Minutes of the EAEE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

 Number: 12                            Date: September 11, 2002                       Place: London, UK

Attendance:

Philippe Bisch, President

Rainer Flesch, Vice President

Atilla Ansal, Secretary General

Franco Braga, Secretary

Panayotis Carydis, Ex.Com. Mem., Greece

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

Martin Koller, Ex.Com. Mem., Switzerland

Roger Musson, ESC Representative

Mohamed Naboussi Farsi, Algeria

Mikayel Melkumyan, Armenia

Vladimir Sigmund, Croatia

Jiří Náprstek, Czech Republic

Pierre-Alain Nazé, France

Stavros A.Savidis, Germany

László P. Kollár, Hungary

Ragnar Sigbjornsson, Iceland

Ahmed Naderzadeh, Iran

Avigdor Rutenberg, Israel

Mihail Garevski, Macedonia

Haakon Heyerdahl, Norway

Emil-Sever Georgescu, Romania

Jacob Eisenberg, Russia

Emilia Juhasova, Slovakia

Peter Fajfar, Slovenia

Rafael Blazquez, Spain

Bozidar Pavicevic, Yugoslavia

Absences:

Ludmil Tzenov, Bulgaria

Antonios G. Protopapas, Cyprus

Mohamed Sobaih, Egypt

Zbigniew Zembaty, Poland

Observers:

Robert May, Chairman of 12th ECEE

Peter Merriman, Chairman of SECED

Zygmunt Lubkowski, 12th ECEE

Olivier Lateltin, Switzerland

Mark Klyachko, CENDR

 

 

Prologue

The Twelfth General Assembly of Delegates of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering was held in Bertorelli Restaurant at 19 Charlotte Street in London on Wednesday evening, September 11, 2002 on the occasion of the 12th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering.  The General Assembly started with the opening remarks of President Philippe Bisch at 8:00 pm.  The Secretary General informed the Assembly that the Executive Committee approved the membership applications of the national associations from Armenia and Romania in its meeting on September 9, 2002 and introduced the Delegate of the Armenian Association for Earthquake Engineering, Mikayel Melkumyan and the Delegate of the Romanian Association for Earthquake Engineering, Emil-Sever Georgescu.  He also introduced the new representative of the European Seismological Commission, Roger Musson.  25 out of 29 National Delegates participated to the General Assembly.  The Assembly was chaired by the President Philippe Bisch.

The Agenda:

1.         Approval of the Agenda

2.         Report of the President

3.         Report of the 12th ECEE Chairman Dr. Robert May on 12th ECEE

4.         Report of the Secretary General

5.         Financial Matters

6.         Election of the Location for the 13th ECEE

7.         Election of the New Executive Committee

8.         Future Activities

9.         Miscellaneous

Item 1: The Draft Agenda was revised by adding Financial Matters as a new 5th Item and approved by all Delegates present. 

Item 2: The President Philippe Bisch started his talk by thanking all the Delegates for their participation, all the members of the Executive Committee for their support and Dr May and Dr Merriman for the organisation of the 12th ECEE.  He presented his report where he summarised his activities during the past four years.  He stressed the importance of the regional seminars and the task group activities and explained the changes in the EAEE Statutes. He summarised the reasons behind these changes and expressed his thoughts concerning the future of EAEE. 

Item 3:  Dr. Robert May, the Chairman of the 12th ECEE summarised the activities and organisational issues related to the Conference informing the Assembly about number of registered participants, number of oral and poster papers.  He outlined briefly the financial situation and mentioned that reduced registration fee was offered to participants from eastern European countries and students as financial support.  He stated that if the conference budget is finalised with a positive balance, this amount will be donated to the Organising Committee of the 2006 Conference to be used for supporting young participants from European countries with financial difficulties.  He concluded his presentation by expressing his thanks to EAEE for selecting London for the 12th ECEE and to all Executive Committee Members for their support to the conference organisation.

Item 4: The Secretary General briefly presented the existing Executive Committee, Member Associations and Task Groups.  He informed the Delegates about the EAEE web pages and the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, the Official Journal of the European Association for Earthquake Association that will be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers starting 2003.  He asked for the support of all EAEE Delegates for contributing and seeking papers for the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering.  He outlined his report concerning the activities of the Central Office and the Task Groups during the past four years.  He expressed his thanks to all Executive Committee Members and to all Delegates for their support and contributions.

Item 5: The proposal of the Executive Committee concerning the membership fees was presented by the Secretary General.  The proposed amounts and procedures were discussed among the Delegates.  An open balloting for the approval of the membership fees was conducted by raising hands.  The fees given in the table below were approved by the majority vote.

Membership Type

Fees Per Year

Individual Membership (Electronic Subscription to BEE)

25 Euros

Individual Membership (Printed Version Subscription to BEE)

45 Euros

Member Associations (Printed Version Subscription to BEE)

1 Euro per Member

Minimum of 50 Euros

Organisational Members (Printed Version Subscription to BEE)

200 Euros

Item 6: There was one proposal to organise the Thirteenth European Conference on Earthquake Engineering in the year 2006.  The member society from Switzerland, Swiss Society for Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics proposed Geneva.  Dr. Koller and Dr. Lateltin, the delegate and observer from Switzerland made presentations concerning their preparations and plans for the 13th ECEE.  An open balloting was conducted by raising hands and Geneva, Switzerland was selected as the city for the next European Conference on Earthquake Engineering.  Dr. Martin Koller expressed his thanks to the Delegates for selecting Geneva as the site for the 13th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and he assured them that he will do his best to keep the registration fees at the minimum level.

              The Secretary General informed the General Assembly about the formal proposal of the European Seismological Commission to organise the 2006 conference together in Geneva.  He presented the proposal of the Executive Committee enquiring for authorization of the EAEE General Assembly to negotiate the details of the joint conference with ESC and with the local organising committee.  An open balloting was conducted by raising hands and the proposal of the Executive Committee was approved by the unanimous votes of all Delegates present.

Item 7: The election of the new EAEE Executive Committee was conducted by the President.  Dr. Bryan Skipp, the UK Delegate nominated Dr. Robin Spence for the presidency of EAEE and summarised the candidates qualifications and his recent achievements.  There were no other nominations.  An open balloting was conducted by raising hands.  Dr. Robin Spence was elected as the new EAEE President for 2002-2006 by the unanimous votes of all Delegates present.

              There was only one nomination for the First Vice-Presidency.  An open balloting was conducted by raising hands.  Prof. Panayotis Carydis, the Delegate of Greece, was elected as the new EAEE First Vice-President for 2002-2006 by the unanimous votes of all Delegates present.

             The election of the Second Vice-President was defined in the EAEE Statutes thus Dr. Martin Koller, the Delegate of Switzerland, the country that was selected for hosting the 13th ECEE, was appointed as the new EAEE Second Vice-President for 2002-2006.

             There was only one nomination for the post of Secretary General.  An open balloting was conducted by raising hands.  Atilla Ansal was elected as EAEE Secretary General for the third time for 2002-2006 by the unanimous votes of all Delegates present.

              For the election of the additional five Executive Committee members; Pierre-Alain Nazé from France, Mihail Garevski from Makedonia, Rainer Flesch from Austria, Mohamed Belazougui from Algeria, Carlos Oliveira from Portugal, Peter Fajfar from Slovenia, Mauro Dolce from Italy, Rafael Blazquez from Spain, Jakob Eisenberg and Vladimir Belyaev from Russia were nominated for the Executive Committee membership.  A secret balloting was conducted for these five positions.  Peter Fajfar received (19), Rainer Flesch and Carlos Oliveira received (16), Mauro Dolce received (14), and Rafael Blazquez received (13) votes and were elected as the new Executive Committee members.  Since nobody from France was elected to the new Executive Committee, Pierre-Alain Nazé, the French Delegate in whose country the last ECEE was held was appointed as the sixth Executive Committee member according to the EAEE Statutes Article 7.1.

Item 8: The future activities of EAEE concerning regional seminars or workshops were discussed briefly.  There was a general consensus that regional seminars were very beneficial and should be organised more frequently.  All Delegates stressed the need for effective collaboration among the members to improve the mutual relationships in the field of earthquake engineering.

Item 9: All Delegates expressed their appreciation to the members of the past Executive Committee and to Dr. Robert May for his devoted efforts for the efficient organisation of the 12th 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 Geneva in September 2006 during the 13th ECEE.

EPILOGUE

The evening ended with a joyful dinner hosted by Dr. Robert May the Chairman of 12th ECEE and Dr. Peter Merriman, the Chairman of SECED, the Society for Earthquake Engineering and Civil Engineering Dynamics.

Atilla Ansal

Secretary General