Minutes of the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

Number : 4     Date : September 4, 2001          Place : Sion, Switzerland

Attendance :

Philippe Bisch, President

Atilla Ansal, Secretary General

Panayotis Carydis, Ex.Com.Mem.Greece

Martin Koller, Ex.Com.Mem.Switzerland

Miha Tomazevic, Ex.Com.Mem.Slovenia

Absentee :

Rainer Flesch, Vice President

Amr S. Elnashai, Vice President

Franco Braga, Secretary

Carlos S. Oliveira, Ex.Com.Mem.Portugal

Prologue

The Fourth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering was held in Sion, Switzerland on Tuesday, September 4, 2001 between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.  The Executive Committee meeting was chaired by the President.

Agenda :

1.                Approval of the Agenda

2.                Approval of the Minutes of the Third Ex.Com. Meeting

3.                Report of the President

4.                Report of the Vice-President Prof.A.S.Elnashai

5.                Report of the Secretary General

6.                EAEE Statutes

7.                12 th ECEE

8.                Regional Seminars

9.                Task and Working Groups

10.           Next meeting in London

11.          Miscellaneous

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

Item 2:     The minutes of the Third Executive Committee Meeting were approved and signed by all the Executive Committee Members present in the meeting.

Item 3:    The President expressed his thanks to the members of the Executive Committee that came for the meeting and to the organisers of the 20 th Regional Seminar for all their efforts and for the efficient organisation of the seminar.  He stressed the importance of the topic selected as the theme of the seminar and the importance of these seminars for the education of the young engineers and scientists in the field of earthquake engineering in the member countries.

He summarised the efforts made for finalising the draft proposal concerning the changes in the EAEE Statutes.  

Item 4:    The report prepared by the Vice-President Prof. Elnashai was read by the Secretary General since it was not possible for Prof. Elnashai to attend the meeting.  In his report, Vice-President summarised his activities concerning FIB Seismic Design Commission, and about the EU networks ECOLEADER, SAFERR and SPEAR and about the preparations concerning 12 th ECEE.  He briefly explained his activities concerning the International Rose School located at Pavia, Italy and the Journal of Earthquake Engineering.  He expressed his thanks to all the members of the Executive Committee for their support.  He asked the permission of the Executive Committee to be released from being President-designate from September 2002 since he is appointed as the Associate Director of the Mid-America Earthquake Center based at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was also appointed as Director of the Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory and a professor of structural engineering at the same university.  He expressed his desire to continue to serve as Vice-President until the European Conference in London.

The Executive Committee acknowledged the efforts of the Vice-President and decided that he should serve as the Vice-President until the end of his term.

Item 5:       The Secretary General informed the Committee about the activities of the Central Office during January 2001-September 2001 concerning mainly; (1) the publication of the Bulletin; (2) organisation of the Seminar for Young and Local Engineers on “Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Microzonation” and about the Satellite Conference on Lessons Learned during Recent Strong Earthquakes held during 23-25 August 2001 in Istanbul; (3) supporting the organisation of the 20 th ERSEE; (4) meeting and correspondence with the President P.Bisch concerning the EAEE Statutes; (5) meetings and correspondence with Prof. D.Benedetti concerning EEE; (6) correspondence concerning the 12 th ECEE; (7) correspondence with National Delegates, Task and Working Group Coordinators. 

The Executive Committee discussed the possibilities concerning the publication of EAEE Journal that could be forwarded to the members of the EAEE and to all interested subscribers.  It was agreed that the Secretary General should prepare a detailed report about such a Journal for the next Executive Committee Meeting.

Item 6:     The Draft EAEE Statutes prepared by the President and Secretary General was discussed.  It was decided that the Draft Statutes should be forwarded to all National Delegates with a cover letter explaining briefly the reasons behind the proposed changes.  It was also decided to allow the National Delegates to forward for their comments and suggestions until the end of 2001 so that the Executive Committee can finalise the draft proposal in its Fifth Meeting to be held in London during the first half of January.  Depending on the outcome of the Executive Committee meeting, the draft EAEE Statutes will be opened for postal balloting during the first half of 2002.

It was also decided that Secretary General should prepare a draft proposal for “Guidelines for organising ECEE” to be discussed in the next Executive Committee Meeting.

Item 7:       The Secretary General informed the Executive Committee about the developments concerning the 12 th ECEE.  He summarised the decision of the organising committee to devote one session on Wednesday afternoon to the reports of the EAEE Task Group Coordinators.  The Secretary General will coordinate and will review the papers submitted by the Task Group Coordinators that will also be included in the Proceedings of the 12 th ECEE.

Item 8:    The Executive Committee expressed their gratitude and congratulations for the efficient organisation of the 20 th EREES by the Swiss Society for Earthquake Engineering with special thanks to Dr.Lateltin for all his efforts.  There was a general agreement that regional seminars are very important and EAEE should make an extra effort to have at least two regional seminars during the four year interval between the European conferences.

Item 9:       Secretary General informed the Executive Committee about the activities of Task Groups and about the meeting organised or that will be organised in the near future : 

TG6 on "Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering and Microzonation"

Coordinator: Prof. Atilla Ansal, Turkey

Tg6 has organised a seminar for young and local engineers on “Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering and Microzonation” prior the Satellite Conference on “Lessons Learned from Recent Strong Earthquakes” held on the occasion of the 15 th ICSMGE in Istanbul.  TG6 will most likely organise a special session during the upcoming ESC General Assembly to be held in Genoa during 1-6 September 2002.

The proceedings of the EAEE-ESC Workshop on "Seismic Risk Maps and Scenarios: Protecting Tools Against Earthquakes" organised jointly by ESC Subcommission on Engineering Seismology and EAEE/TG6 on July 25, 1999 during XXII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG99), Birmingham, UK, 18-30.7.1999 was published as a special issue of the Journal of Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Volume 21, Number 5, in July 2201.

TG8 on "Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures"

Coordinator: Prof. Victor Rutenberg, Israel

Secretary General informed the Executive Committee about “The Third European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures” that will e organised by TG8 during 16-17 September 2002 in Firenze, Italy.

TG9 on "Repair and Strengthening

Coordinator: Prof. Alberto Castellani, Italy

Secretary General informed the Executive Committee about the “Workshop on Large scale interventions to mitigate seismic risk” to be held in ISMES during November 23, 2001 that is being organised under the auspices of EAEE/TG9.

TG5 on "Seismic Isolation of Structures "

Coordinator: Prof. Alberto Martelli, Italy

Secretary General informed the Executive Committee about the “7 th International Seminar On Seismic Isolation, Passive Energy Dissipation And Active Control Of Vibrations Of Structures” that will be held in Grand Hotel Assisi, Assisi (Perugia), Italy during October 2-5, 2001.  

The Executive acknowledged and approved all the forthcoming meetings and expressed their support for the organisations.

Item 10:   The Executive Committee has decided to have its fifth meeting in London in the first part of January 2002 in order to have the opportunity to meet and discuss with the 12 th ECEE Organising Committee.  The dates will be finalised by the Secretary General in order to have full attendance of the Executive Committee and 12 th ECEE Organising Committee.

Item 11:     The meeting ended with the thanks of the President and all those present to Dr.Koller and Dr.Lateltin for their hospitality and for organising the Executive Committee meeting.

 

Atilla Ansal

Secretary General