Minutes of the Fifth Meeting
June 19-20, 1997, Paris, France
Item 1: The Agenda of the Meeting was accepted without any changes.
Item 2: The minutes of the Fourth Executive Committee Meeting were approved and signed by all members present.
Item 3: The President presented his report, explaining briefly his activities and future plans. He summarised his preparations concerning the EC8 Special Session that will take place during the 11th ECEE in Paris. He also informed the Executive Committee about the letter he received from Prof.D.Jurukovski and about their intentions to organise the next EAEE Regional Seminar in Skopje, possibly with some financial support within the framework of an Inco-Copernicus project. There was a general agreement that Prof.Flesch should submit an Inco-Copernicus project proposal to EU for organising the next Regional Seminar in Skopje since it is more convenient for the project coordinator to be from an EU country.
Item 4: Vice-President Dr.Bisch presented his report outlining the preparations for the 11th ECEE and informed the Executive Committee about the conference budget, tentative technical program, special technical sessions, the nature of the conference proceedings and about other related issues. Various aspects concerning the organisation of the conference were discussed. It was decided that Secretary General should write to all Task Group Coordinators and Working Group Conveners informing them about the TG and WG State-of-the-Art Reports, giving them the names and fax numbers of the related Theme Coordinators of the 11th ECEE organisation and about the requirements concerning the TG and WG meetings that may take place during the Paris Conference.
Item 5: Secretary General presented his report summarising the activities of the Central Office mainly related to the publication of the Bulletin, about the developments concerning the Joint Task Groups with ESC and about the organisation of the 19th European Regional Seminar in Egypt.
He informed the Executive Committee about the letters he received from Prof.Savidis and Prof.Nenov expressing their intentions to organise EAEE Regional Seminars in the coming years. These two proposals and the proposal of Prof.Jurukovski to organise a Regional Seminar in Skopje mentioned in the letter forwarded to Prof.Flesch were discussed. The Executive Committee considered that it might be very difficult for some of us and for other European researchers to find time to attend the Regional Seminar during 1998, since EAEE will have the European Conference in Paris in September 1998 in addition to other scheduled meetings during 1998 like ESC General Assembly. Taking into consideration the availability of the Inco-Copernicus funds for Skopje Institute, it was decided to recommend that it would be more suitable if the Regional Seminar can be organised by Skopje Institute in 1999, by the German Society in 2000, and by the Bulgarian National Committee in 2001.
Item 6: Dr.Darius Amir-Mazaheri, the President of the French Association for Earthquake Engineering (AFPS) and Dr.Bagher Mohammadioun, the Vice-President of AFPS explained their intentions to increase the participation of AFPS and French engineers and scientists in the EAEE Task Group activities. After discussing the difficulties concerning Task Group activities and possibilities for increasing the French participation, the Executive Committee recommended to AFPS to nominate, for the time being, a Co-Convener for the recently established TG9 and one or two French researchers to each Task Group. Since according to the "Rules for EAEE Task Groups", all Task Groups need to be evaluated and re-established by the newly elected Executive Committee after the Paris Conference, AFPS will have the possibility to propose new Task Groups with French Coordinators or Co-Conveners that may enhance the EAEE Task Group activities and that they may offer some support to initiate the activities of these new Task Groups.
Item 7: The activities of Task Groups were summarised by the General Secretary and present situation of each Task group was discussed. The Executive Committee approved the list of members forwarded to the Central Office by TG2, TG3, TG6, TG8 and TG9. It was decided that Secretary General should send a letter to all TG Coordinators and WG Conveners to inform them about the TG and WG Activity Reports to be presented to the newly elected Executive Committee at their First Meeting during the Paris Conference.
The Secretary General summarised the e-mail letter forwarded to him by Dr.Miha Tomazevic, the Convener of Working Group WG6 on "Masonry Structures in Seismic Areas". The Executive Committee after discussing the present situation of WG6 as outlined by Dr.Tomazevic, decided to terminate WG6 and join it with the Task Group TG4 on "Low Cost Housing with Local Materials". It was also decided to propose to Dr.Tomazevic to be the Co-Convener of TG4 and inform Prof.R.Yarar, the Coordinator of TG4 about this suggestion.
Item 8: The Secretary General informed the Executive Committee about the Contents of the next EAEE Bulletin and summarised his activities and suggestions concerning the next and future issues of the EAEE Bulletin. There was a general agreement within the Executive Committee that it would be interesting and useful to publish extended research abstracts and short technical papers related mostly with practical applications and popular topics. It was decided that Secretary General should prepare the first draft of the "Rules for the Publication of Extended Research Abstracts and Short Technical Papers in the EAEE Bulletin" to be discussed in the next Executive Committee Meeting.
Item 9: The Secretary General outlined the preparations for the 19th European Regional Earthquake Engineering Seminar to be held in Cairo, Egypt during December 1-4, 1997. The Executive Committee approved all the preparations and it was decided that Secretary General should prepare the first draft of the "Guidelines for the Organisation of EAEE European Regional Earthquake Engineering Seminars" to be discussed in the next Executive Committee Meeting.
Item 10: It was decided to have the next Executive Committee Meeting during the 19th Regional Earthquake Engineering Seminar in Cairo, Egypt during December 1-4, 1997.
Item 11: The Secretary General informed the Executive Committee about the letter he received from Acad.G.Brankov, Honorary Member of EAEE, concerning the establishment of the "Crimean International Centre for Seismic Security". The Executive Committee discussed the proposal, however, since EAEE is a voluntary organisation, it was decided to inform Acad.G.Brankov, that EAEE can only offer a moral support to the Crimean International Centre.
The meeting ended with closing remarks of the President Prof.Flesch, thanking the French Association for Earthquake Engineering and its President Dr.Darius Amir-Mazaheri for the kind invitation to have an Executive Committee Meeting in Paris and for the hospitality shown to all Executive Committee Members.
Atilla M. Ansal
Secretary General