MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly during the 10th European Conference, was held during 19:00-21:30 hours on August 30, 1994 in a typical Viennese restaurant located in one of the old sectors of the city. 25 out of 28 National Representatives were present in the meeting. The member countries that were not represented were Algeria, Cyprus, and Hungary.

The Agenda of the meeting consisted of 1) Approval of the minutes of the last General Assembly held in Moscow, 2) Report of the General Secretary, 3) Report of the Vice-President Dr.Rainer Flesch, 4)Selection of the organising member and site for the 11th ECEE, 5) Election of the officials and Secretary General of the new Executive Committee, 6) Election of the Executive Committee members, 7)Selection of Honorary members.

According to the Agenda, the minutes of the previous General Assembly were approved. Secretary General Prof.Drazen Anicic presented his report summarising the activities of the Association and Central Office during the period of August 1993-August 1994. Important points in the report were: (1) Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia and Algeria, were accepted as four new members to the association during the Executive Committee meeting in Haifa, Israel in 1994, (2) Out of 11 Working Groups only Professors Ambraseys, Syrmakezis and Dr.Sandi were the conveners informing the Central Office regularly about their activities. (3) 18th Regional Seminar on Earthquake Engineering will be held in September 1995 in Lyon, France.

The report of the Vice-President Dr.Rainer Flesch covered the preparations, financial issues and other related information concerning the organisation of 10th ECEE. He estimated that total number of participants to the conference will be around 600. He mentioned that it became possible by large number of registration and through EC funds to support significant number of researchers from Eastern European countries as well as young scientists and engineers.

The third item in the Agenda was the selection of the site for the next conference, 11th ECEE. There were three nominees, France was proposing Paris, United Kingdom was proposing London and Greece was proposing one of the islands from Korfu, Crete and Rhodes. The delegates from France, United Kingdom and Greece have made short presentations concerning their preparations and plans for 11th ECEE and the advantages of the locations proposed. A secret balloting was carried out and France received the majority, with 16 votes out of 25 in the first round. After a brief speech by Dr.Philippe Bisch, the French delegate, the selection of the city of Paris by the General Assembly as the site for the next 11th ECEE to be held in 1998 was concluded.

The fifth item in the Agenda was the election of the officials of the new Executive Committee. According to Statutes of the EAEE, Dr.Rainer Flesch, Vice-President of EAEE and the representative of Austria, the organising member country of the 10th ECEE, became the new President of EAEE. Since Dr.Skladnev, the President of the previous Executive Committee has changed his position, the new representative of Russia, organising member country of the previous 9th ECEE, Prof.Jacob Eisenberg became the first Vice-President. The representative of France elected for organising the 11th ECEE, Dr.Philippe Bisch became the second Vice-President. At this stage the Secretary General Prof.Drazen Anicic expressed his desire to retire from his post since he was working in the Executive Committee almost for the last 12 years, 4 years as secretary and 8 years as Secretary General. As was agreed in the previously held Executive Committee Meeting, Prof.Anicic proposed Prof.Atilla M. Ansal from Turkey as a possible candidate for the post of Secretary General. After a brief discussion the General Assembly voted unanimously for Prof.Ansal to be the Secretary General for the coming term. It was also decided to move Central Office of EAEE from Zagreb to Istanbul with the change of Secretary General.

Besides the four officials elected by name there are five representative member countries in the Executive Committee. A secret ballot was held for this open five positions. Italy received the largest number of votes and Italian delegate Prof.Alberto Castellani became the secretary of the Executive Committee. The other four member countries elected were Greece, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.

There were one written application by Iran representative nominating Prof. Ali Akbar Moinfar as a Honorary Member to EAEE. The President Dr.Flesch nominated Prof.Drazen Anicic as another Honorary Member. Both nominations were voted and accepted unanimously as the new Honorary Members of EAEE.

The last item in the agenda was discussion of the future activities of EAEE concerning mostly the working groups. There was a consensus that existing and newly proposed working groups should be reconsidered and reorganised. The scope and purpose of each working group should be clearly defined. Member countries should nominate representatives to each working group and should try to find means of supporting the Working Groups convened by their members. All members stressed the need for financial support at least to have annual meetings. The Executive Committee was given the task to evaluate the activities of each Working Group, based on the defined scope, an applicable working plan and a realistic budget.

All the members expressed their thanks and appreciations to the members of the past Executive Committee and especially to Prof.Drazen Anicic, for his sincere efforts over the years and during the difficult times, and to Dr.Rainer Flesch for an excellent organisation of the 10th ECEE in Vienna. The General Assembly ended with the decision of having the next meeting in Paris in 1998.