13th session of the CBS (CBS-XIII)
This meeting was held was held on 23February to  3 March 2005 in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.

Report from Jan Hörhammer, HMEI Vice Chairman

The meeting was good and many interesting items were covered. The CBS message about HMEI participation in OPAG and ET was formulated as follows:

----------
Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure for Hydro Meteorological Equipment Industry to be able to attend this CBS meeting here in St Petersburg. The HMEI look forward to working closely with CBS over the coming years. HMEI is a professional association of 80 some hydro-meteorological companies globally and is able to bring a unique perspective of industry-related views to CBS.

HMEI offers to participate and contribute to the work of the OPAG and ET teams work by bringing the industrial viewpoint for the benefit the WMO and it's members.

When CBS Management Group will build these OPAG and ET teams, it should looks into the aspects of active involvement of HMEI member companies in these team works.

----------
On two occasions this statement was expressed in meetings. I also spoken about this with Dieter Schiessl (Director of World Weather Watch). There are about 20 different working groups in CBS covering various subjects and tasks. One can  estimate that HMEI members companies could contribute to the work in 10 of these. 

I suggest that the HMEI Executive Secretary speak further with Dieter Schiessl about HMEI participation and when we know which are the groups where HMEI can participate we then request members to express their interest. Nomination would then then be made by the Council.

In a discussion with the with CBS / Chair of OPAG-IOS, Dr James F.W. Purdom, USA he expressed that we need to have defined the "terms of reference" for the HMEI representatives appointed as experts for any OPAG or ET. Again here seek with Dieter Schiessl what is needed.