MINUTES OF THE HMEI MEMBERS MEETING, HELSINKI, FINLAND
MONDAY 30TH AUGUST 2010
Forty-three people attended the Members Meeting,
including both HMEI members and other friends of the Association.
(See picture of meeting above -click to enlarge)
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 5.00pm.
He welcomed all members and visitors to this meeting in Helsinki. In
particular he welcomed the guest speakers, Dr Wenjian Zhang from WMO
and Mr Paul Fransioli representing ISO.
Mr Dieterink advised the meeting that the major issue facing the
Association at the moment is the need to find a Chairman of the
association. He asked if anyone had some suggestions for a
candidate, or wished to present themselves as a candidate, to come
and to contact either himself or the Executive Secretary.
Acceptance of Minutes of previous meeting
Mr Dieterink advised that the minutes of the previous General
Assembly, held in Atlanta, Georgia on 19 January 2010, had been sent
to all members and included in the HMEI Newsletter. Mr Dieterink
proposed that the minutes be accepted as a true account of that
meeting. This was passed unanimously by the members present.
Membership Issues
Mr Dieterink advised the meeting that the association now had 99
members from 22 countries, and that very shortly the membership is
expected to reach the magic number of 100. Mr Dieterink announced
that five new members had joined the association so far in 2010,
namely:
New HMEI Members
STS Sensor Technik Sirnach AG Switzerland
Lockheed Martin Space Systems USA
High Sierra Electronics USA
Radiometer Physics GmbH Germany
SpectraSensors, Inc. USA
These five new members were welcomed to the association.
Results of recent HMEI elections
The acting Chairman advised that elections of a Chairman and a Vice
Chairman of the General Assembly, and several new Councillors to
replace those whose terms had expired, had taken place at the last
General Assembly meeting in Atlanta in January 2010.
The meeting was advised that at the General Assembly no nominations
for Chairman had been received, and that it was decided that Mr
Dieterink would continue as the acting Chairman until a new Chairman
could be found.
The General Assembly had unanimously elected Mr Andy McDonald as the
new vice Chairman. Mr McDonald presented himself to the members at
the meeting, to applause.
Additionally several new Councillors were elected. The meeting was
advised of the composition of new Council, it being noted that the
Council now consists of 15 people. The HMEI council consists of the
following people:
Gerhard Pevny Logotronic Austria
Rιmy Pιpin Modem France
Bryce Ford SpectraSensors USA
Fred Clowney Intermet Systems USA
Li Qingjun Tianjin China
Toshi Hasegawa EKO Japan
Bob Rissland TRG USA
Dusan Mazurek Microstep Slovakia
Laurent Sauvage Leosphere France
Brian Day Campbell Canada Canada
Randolph Ware Radiometrics USA
Bill Conway WDT USA
Scott McLaughlin DeTect USA
Andy McDonald Vaisala Finland
Ben Dieterink Kipp and Zonen Netherlands
HMEI Working Groups
Mr Dieterink advised that at the assembly it was decided that there
were sufficient Councillors to form council working groups to work
on specific tasks. Subsequently five working groups have been
established by the HMEI Council:
WG on Publications and Promotion (WG-PP)
WG on Interaction with WMO and International Organizations (WG-IWIO)
Andy McDonald (Chair)
WG on Rules and Regulations (WG-RR)
Brian Day (Chair)
WG on Membership and Recruitment (WG-MR)
Fred Clowney (Chair)
WG on CIMO Guides and Technical Reports (WG-GTR)
Randolph Ware (Chair)
The acting Chairman advised the meeting that if anybody had some
ideas or suggestions for any of these working groups, to either
advise the Executive Secretary, or directly contact the chairman of
the relevant working group.
Activities during 2009 and 2010
The meeting was advised that HMEI attended 17 meetings and attending
several exhibitions during 2009. Reports on these events appeared in
the bimonthly Newsletters and are also on the HMEI website. The
meeting was advised of the following main meetings and exhibitions
so far in 2010:
RAV, Bali,
AWS, Geneva
NCAS, Manchester
WIS, Geneva,
WMO Executive Council, Geneva
Climate Services, Geneva
GRUAN II, Payerne
African Ministers Meeting, Nairobi
CCl, Turkey
CAgM, Brazil,
Radiosonde Intercomparison, China
The meeting was also advised on the major upcoming events for the
remainder of 2010 and 2011:
ERAD Romania, 6-10 September 2010
EMS Zurich, 13-17 September 2010
RAIII Bogota, 22-24 September 2010
RAI Marrakech, 1-8 November 2010
AGU San Francisco, 13-17 December
CBS-Ext-10 Windhoek, 15-24 November 2010
AMS Seattle, 23-27 January 2011
MeteoHydex Geneva, 16-18 May 2011
Meteorological Technology World Expo Brussels, 18-20 Oct 2011
Guest Speakers
Dr Wenjian Zhang, Director of the WMO Observing and Information
Systems Department (OBS) and Mr Paul M. Fransioli, Secretary of the
ISO TC 146/SC 5 (Meteorology) both made presentations to the
meeting.
Dr Zhang gave an informative presentation on the activities within
WMO relevant to observations. He identified the five WMO Priority
Areas for 2010-2015, and stated that WIGOS, the WMO Integrated
Global Observing System, one of these priority areas, was, in his
opinion, the priority of priorities for WMO in the upcoming few
years. He spoke of the great demand for improved observations
required to enhance climate services, the need for more observations
to support aviation safety, such as observations of volcanic ash
clouds, the need for more basic weather observations from Africa and
South America and more observations from the polar regions. He
advised that higher precision and accuracy is being demanded of
observations, and that measurement traceability is essential. In
addition he advised that WMO is always interested in new and
affordable observational techniques. Lastly he mentioned that while
weather is still the number one business for WMO, climate and
environmental services and now also becoming very important within
WMO.
Mr Paul Fransioli gave in interesting presentation of the work being
undertaken within Subcommittee 5 (Meteorology) regarding ISO
standards. He advised on the status of the work on Working Group 6
of SC 5 on standards for Lidar. He advised that this standard was
now at the review stage, and should be ready for publication early
next year. He emphasized the importance of HMEI members Laurent
Sauvage and Holger Willie as being of critical importance in the
development of this standard. He stressed the need for industry
representation in TC 146 SC 5 standards development, and advised
that if any HMEI members had any questions on ISO standards work or
interest in becoming involved, to contact either himself or the HMEI
Executive Secretary. One question from the floor asked about the
commitment required and how often did the ISO teams meet. Mr
Fransioli advised that much of the work of the groups is conducted
by email, and that opportunities such as this WMO TECO session also
provided opportunities for ISO teams to meet. He advised that the
next meeting of SC 5 would be in three days time at this convention
centre and advised that that anybody interested in attending was
welcome to the meeting.
Other Business
There being no other business, the meeting was closed at 6.00pm.
Meeting Attendees
HMEI Members:
Baron Services Heather Hope
Baron Services Rick Braswell
Campbell Scientific Canada Brian Day
Campbell Scientific UK Dick Saffell
Degreanne Horizon Yann Sultan
DeTect Scott McLaughlin
EEC Chris Goode
Environmental Measurements Limited Malcolm Howey
Environmental Measurements Limited Mark Dutton
ES&S Bob Wright
Geonor Ivar Fredriksen
Huayun
IBL Software Michal Weis
Intermet Fred Clowney
Kipp & Zonen Ben Dieterink
L.M. Sippican Tom Curran
Logotronics Gerhard Pevny
Meteolabor Thomas Brossi
Meteolabor Rolf Maag
MFI Christine David
MFI Emilie Ducla
MTech Systems Jeremy King
MTech Systems - Marty Hsiao
Meteorage Yves Bechacq
Meteorage Marc Bonnet
Pawan Hemant Thakar
Radiometer Physics Harald Czekula
Selex james Gray
Selex Lothar Schulte-Sasse
Sutron - Ashish Raval
Sutron Faisal Al-Mtwali
Theodor Friedrichs Jόrgen Zillmer
The Republic Group Robert Rissland
Vaisala Andy McDonald
Vaisala Jan Hφrhammer
WDT Bill Conway
WDT Mike Eilts
Weatherbug Jim Anderson
Weatherbug Jeremy Usher
Guests:
Meteorology Technology Barry Smith
WMO Dr Wenjiang Zhang
WMO CBS President Dr Fred Branski
ISO TC 146 SC 5 Secretary Paul Fransioli
HMEI Secretariat:
Executive Secretary Bruce Sumner
Minute Secretary Bruce Sumner (Executive Secretary)
|
