FOREWORD

Dear Colleagues,

This happens to be the second issue for 1998 Volume 17 but also the first issue of the new term in the EAEE history. We had our 11th European Conference and General Assembly in Paris during September. The conference was stimulating, the social events were enticing, our French hosts were very hospitable, and Paris was charming.

We now have a new Executive Committee and we are happy to start a new term. We have four years ahead of us until we all meet again for our Twelfth European Conference in London in the year of 2002. We are aware of the changes that are taking place in Europe and we hope that as EAEE we will be able to contribute to increase the collaboration among our member societies and among earthquake engineers in Europe. Our main objectives as stated in our Statutes are still very crucial and requires our joint efforts to fulfil them in the coming years. EAEE has a very good history of mutual friendships and joint activities among our member societies. As we approach to the end twentieth century, we would like to advance our joint activities and improve our communications to attain more effective means to exchange information, research findings, experimental and observational data.

The aim of these Bulletins is inform earthquake engineering community in Europe and abroad about earthquake engineering related activities going on in Europe and about EAEE. This issue is the second issue that will be directly mailed to the members of some member associations (UK, France). And this is first issue that we have a leaflet of Routledge Book Company, an advertisement about earthquake engineering related books. 2000 copies are printed to be distributed. This issue of the Bulletin will also be in our home page in the near future. Just get connected to http://www.ins.itu.edu.tr/ eaee/bulletin.htm and read or copy any article.

In this issue we have the minutes of EAEE General Assembly and Executive Committee meetings held during the Paris Conference. We also included summaries of the opening speeches delivered by AFPS President and EAEE Officials to give you a flavour of the Conference. In the coming issues we will have the reports of the theme coordinators of the 11^th ECEE. Three reports concerning the activities of TG2 on "Strong-Motion Records for Engineering Applications", TG4 "on Low Cost Housing with Local Materials" and WG10 on "Characterisation of ground motion" are included. Due to the page limitations we were unable to publish the final report on WG4 on "Prefabricated Building Structures in Seismic Regions" that was submitted to Central Office. This report will be in the next issue of the Bulletin.

The effectiveness of these Bulletins depends on the contents. Up to the present we have not been able to print much information about earthquake research activities and projects that are going on in Europe. We need your support for informing us about your research projects and about related activities in the field of earthquake engineering. As I have written previously we are interested to publish summaries of research papers as well as your views concerning earthquake engineering related topics.

In this new term, I will be looking forward to hear more frequently from you. We would like to publish more information from our member countries and societies.

And Finally, Warm Greetings for a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year and I hope I will see you again somewhere in not too distant future.

Atilla M. Ansal