In accordance with the decision of the General Assembly, the Central Office of EAEE has moved to Istanbul, Turkey during September 1994. All the archives of the Association, shipped from Zagrep, have been received by the Central Office in Istanbul located at Civil Engineering Faculty of Istanbul Technical University.
The Secretary General spent three months in Japan from the end of November 1994 until the end of February 1995. During this period the activities of the Central Office were maintained by the members of Turkish National Committee on Earthquake Engineering and by correspondence from Japan.
Efforts have been made to establish close contact between the members of Executive Committee and the Central Office by fax and e-mail. All of the documents prepared by the Central Office were first sent by fax and later by mail to all the members of the Executive Committee including Honorary Members and representative of ESC. The Central Office greatly acknowledges the prompt responses forwarded by the Past Secretary General and Honorary Member Prof.Drazen Anicic and President Doz.Dr.Rainer Flesch.
The Central Office organised the Second Executive Committee Meeting on March 31,1995 in Istanbul during the Third National Conference on Earthquake Engineering with the support from the Turkish National Committee on Earthquake Engineering.
The Minutes of the General Assembly held in Vienna on August 30,1994 and the Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on September 2, 1994 were prepared and were forwarded to all EAEE delegates with the Minutes of the Executive Committee held on August 29,1994 prepared by the Past Secretary General Prof.Drazen Anicic. In the cover letter dated October 13, 1994, an appeal has been made to update the addresses, phone, fax numbers of the National Delegates and to prepare country reports from each National Delegate to be published in the Bulletin of EAEE. A proposal was also made to compile an almanac containing the names and addresses of the members and related organisations of the National Associations. The minutes of the two Executive Committee Meetings and of General Assembly was also forwarded to Dr.A.Koridze of Unesco, and to Prof.D.Beneddetti, Editor of European Earthquake Engineering on November 11, 1994.
The minutes of the 2nd Executive Committee Meeting and Proposal for Reorganisation were prepared and forwarded to all national delegates on May 18, 1995 to have their suggestions. Up to the present only National Delegates of Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, France, Macedonia, and Russia have forwarded some information concerning to their National Associations.
The Society for Earthquake Engineering and Civil Engineering Dynamics, the member organisation from UK, have informed the Central Office in December 1994 about the election of Prof.Amr Elnashia from Imperial College, as the national delegate of UK in EAEE. Prof.A.Elnashai will be replacing Dr.Bryan Skipp and he is going to be the Executive Committee Member of UK for the next four years.
The Croatian Society for Earthquake Engineering, the member organisation from Croatia, have informed the Central Office in March 1995 that Mrs.Mihaela Zamola was elected as the new national delegate of Croatia in EAEE.
An application to become a member society was received from an initiative committee from Poland. The Executive Committee approved this preliminary application in its Second Meeting in Istanbul. A letter was forwarded to the Polish Initiative Group to complete the requirements specified in EAEE Statutes to become a member association.
An application was also received from newly established Hellenic Association for Earthquake Engineering for membership.
A Draft Proposal for Reorganisation of EAEE Working Groups was prepared by exchanging ideas with Doz.Dr.Rainer Flesch, the President of EAEE. This Draft Proposal was forwarded to all members of the Executive Committee for suggestions including Honorary members, Dr.Vladimir Schenk the representative of ESC, and Dr.A.Koridze the observer from Unesco.
Starting from the end of May, 1995, the Central Office were heavily involved with organising the first meeting of EAEE and ESC joint Task Group 3 on "Seismic Risk and Earthquake Scenarios". The meeting was supported by the funds obtained by the President, Doz.Dr.Rainer Flesch. The meeting took place on June 26 and 27, 1995 in Vienna with the participation of 8 (3 from ESC and 5 from EAEE) members out of the nominated 14 members (6 from ESC and 8 from EAEE). The Secretary General also participated to the meeting.
The Central Office is trying to organise the first meeting of newly proposed Task Group 1 on "Evaluation of EC8 and Harmonisation of Seismic Codes" during the upcoming SECED Conference on European Seismic Design Practice to be held in Chester, UK during October 26-27, 1995. A reduced registration fee as a partial support was offered by SECED to the participating members of TG1 for SECED Conference.
The Proposal for Reorganisation of the Working Groups was forwarded in June and July to all the Convenors of the existing WG's and to the Coordinators of the proposed TG's to receive their suggestions. Up to the present replies are received from : Dr.Carvalho Convenor of WG1, Prof.N.Ambraseys, Convenor of WG2, Prof.M.Dolce, Convenor of WG3, Prof.D.Jurukovski, Convenor of WG6, Prof.C.A.Syrmakezis, Convenor of WG7, Dr.HSandi, Convenor of WG10, Prof.A.Rutenberg, Convenor of WG11. The Central Office prepared a draft proposal for Rules of Task Groups of EAEE and some suggestions to revise the Statutes of EAEE to incorporate Task Groups to be discussed in the upcoming Executive Committee Meeting to be held in Lyon, France during September 5, 1995.
The Secretary General participated to the XIVth General Assembly of European Seismological Commission held in Athens, during September 19-24,1994 and delivered a speech in the Opening Session. He explained briefly the EAEE activities and views of the new Executive Committee for establishing co-operation among ESC and EAEE. The Secretary General also attended as the representative of EAEE to the two meetings of the Executive Board of ESC held in Athens during the General Assembly. The Executive Board of the ESC supported the views of EAEE Executive Committee for establishing joint working groups. A preliminary decision was taken to initiate two joint working groups one on Seismic Risk and Hazard and the second one on Microzonation.
All the minutes of the Executive Committee Meetings and Generally Assembly was sent to the Editor of EEE. The minutes of the General Assembly and two Executive Committee Meetings held in Vienna are already published in EAEE Vol 9, No.1. A letter was written to Prof.D.Benedetti about EEE and suggested that one free copy of each issue may be send to each national delegate to increase the distribution of the Journal.
The first issue of the Bulletin was prepared and printed at the end of August to be distributed during the 18th European Regional Earthquake Engineering Seminar.
An initial step was taken towards establishing Internet data bank. An Internet-WEB was created under the following address
http://www.itu.edu.tr/civil/eaee/bulletin.html
open to all Internet users.. The first issue of the Bulletin is loaded as the first EAEE document in the Internet.
Information concerning EAEE and its activities were sent to following organisations:
CBD Research Limited for Directory of Pan-European Organisations
NGO - UNESCO for the Sexennial Report
Union of International Organisation for Who's Who in International Organisations and for Yearbook of International Organisations
American Association for Engineering Societies for International Directory of Engineering Societies and Related Organisations.
Prof.Atilla M.Ansal
Secretary-General
September 1995