
The FIG office has assisted member associations by providing
material and information about FIG and distributing FIG publications. The main
focus has been in improving information delivery to the member associations.
This includes both materials like publications, bulletins, annual review and
congress proceedings both in printed and electronic formats. Lot of efforts has
been used to improve the FIG home page so that it could become the main
distribution channel for FIG information to members and individuals of the
member associations. However, the Bureau is very well aware that all member
associations do not yet have Internet connection or their own web site and that
therefore the printed material is important also in the future. The Bureau has
decided to go on also with the printed material so that all material is also
available in printed versions. However it seems that the web site will be the
best way for the individuals to get information about FIG and its services.
The FIG office has finished to update all membership and
contact databases. All contact information is now also available on the FIG home
page. The current address of the home page is still: http://www.fig.net
. On the home page there are e.g. following information available:
- Contact information to the member associations, affiliates,
correspondents, academic members
- Sponsor information
- Commission information; work plans, contacts to the Commission officers
and delegates
- Publications; FIG publications, bulletins, congress and seminar
proceedings, FIG leaflet
- Commission, task force and permanent institutions web sites
- Statutes and internal rules, FIG logos
- Events and Congress/meeting programmes
- Links to commissions, international partners
The FIG home page is updated daily and the goal is to offer
material and news to the member associations so that they are able to use it for
their own newsletters and journals.
In the future all FIG working week and congress proceedings
will be available on the FIG web site. At the moment you can find the
proceedings from the FIG/UN conference in Melbourne and all papers from the FIG
Working Week 2000 in Prague.
Since the General Assembly 1999 all agenda papers and minutes
from the General Assemblies are also available on the home page.
Surveying Education Database and academic membership
The newest service on the FIG home page is the FIG Surveying
Education Database. This includes information about 400 surveying courses from
almost 200 universities and institutions. All institutions in the current
database will receive a password during the spring so that they are able to
update their information directly into the database. The SEDB will be the main
benefit for the academic members of FIG. The academic members have the
additional benefit to use the SEDB to promote their institution. The SEDB
includes also discussion group services that give the academics a platform for
discussions, exchange of information and looking for new partners to their
projects. There are also separate pages for the surveying students.
The Bureau thinks that after the launching the SEDB in Prague
the interest on the SEDB and also for the academic membership will increase
remarkably.
Commission support
The Bureau has increased the support to the Commissions. Part
of this support is the administrative help given through the FIG office. The
Bureau knows very well that the need for support varies a lot between the
different commissions. To help the Commissions and to co-ordinate the work it
has jointly agreed that the information of national delegates is now collected
by the FIG office. The member associations are therefore requested to submit all
changes in names and contacts of the delegates directly to the permanent office
that will then forward the information to the Commissions. The member
associations are further encouraged to check their delegate lists and nominate
new delegates wherever needed. Further they should encouraged the delegates to
be more active in the commission work. Many commissions are considering the
possibility to organise regional activities and for that they need more active
delegates in the regions. This approach will at the same time make it easier for
the delegates to participate in the commission activities when the need for
travels decreases.
Bureau meetings and activities
The UK Bureau had three full Bureau meetings during 1999
(Copenhagen, Sun City and Washington, DC.). In addition the UK Bureau members
met almost monthly in London. There were totally five such meetings before the
handover to US Bureau. These meetings were attended also by Director FIG office.
The US Bureau has met twice – in Washington during the handover and in
Copenhagen in January - and will meet next time in Prague. The Bureau is
planning to have its next meeting after Prague in connection to a surveying
conference in US in fall 2000. Meanwhile the decisions have been made by
teleconferences and by e-mail.
Visits and meetings to the FIG Office
The FIG office has hosted two Bureau meetings since it was
opened 1 January 1999. The first meeting was in January 1999 in connection to
the formal opening of the office. The second meeting was the first full Bureau
meeting for the US Bureau after it took over the administration from the UK
Bureau. This meeting 15-16 January 2000 was arranged in connection to the ACCO
meeting that took place at the FIG office 13-14 January 2000. It was also the
first time for most of the Bureau members and Commission officers to visit the
permanent office.
The experience from this biggest meeting by now organised at
the FIG office showed that the meeting facilities at the Surveyors House can
easily accommodate a meeting or seminar of 20-25 people. The FIG office is
available for the Commission meetings and seminars and the FIG office is also
able to assist the commissions with the practical arrangements. This offer is
available also to the Commission working groups.
After establishment of the permanent office in Copenhagen the
office has been visited by Presidents or Executive Directors of the member
associations from Australia, Finland and Ireland. In addition there has been
visitors from Austria, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Ghana, Finland, France,
Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The Council of the Geometer Europas visited
the FIG office in February 2000 during their meeting in Copenhagen. Further the
office has been visited by the President of the International Institution on the
History of Surveying and Measurement and Juha Talvitie, Honorary President of
FIG. The FIG office is happy to welcome visitors also from other member
associations.
The work of the FIG office could not have been managed
without the support from my personal assistant Jørgen Springborg, who is so
devoted to his work for FIG that his amount of work easily exceeds half of his
working time that is scheduled for FIG. In addition I would like to thank our
Danish member association Den danske Landinspektørforening DdL and its staff at
the Surveyors House for their personal and financial support. Without this
support the starting period of the FIG office would have taken much more time
and efforts.
Markku Villikka
Director, FIG Office
Markku Villikka
Director
FIG Office
22 March 2000
|