REPORT ON THE CENTRAL OFFICE ACTIVITIES FOR 1995 - 1996
GENERAL
The main activities of the Central Office during 1995-1996 were
correspondence with National Delegates, Task Group Coordinators,
related international organizations, and publication of the Bulletin.
The Secretary General participated to four conferences (Fifth
International Conference on Seismic Zonation, 17-19 October 1995,
Nice, France; Fifth SECED Conference on European Seismic Design
Practice, 25-26 October 1995 Chester, UK; First International
Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering; November 14-16,
1996 Tokyo, Japan; First International Conference on Seismic Safety
in the Urban Areas, Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, Russia, 13-16 February
1996) and to one Symposium (Policies for Natural Disasters
and Human Settlements, Habitat II NGO's Forum, Istanbul, Turkey,
June 7,1996) and to two workshops (Workshop on Implications
of Recent Earthquakes on Seismic Risk, Japan-UK Seismic Risk Forum,
2-4 April 1996; A Workshop on Improvement of Collaborative Earthquake
Research in the Mediterranean Basin, June 10-12, 1996, Rome, Italy)
to attend to Task Group meetings and to technical sessions. He
made brief presentations about the EAEE and about Task Group activities
in four of these meetings.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The Executive Committee had its second meeting during the 18th
European Regional Earthquake Engineering Seminar on September
5, 1995 in Lyon, France. The minutes of the meeting were prepared
and forwarded to all Executive Committee Members as well as to
the representative of ESC and UNESCO. The minutes were also published
in the second issue of the EAEE Bulletin.
The Central office made a formal application to Habitat Secretariat
for accreditation to participate to the Second UN Conference on
Human Settlements, Habitat II organized in Istanbul during June
3-14, 1996. The official participation EAEE was approved and the
Secretary General participated to the official forum and to some
of the NGO meetings. He also took part in the organization of
a Symposium on "Policies for Natural Disasters and Human
Settlements" where he made a brief presentation about EAEE
activities.
During 1996 it was not possible to organize an Executive Committee
meeting in any of the international conferences in the field of
Earthquake Engineering. However, the Central Office, with the
approval of the most of the Executive Committee Members will organize
the Fourth Executive Committee Meeting in Istanbul on August 31,
1996 with the support from the Turkish Earthquake Foundation.
In general, efforts have been made to establish close contact
between the members of Executive Committee and the Central Office
by fax and e-mail. All 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.
MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS OF EAEE
The minutes of the Third Executive Committee Meeting, the Report
on the Central Office Activities for 1994-1995, the Proposal for
the Changes in the EAEE Statutes, the Rules for EAEE Task Groups
and the Postal Balloting sheet were forwarded to all National
Delegates on 23 February 1996. According to the decision of the
Executive Committee a postal ballot was conducted for the approval
of the proposed changes in the EAEE Statutes and the Rules for
the Task Groups. Up to the present 23 affirmative votes out of
28 National Delegates were received by the Central Office. This
number is sufficient for the approval of the changes in the EAEE
Statutes according to Art.11 that requires affirmative votes from
2/3 of the total number of Delegates for the approval of the changes.
The Spanish Society for Earthquake Engineering, the member organization
from Spain, have informed the Central Office by a fax on February
28, 1996 and later by a formal letter dated June 20, 1996 that
Dr.Rafael Blázquez was elected as the new President and
the new National Delegate and Mr.Francisco Navarro as the new
Deputy Delegate of Spain in EAEE. The Central Office also received
the new Statutes of the Spanish Society for Earthquake Engineering.
The German Society for Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics,
the member organization from Germany, have informed the Central
Office with a letter dated March 19, 1996 that Prof.Dr.-Ing.Stavros
A.Savidis was elected as the new President and the new National
Delegate of Germany in EAEE.
An application was received from the Georgian Republic National
Committee on Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology
to become a member of EAEE.
WORKING GROUPS AND TASK GROUPS
The First Meeting of the Joint Task Group, of EAEE TG6 on "Earthquake
Geotechnical Engineering and Microzonation" and ESC WG4 on
"Microzonation" was held on October 16, 1995 Nice, France
during the Fifth International Conference on Seismic Zonation.
The meeting was attended by 20 members from different national
organizations. The minutes of the meeting were prepared by the
Coordinators and were distributed to all the TG members and it
was also published in the second issue of the Bulletin.
The First Meeting of the TG1 on "Evaluation of EC8 and Harmonization
of Seismic Codes" was organized in Chester, United Kingdom
on October 27, 1995. The General Secretary participated to the
meeting and prepared a summary of the meeting that was published
in the second issue of the Bulletin. A detailed transcript of
the discussions during the meeting was also prepared and was distributed
to all participants for their comments. This corrected detailed
transcript will be distributed to all Executive Committee members
for evaluating the future and reorganization of TG1.
The Coordinator of TG3 on "Seismic Risk and Earthquake Scenarios"
Prof.Maruo Dolce have prepared a project proposal to establish
a network within the INCO-COPERNICUS program of EU. Eleven institutions
(Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic,
Hungary, Italy, Greece, United Kingdom and France) participated
to the proposal. The Central Office supported the preparation
of the proposal and offered its help when needed.
EUROPEAN SEISMOLOGICAL COMMISSION
Along with the decision reached in both Executive Committees of
EAEE and ESC, the second Joint Task Group TG6 was established
and as summarized above had its first meetings during 1995. The
two Joint Task Groups will have their Second Meetings during the
XXV General Assembly of ESC in Reykjavik, Iceland in September,
1996.
The Secretary General will participate to the XXV General Assembly
of European Seismological Commission to be held in Reykjavik,
Iceland, during September 8-13,1996 to take part in the Task Group
Meetings as well as to attend the Executive Committee Meeting
of ESC.
JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
All the minutes of the Executive Committee Meetings and information
concerning Task Group activities were sent to the Editor of EEE.
A major portion of this information was published in the issues
that came out in 1995 and 1996.
BULLETIN
The second issue of the Bulletin was prepared and published at
the end of February but the distribution by mail took a long time.
Before the publication, a survey was conducted through all National
Delegates to determine the number of copies that would be needed
to distribute the Bulletin to all related people and organizations.
The total number necessary was approximately 2500 copies. Unfortunately
due to budget restrictions it was only possible to publish 1500
copies. I have not received information from all member organizations
but I believe every body received the packages forwarded.
The first issue of the Bulletin for 1996 has been prepared. The
printing will start at the beginning of August and it will be
distributed during August and September, 1996.
Internet - WEB
An Internet-WEB that was created under the following address
http://www.ins.itu.edu.tr/eaee/eaee.htm
is still open to all Internet users. However, most likely due
to connection problems encountered frequently it was not always
available. The first and second issues of the Bulletin are loaded
as the EAEE documents in the Internet. This third issue will also
be loaded shortly. A series of improvements has been implemented
in the Internet connections at Istanbul Technical University and
I hope in the near future the frequency of the problems will decrease.
Others
In the General Conference of UNESCO in 1995 it was decided to
evaluate and reclassify all international non-governmental organizations
previously classified in former A, B and C categories. EAEE was
admitted to category C in 1976. An application letter with all
the supporting documents (Minutes of the Executive Committee,
Minutes of the Task Group Meetings, Bulletins, Names and addresses
of all Executive Committee Members and National Delegates, information
about all Task and Working Groups, List of recent conferences
and regional seminars) were forwarded to UNESCO. An appeal was
made to upgrade the previous classification and be admitted to
the new category named "Formal Associate Relations".
No answer has been received up to the present.
Information concerning EAEE and its activities were sent to following
organizations:
CBD Research Limited for Directory of Pan-European Organizations
Union of International Organization for Who's Who in International
Organizations and for Yearbook of International Organizations
UNESCO-IDNDR Secretariat
UNESCO-Habitat Secretariat
Prof.Dr.Atilla M.Ansal
Secretary General
August 1996