MINUTES OF THE HMEI GENERAL ASSSEMBLY,HELD DURING 88TH AMS,
NEW ORLEANS, USA, 22 JANUARY 2008

 
The HMEI assembly at AMS 2008 in session (Photo thanks to Mr Yuji Hayashi of Oriental Electronics Inc.)

Thirty-seven people attended the General Assembly, including both HMEI members and other friends of the Association. Please see the list of people in attendance at the end of this report.

Opening of the General Assembly
The HMEI Chairman, Mr Ben Dieterink, opened the meeting at 9.00am. He welcomed all members and visitors to this meeting in New Orleans.

Acceptance of Minutes of previous meeting
Mr Dieterink advised that the minutes of the previous HMEI meeting, an informal member meeting held in Geneva on 9 May 2007, had been send to all members and included in the HMEI Newsletter immediately following the meeting. Mr Dieterink also advised copies of the previous meeting were also available at the current meeting. As members have had ample opportunities to read these minutes, Mr Dieterink then proposed that the minutes be accepted as a true account of that meeting. Mr Bryce Ford from Lockheed Martin seconded this proposal. This was passed unanimously.

Chairman’s Report
Mr Dieterink advised that the Association now has 93 members in 22 countries. He announced the nine new members who had joined during 2007 and welcomed them to the Association. Unfortunately some members had not renewed their membership during 2007, and these companies will be removed from membership of the Association. Mr Dieterink reminded members that the subscription for 2008 was now due, and asked all members to pay their subscriptions promptly.

Mr Dieterink recalled for the meeting that new Councillors were elected to Council at the last meeting. He showed a list of the current Council. He advised that one Council position is now vacant as the term has expired. This situation will be discussed later in the meeting.

The main activities during 2007 were presented to the members, including MeteoHydex, WMO Congress, the EMS meeting and exhibition, the upper-air training workshop in Namibia and the Chinese Exhibition in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou exhibition was described in some detail, as this was an important opportunity for the promotion of HMEI. Mr Dieterink discussed his participation at this event, and advised that his presentation on new initiatives in instrumentation was very well received, with a 20 minute presentation and one and a half hours of follow-up discussions, including questions on standards and specifications and how these are maintained. Mr Dieterink advised that the next meeting in this series will be in Nanjing in 2009, and encouraged members to think about attending.

Anticipated activities for 2008 were presented, including a meeting on climate requirements in the upper-air, the EGU exhibition at EGU, ERAD in Helsinki, an exhibition in Mexico, and the very important TECO and Meteorex in St Petersburg in November. For this last event members were advised to register very soon, as booths are already being allocated rapidly. Also members were advised to make sure they obtain their Visa early, and that a tourist visa is much easier (and cheaper) to obtain that a business visa.

The Chairman announced that a list of WMO acronyms is now available on the HMEI website, and will help members navigate their way through the WMO acronym ‘jungle’. He also advised that WMO are currently undergoing a structural reorganization, but the impact on HMEI’s interactions with WMO is expected to be minimal.

The 2006 Audit
The Chairman presented that Audit for 2006, and advised that it reported a profit of CHF16,682.71. Mr Rémy Pepin from Modem proposed that the audit be accepted, and this was seconded by Mr Jan Hörhammer from Vaisala, and this was passed unanimously by the meeting. The Chairman reported that the audit for 2007 is currently being prepared and will be conducted by the same auditors.

Financial Statement and Budget for 2008
The Executive Secretary presented the current financial statement of the Association, and advised that there was a positive carry-over approximately CHF16,000 at the end of 2006, and that the carry-over from 2007 to 2008 is approximately CHF20,000. The meeting expressed its appreciation at this positive news. The budget for 2008 was presented. This showed that salaries and exhibition costs are expected to be covered by incoming membership subscriptions. A question as to whether WMO had approved the continuing office space for the HMEI Secretariat office was raised, as having to pay for office space would be a huge impact on the budget. The Executive Secretary advised that a leasing agreement between WMO and HMEI is being prepared, and that WMO has committed to providing use of an office for HMEI in the WMO building, at no leasing cost.

HMEI Product Catalogue
The Executive Secretary presented a proposal on how information on individual products could be added to the catalogue, and how this could assist WMO to accept this catalogue as a replacement for the Chinese WMIC. The meeting was shown a mock-up of the HMEI proposed product sheets. For each product these would include a product image, a short specification and links to full company specifications and other on-line vendor product information.

Considerable discussion ensued, including all members stating again that they do not see WMO standard product sheets as being practical. No members present were prepared to fill in WMO style standard sheets. Jan Hörhammer from Vaisala endorsed the proposed addition of vendors’ own product information to the HMEI catalogue. Ralph Petragnani from Belfort agreed with Jan, and reconfirmed that WMIC style product sheets will never be acceptable to vendors. Michal Weis from IBL stated that WMIC product sheets could never work in their current configuration, as one standard sheet can never work for all vendors, and that a separate sheet would be required for each sensor type and application area. He also recommended that HMEI look to use of a relational database as the basis for its catalogue, rather than using HTML. Jan Hörhammer suggested that if the HMEI designed product information is implemented and accepted by WMO, that in 6 to 8 months HMEI could issue a questionnaire to meteorological services asking them for suggested improvements that could be added to the catalogue. This was supported by Mr Fred Clowney from InterMet.

The cost to members of these HMEI product sheets was discussed, and the suggested amount of €20 for each product information entry was made. After more discussion there was unanimous approval for this proposal, including the cost. The Executive Secretary was told that this should be implemented immediately. Mr Dieterink stated that he wished that the revised catalogue, with WMO endorsement, be finalized before CIMO in November 2008, so that it could be announced at that time.

Vacant Council Position
The meeting was advised that the Council term for Mr Lu Huiguo from Tianjin Meteorological Instrument Works has finished. There is thus a vacant position on the Council. Mr Lu re-nominated for an additional term on the Council. This nomination, and the necessary seconding, has been received in compliance of the Associations Rules and Procedures.

The Chairman proposed that Mr Lu’s re-nomination be accepted. There being no other candidate for the position, Mr Lu’s nomination was unanimously accepted. Mr Lu is therefore a  HMEI Councillor for an additional term.

Other Business
There being no other business, the meeting was closed at 10.25am.

Meeting Attendees
HMEI Members:
All Weather – Bernard Kirby
Belfort – Ralph Petragnani
Degreane – Erik Papillon
Delta-T Devices – Tony Peloe
EKO Instruments – Osamu Sakamoto
Geonor – Ivar Fredriksen
Geonor – James Brylawski
IBL – Mickal Weis
InterMet Systems – Gary Wallen
InterMet Systems – Fred Clowney
IPS MeteoStar – Hank Fallek
IPS MeteoStar – Richard Stedronsky
Jenoptik – Holger Wille
Jenoptik – Waldemar Sokolowski
Kipp and Zonen – Ben Dieterink
Leosphere – Laurent Sauvage
Leosphere – Wilfried Vogel
Lockheed Martin – Bryce Ford
Lockheed Martin – Jim Roby
Lockheed Martin – Tom Curran
Lockheed Martin – Ray Christensen
Logotronic – Gerhard Pevny
Meteolabor – Rolf Maag
Modem – Remy Pepin
Modem – Patrick Charpentier
MPS Systems – Jaras Schwarz
Oriental Electronics – Lloyd Anderson
Oriental Electronics – Yugi Hayashi
Oriental Electronics – Naomi Tamura
Selex – Ulrich Nellen
Sumitomo Electric – Yoshiaki Shikata
Vaisala – Jan Horhammer

Guests from other companies:
Design Analysis - Brad Schaefermeyer
Detect – Gary Zimmerman
Kaijo Sonic – Yoshiki Ito

HMEI Secretariat:
Executive Secretary – Bruce Sumner

Back to 
top of page