MINUTES OF THE HMEI OPEN MEETING HELD DURING THE 87th AMS IN SAN ANTONIO,
AT THE H. B. Gonzalez Convention Center, 17th JANUARY 2007 
by B. Sumner

HMEI Chairman and the HMEI executive Secretary, B. Sumner at the meeting.	The HMEI Member Meeting on 17th Janauary 2007

Twenty-six people attended this informal breakfast meeting, representatives from both exhibitor companies and international organizations.
Please see the list of attendees at the end of this report.

Opening by the HMEI Chairman at 8.30am
Chairman Ben Dieterink welcomed members and visitors to the meeting. Mr Dieterink advised the attendees that the next General Assembly of HMEI will be held during the MeteoHydex exhibition in Geneva in May 2007.

The meeting was informed that the membership is now 90 members, with 10 new members joining during 2006. The new members who were present were welcomed to HMEI.

There was a small cash flow over at the end of 2006, meaning that the HMEI is now financially independent. The Chairman advised that this years membership invoices will be sent out soon, and encouraged members to pay their fees as quickly as possible so that HMEI can proceed with its planned activities through the year.

The members were advised that two Council positions are vacant as a result of Councillor resignations resulting from these Councillors leaving the HMEI member companies with who they worked. Thus there will be a formal nomination and filling of the vacant positions at the May General Assembly.

The meeting was advised that during three recent WMO meetings held in Geneva, HMEI had had a small display and display boards with information on HMEI. At these meetings, namely a hydrology workshop, CAgM and CIMO, the HMEI display attracted considerable attention and over 200 copies of the HMEI Member Product Catalogue were distributed as result. As this has been so highly successful, HMEI would, where possible, be repeating this at other WMO meetings.

Mr Dieterink expressed a personal disappointment with the lack of HMEI member papers at TECO. TECO is a pre-eminent opportunity for HMEI members to present information on new products and new manufacturing developments, and members were encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity in the future.

Mr Dieterink advised that HMEI can arrange for members to come to WMO and make appropriate presentations to the appropriate WMO departments and people. Several members have already made use of this, and other such visits are planned by HMEI members to WMO this year.

The members were appraised of the major meetings during 2006, and were advised that there were 17 WMO meetings held all around the world that were attended by HMEI delegates.

Members were advised that several WMO Commissions had had changes to their Presidents' and Vice Presidents' during 2006, and that HMEI had made contact with these new people and that they all expressed their desire to work closely with HMEI.

Mr Dieterink advised that over 50 WMO meetings are planned for WMO and 7 international meetings are currently known that will be held during 2007. Members were advised how to navigate the HMEI website in order to find these meetings. If members wished to be considered for attendance at these meetings they were advised to contact the HMEI Executive Secretary. Also a "live" demonstration was given of where the section of the HMEI website with information on new exhibitions for 2007 is situated.

The members were shown how to locate the online electronic version of the WMO CIMO Guide, from the HMEI website, and were also advised that WMO would like manufacturers to provide any suggested revisions for the Guide, so that the Guide can be updated with expert revisions on a regular basis.

Mr Dieterink advised that HMEI is aiming for a membership of 110 by the end of 2008, and this was the level that he hoped would be able to be maintained after that date.

The meeting was advised that CIMO  has now endorsed 2 catalogues, namely the World Meteorological Instrument Catalogue (WMIC), prepared by the Chinese Meteorological Administration (CMA), and the HMEI Product Catalogue. It was noted that WMO believes that both catalogues were complementary. Mr Dieterink stated that HMEI feels that this is not a viable solution. Mr Dieterink advised that the Council had decided that the HMEI catalogue should contain members data sheets, and not the standard product sheets as requested by WMO. The Chairman advised that he will discuss the situation of the two catalogues with the Chinese delegates during the WMO Congress in May 2007, with the aim of finding a solution acceptable to both organizations.

Informal discussions followed on how this AMS exhibition was perceived by HMEI members. It was considered that overall; the exhibition was better organized than last year, and that all the suggestions given last year by exhibitors, had been implemented and the exhibition was better because of these changes. A few minor comments, such as issues with customs clearance, prepayments for booth space, the additional costs of delivery from the warehouse to the exhibition, will be raised by the Chairman at the exhibition breakfast to be held at this AMS.

The meeting was closed by the HMEI Chairman at 9.30am.

Meeting Attendees:
3SI – Paul Heppner
Campbell Scientific – Greg Kalmbach, Carl de Levin and Alan Hinckley
Climatronics – Michael B. Meyer
Degreane Horizon – Eric Papillion
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) – David Goodrich
Hydrological Services Australia – Mike Lysagny
InterMet Systems – Fred Clowney
Japan Meteorological Business Center – Michihiko Tononcho
Leosphere – Laurent Sauvage and Nicholas Dévé
Lockheed Martin – Bryce Ford
Logotronic – Gerhard Pevny
Modem – Rémy Pepin and Patrick Charpentier
Oriental Electronics – Yuji Hayashi and Naomi Tamura
Selex- Gematronik – Ulrich Nellen
Sumitomo Electric Industries – Yoshiaki Shikata
Sutron – Raul Mcquivey
Telvent (Almos) – Foeke Kuik and Alessandra Liberto
Vaisala – Jan Hörhammer

HMEI Chairman - Ben Dieterink (Kipp & Zonen)
HMEI Secretariat - Bruce Sumner

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