The Eleventh General Assembly of Delegates of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering was held in Maison des Polytechniens in Paris on Wednesday evening, September 9, 1998 on the occasion of the 11th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering. The General Assembly started with the welcoming opening remarks of President Rainer Flesch at 18:45 with 27 out of 29 National Delegates attending the Assembly. The Assembly was chaired by the President.

1. Approval of the Agenda
2. Report of the President
3. Report of the Vice-President Philippe Bisch on 11th ECEE
4. Report of the Secretary General
5. Election of the Location for the 12th ECEE
6. Election of the New Executive Committee
7. Nominations of Prof. N.Ambraseys and Prof. G.Grandori as EAEE Honorary Members
8. Future Activities
9. Miscellaneous

Item 1: The Agenda of the Meeting was approved by all delegates.

Item 2: The President made a brief presentation about his activities and experiences during his term. He expressed his thanks to all Executive Committee Members and to all Delegates for their support, to Philippe Bisch and to his team for the excellent organisation of the 11th ECEE. He summarised his views by saying "I think, the period 1994-1998 was a fruitful period for EAEE. Some new things have been initiated, but much work remains for the future. EAEE is something like a big European family of specialists that are good friends at the same time. This is an excellent basis for a fruitful work within Europe. I am sure that you will find in each ongoing or forthcoming European research project in the field of earthquake engineering at least one consortium partner that is also well known within EAEE. I am very proud that I had the honour to be the President of this association for the last four years and I promise to do my best as Vice President within the next four years."

Item 3: Vice-President Philippe Bisch summarised the activities related to the Conference informing the Assembly that the total number of registration reached 753 participants with 41 accompanying persons. He outlined briefly the financial situation and mentioned that reduced registration fee as financial support was offered approximately to 110 participants and students. He explained the major ideas and procedures that are being implemented and summarised the organisational issues related to the Conference. He outlined his views concerning the tasks and priorities for the new Executive Committee to be elected and concluded his presentation by expressing his thanks to all Executive Committee Members for their significant input during the past four years.

Item 4: The Secretary General summarised his report concerning the activities of the Central Office during the last four years. He informed the Assembly that the Executive Committee approved the formal membership of two new national organisations from Poland and Yugoslavia. He introduced and welcomed the Delegate of the Polish National Committee for Earthquake and Paraseismic Engineering, Zbignew Zembaty and the Delegate of Yugoslavian Association for Earthquake Engineering, Bozidar Pavicevic to the General Assembly. Referring to two unfinished tasks initiated by the Executive Committee; (1) names and addresses of individual members of national associations need to be printed in EAEE collective membership roster, (2) national reports concerning earthquake engineering education in perspective member countries to be edited and printed as a special report on earthquake engineering education in Europe. He urged the Delegates who have not responded so far, to forward these documents to the Central Office in the near future. He summarised the concept and activities related to Task Groups. He welcomed and introduced the representative of the European Seismological Commission, Dario Slejko to the General Assembly and outlined the ongoing joint activities among EAEE task and ESC working groups. He suggested to the interested member societies to mail the EAEE Bulletin directly from Istanbul if they are willing to support the additional mailing cost of one US$ per issue. He informed the Delegates about the worldwide distribution of the Bulletin and about the envisaged contents of the future Bulletins, about the EAEE web pages and about the plans for establishing internet data bases. He expressed his happiness to see Dr.Koridze, the observer of UNESCO in an EAEE meeting and his thanks to all Executive Committee Members and to all Delegates for their support and heartening comments.

Item 5: There were two proposals to organise the Twelve European Conference on Earthquake Engineering in the year 2002. The member society from United Kingdom, the Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics proposed London and the member society from Greece, the Technical Chamber of Greece proposed Athens. Prof. Elnashia and Prof. Carydis, the delegates from United Kingdom and Greece made presentations concerning their preparations and plans for the 12th ECEE and stressed the advantages of the locations proposed. A secret balloting was conducted and London, UK received the majority of the votes, with 18 votes out of 27 in the first round. Prof. Elnashai expressed his thanks to Delegates for selecting London as the site for the 12th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering.

Item 6: Before the election of the new Executive Committee, the President invited Delegates to make brief presentations about their future activities in their respective countries.

Prof.Eisenberginformed the Assembly and invited them to take part in the Conference that is being organised by the Russian National Committee on Earthquake Engineering on seismo-isolation to be held in St.Petersburg during June 1999.

Prof.Castellani suggested a regional seminar to be held in Umbrio region in Italy that is undergoing reconstruction after the last earthquake to take place in 1999.

Dr.Koller proposed the formation of a special group composed of representative contact persons from each country to co-ordinate the post earthquake missions.

Prof.Pavicevic informed the Assembly and invited them to take part in the International Symposium on Earthquake Engineering organised by Yugoslavian Association for Earthquake Engineering to be held in Montenegro in September 1999. He summarised briefly the UNDP projects that were conducted among the Balkan countries during 1980's and suggested that similar externally funded projects need to be considered in the future.

Prof.Oliveira informed the Assembly and invited them to take part in the Second Mediterranean Meeting on Seismology and Seismic Engineering organised by Portuguese Association for Earthquake Engineering to be held in Algarve during October 27-29, 1999.

Prof.Blasquez informed the Assembly and invited them to take part in the Spanish National Conference on Earthquake Engineering organised by Spanish Association for Earthquake Engineering to be held in Spanish language in April 1999 in Murcia.

After these short presentations, elections for the new EAEE Executive Committee Members were conducted in accordance with the Statutes of the EAEE. Philippe Bisch, Vice-President of EAEE and, the Delegate of the member national association organising 11th ECEE, was approved as the new President of EAEE. The President of the previous Executive Committee, Rainer Flesch and the Delegate of the member association from Austria, the member association that organised the previous 10th ECEE, was approved as the first Vice-President. The Delegate of the member association from United Kingdom selected for organising the 12th ECEE, Amr S. Elnashai was approved as the second Vice-President. Upon the nomination of Past President Rainer Flesch, the Secretary General, Atilla M. Ansal, was re-elected as the Secretary General of EAEE. The voting for the approval of the President and Vice-Presidents and the election of the Secretary General was conducted by open voting and received unanimous support of the Delegates.

In addition to the four officials that are elected by name, there are five representatives from member National Associations in the Executive Committee. A secret balloting was conducted for these five positions. Italy received the largest number of votes (20) and Italian delegate Franco Braga was elected as the Secretary of the new Executive Committee. The other consecutive three highest number of votes were for Greece (14), Portugal (11) and Slovenia (9). There was a tie among Israel, Slovakia and Switzerland (8) for the fifth place. A second round of voting was conducted only among Israel, Slovakia and Switzerland. Switzerland received the highest number of votes (11). Thus, the other four National Associations elected to the Executive Committee were from Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

Item 7: There were two proposals for new Honorary Members. Sergei Bubnov, the EAEE Honorary Member nominated Prof. Nick Ambraseys from UK. Horea Sandi, the Romanian Delegate, nominated Prof.Guiseppe Grandori from Italy. Both nominations were voted and accepted unanimously as the new Honorary Members of EAEE.

Item 8: The future activities of EAEE concerning mostly Task Groups and regional seminars or workshops were discussed. There was a general consensus that national support is essential to accelerate the TG activities with at least one seminar or workshop during the four-year interval between the European conferences. All members stressed the need for more effective collaboration among member associations to improve the mutual relationships and joint networks in the field of earthquake engineering.

Dr.Koridze made a brief presentation concerning priorities in the technical issues supported by UNESCO and related organisations. He expressed his desire to improve the relationship between EAEE and UNESCO in matters related to earthquake engineering.

Prof. Sigbjornsson made a brief presentation about the experimental project initiated in Iceland concerning the implementation of a seismic network. He expressed his thanks to Rainer Flesch for the support of EAEE during the review stage of the project.

Item 9: Prof. Rutenberg suggested a draft to be adopted as a resolution by the General Assembly concerning an appeal for the active participation of EAEE in the review process of the EU projects. After some discussion on the topic, it was agreed that this matter should be left to the new Executive Committee to be evaluated and finalised.

All Delegates expressed their appreciations to the members of the past Executive Committee and to Philippe Bisch for his devoted efforts for the excellent organisation of the 11th ECEE. They congratulated the members of the new Executive Committee and wished them success in their future activities.

The General Assembly ended with the decision to have the next General Assembly in London in the next millennium and in the year of 2002.

The evening ended with a joyful dinner hosted by Darius Amir-Mazaheri, the President of AFPS, the French Association for Earthquake Engineering.