23^rd FIG General Assembly, Prague 2000
Appendices

APPENDIX TO ITEM 9

General

The US Bureau started its work in November 1999 at the handover from the UK Bureau to the new US Bureau. The handover took place at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. The handover ceremony itself was attended by about 80 people representing US governmental bodies, professional organisations, private surveyors and some international guests. Many current and past Commission delegates, officers and Bureau members from USA attended the event. Among the audience were the past President of FIG William Radlinski and members from his Bureau team (1973-1975). Further the US FIG member organisations American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) and the Appraisal Insitute (AI) as well as from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) were represented at the event.

The US Bureau arranged its first Bureau meetings during the handover. The first meeting was a joint meeting with the UK Bureau where the evaluation of the past four-year term of office and good discussions on the development of FIG took place. The first real Bureau meeting was organised after the handover concentrating to the work plan and administrative issues. The excellent work done by the UK Bureau gives a good start for the US Bureau in its work.

Meetings

The US Bureau will have a full Bureau meeting only 2-3 times per year. In addition to the meetings during the FIG Working Week the Bureau will have only strategic and planning meetings. The first of these meetings took place at the FIG Office in Copenhagen in January 2000. This meeting was combined to the first meeting of the Advisory Committee of Commission Officers (ACCO) under its new chair Vice President Holger Magel.

In the future the Bureau is planning to organise its meetings either at the permanent office or combined to regional or national surveying congresses.

Administrative meetings are planned to take place as teleconferences or by using internet.

Responsibilities of the Bureau members

After the establishment of the FIG office in Copenhagen the role of individual Bureau members have changed rapidly. This is the case especially with the Secretary General and the Treasurer. The Bureau proposed therefore to the General Assembly that these positions should be changed to those of Vice Presidents already in Prague starting 1 January 2001.

The Bureau has further agreed on the responsibilities of different Bureau members for 2000 – 2003. This distribution of responsibilities reflects the ideas of the Bureau on the new governance model of FIG. The responsibilities of the new Bureau members are enclosed to this report. The individual Bureau members have both regional and professional responsibilities.

Membership

One of the main goals in the Bureau work plan 2000 – 2003 is to attract new member associations especially in South and Latin America and in the Caribbean. The Bureau has therefore decided to attend several meetings in these regions during the next years.

In Prague there will be two applications from new member candidates. The first one comes from Lebanon and is a result from the activities that the UK Bureau made on this region. The other applicant is from Czech Republic resulting from the actions made to promote the secondary membership in countries that are already FIG members. At the same time it will increase the number of the member associations that are involved in the evaluation and real estate business.

The Bureau is further happy to inform that two new sponsor members have joined FIG during 2000. These are Josef Attenberger GmbH from Germany and Blom ASA from Norway.

The Bureau is also delighted to inform that during the first year of the academic membership almost 20 universities and departments have joined FIG as academic members. This membership category has been successful in expanding FIG membership also to countries that have not previously been FIG members. The number of the academic membership is expected to increase rapidly after launching the FIG Surveying Education Database. The SEDB is now available on the FIG home page.

Co-operation with International Organisations

One of the main responsibilities of the Secretary General in the new Bureau are the contacts to other international professional organisations.

Secretary General attended the meeting of the International Union of Surveys and Mapping (IUSM) in Ottawa during the Congress of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) in August 1999. Following the decision of the 22^nd General Assembly FIG informed IUSM that it has decided to resign from the organisation. Afterwards IUSM was disbanded at this meeting. The further co-operation between the previous member organisations of IUSM will be based on bilateral agreements. In addition informal meetings will take place during the congresses of the former member organisations.

The Bureau has asked the FIG Commissions to list the organisations and fields of interest where they want FIG to co-operate with other international organisations. Their proposals will be discussed at the ACCO meeting in Prague prior the General Assembly.

Secretary General will participate to the first meeting of the old IUSM member organisations during the ISPRS Congress in Amsterdam in July 2000.

Before the General Assembly the Secretary General will also attend the 2^nd Extraordinary International Hydrographic Conference in Monaco in March 2000

Publications

Since General Assembly in Sun City FIG has published four new publications in its series. These include the new FIG Work Plan for 2000 – 2003 (no 20), the Bathurst Declaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development (no 21) and Co-operation between FIG and the UN agencies 2000 – 2003 (no 22). In addition FIG has published a report on Quality Assurance in Surveying Education (no 19) that was produced by Commission 2 and French version on the Constituting Professional Associations with the help from Michel Mayoud, chair of Commission 6.

The FIG Annual Review 1999 will be circulated before the General Assembly in Prague as well as the FIG Bulletin no 71 that the Bureau decided to publish first in 2000 instead of December 1999.

Finances

After the establishment of the permanent office the FIG accounts are taken care by the FIG office and audited by a professional auditor. The economic situation is stable and the new administrative structure gives the Bureau better possibilities to start its work effectively immediately after the handover. The donation from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to be used for the establishment of the permanent office, membership expansion and co-operation with the United Nations has helped the Federation economically during the transition period.

In the FIG work plan there is a goal that the Bureau should build a reserve so that the Federation will be independent on short term financial problems. This is not yet the case and it will take some years to build this reserve so that the Federation is able to response to the challenges during the transition period in the administration and governance. By first look the financial result looks better than it is in the reality. This is partly based in the new accounting system. The problem is that there are still member associations whose membership fees are several years in arrears.

The Bureau has managed to increase it financial support to the Commissions following the decisions of the General Assembly. After discussions with ACCO this additional support will be given mostly to projects and planned activities or in form of administrative support instead of general support. The Bureau is very well aware that the support given to the Commissions and task forces is more than matched not only by employers and member associations but also by the personal resources which individual chairs contribute to their work for FIG. The Bureau and the Federation are in their debt.

Christian Andreasen
Secretary General

This page is maintained by the FIG Office. Last revised on 15-01-08.