Minutes of the HMEI General Assembly Meeting held at the Press Center Conference Room of the “ROMEXPO S.A” Congress and Conference Center
Bucharest, Romania
Wednesday 4th May 2005
2pm
ATTENDEES AT THE MEETING
Ray Canterford (CIMO Acting President), Dieter Schiessl (Director World Weather
Watch), Paul Fransioli ISO representative), Ben Dieterink (Kipp & Zonen), Jan Hörhammer (Vaisala), Joseph Parini (InterMet), Michael
Ueltezen (TRG and EEC), Dušan Mazurek (Microstep), Kiyotaka Uchida (EKO and
representing T. Hasagawa), Bob Rissland (TRG), Kevin Klustner (Coastal
Environmental), Ulrich Nellen (AMS-Gematronik), Gary Wagner (All Weather),
Gerhard Pevny (Logotronic), Kurt Kless (EEC), Randolph Ware (Radiometrics
Corp.), Frederick Clowney (InterMet), Lechosław Kumoch (Aviomet), Janusz
Jasiński (Aviomet), Takao Nasu (Totex), Masoto Serizawa (Totex), Mark
Dutton (Environmental Measurements), Volker Thiermann (Scintec), Martin Malkomes
(Gamic), Rolf Magg (Meteolabor), Bernard Cutillas (Sagim), Phillip Goodall (Muir
Matheson), Gary Noakes, (Casella), Dennis Sharman (Casella), Thomas Curran
(Lockheed Martin/Sippican), Patrick Charpentier (Modem), Gavino Boringhieri (Siap+Micros),
Prof. C.J. Stigter ( Representing Eijkelkamp Agrisearch), Bob Wright (ES&S),
Colin Cook (ES&S), Lee Chapin (Microcom Design), Fred Brenner (Beijing
Metstar Radar), Wang Ping
(China National Huayun Technology Development Corporation), Bruce Sumner (HMEI
Executive Secretary), Christine Charstone (HMEI Administrator).
Opening and Welcoming of Guests
HMEI Chairman, Ben Dieterink, opened the meeting officially at 2.15pm and
welcomed HMEI members, new HMEI members who have joined since the last General
Assembly, CIMO Acting President Ray Canterford, ISO Representative Paul
Fransioli, World Weather Watch Director Dieter Schiessl, other guests and
colleagues.
The Secretary of the meeting was proposed and accepted by the General Assembly to be the HMEI Executive Secretary, Bruce Sumner.
The minutes of the previous General Assembly, which had been sent to all members for them to read, were summarized and then proposed by the Chairman to be accepted. As there were no objections the previous General Assembly meeting minutes were accepted.
HMEI Chairman’s Report
The Chairman, Ben Dieterink, gave a Power Point Presentation of his
Report. His report covered activities of the previous 12 months.
He advised the meeting that 55 new members have applied to join the
association since the previous General Assembly in January 2005. He welcomed
these 55 members to the association, and stated now that the association has a
viable future with the current membership.
The Chairman restated the aims and objectives of the association and gave a summary of the organizational structure, including the requirement of special committees to be set up under the direction of the Council.
The Chairman then summarized the many meetings and instrument Intercomparisons that had been attended by HMEI representatives during the previous year. Twenty-two member companies in total were involved in these various meetings, providing valuable industry expertise to the meetings and instrument Intercomparisons. The Chairman advised that the Member Products Catalogue was proving very popular and that work was being undertaken to coordinate the catalogue with WMO requirements to make the catalogue a truly international catalogue. The Chairman advised the meeting of the work of the Secretariat to advised members of activities and news through the bi-monthly Newsletters, the HMEI website and the presence of a HMEI booth at recent exhibitions to promote HMEI and its activities.
Address by WMO Guest Speaker, Dieter
Schiessl
Mr. Schiessl gave a statement on behalf of the Secretary General of the WMO.
This presentation (see Annex 1), stressed the interactive role of HMEI with WMO,
and the positive contribution HMEI members were making to the work of WMO. He
also encouraged HMEI members to become still further involved in the work of
OPAGs and ETs at WMO and to for HMEI to expand the range of such meetings it
attended, for instance not only CIMO ETs and OPAGs but also those of CBS. Mr.
Schiessl also noted the potential of the HMEI Catalogue to become a world class
catalogue of its type.
Remarks and Questions:
o
Question: what
had, so far, been the result of HMEI members’ participation in WMO Expert Team
meetings?
In response Mr. Schiessl said that the close collaboration of the participating
HMEI members in various ET meetings has resulted in good quality recommendations
for testing and implementation of various systems and instrumentation. He noted
that the recent Radiosonde Intercomparison in Mauritius and the current
Raingauge Intercomparison in Europe, were only possible because of the
willingness to collaborate between WMO member countries and the manufacturers.
Mr. Schiessl also stressed the importance of showing to country donors that good
affordable systems can only be developed if there is strong collaboration with
manufacturers.
o
Question: why does HMEI not have voting rights in its Liaison
Status with WMO?
Mr. Schiessl said that the convention of WMO states that voting is reserved for
paying country members. He went on to say that in any event voting is primarily
used for voting in of officers of WMO. Consensus, Mr. Schiessl said, is the most
important way of resolving and deciding matters and working within WMO, which
those with Liaison Status could also participate in.
o
Question: who are other non-voting, Liaison Status members,
besides HMEI?
Mr. Schiessl said that there were other such members, including: TV
broadcasters; a group working on disaster prevention; also various other groups
whose names are available on the WMO website. He noted that there are several
other NGOs who have potential interest to be involved with WMO, some have
achieved Liaison Status and others are looking to achieve Liaison Status. Mr.
Schiessl noted that this is a process that takes several years to achieve.
Address by ISO Guest Speaker, Mr.
Paul Fransioli
Mr. Fransioli’s address gave an informative overview of the advantages of standards for
manufactures in the hydrology and meteorology industries and the users of their
products. He also outlined the work of ISO Study Group 5, which deals
specifically with standards for meteorology.
Voting in of Office Bearers of the
Association of HMEI
The Chairman handed over the running of the meeting at this
point to the Executive Secretary, for the duration of the voting of positions
for the officers of the Association.
Voting in of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the General Assembly for Following Four Years
o
Ben Dieterink of Kipp and
Zonen, nominated by Sagim, AMS Gematronic, and ORI for Chairman of the General
Assembly, was the only nomination received.
Mr. Joe Parini moved that Ben Dieterink be Chairman of the General Assembly for
the next term, Mike Ueltzen seconded, accepted by the HMEI General Assembly
present with no opposition.
o
Jan Hörhammer of Vaisala, nominated by Sagim, AMS Gematronic,
and ORI for Vice Chairman of the General Assembly, was the only nomination
received.
Mr. Joe Parini moved that Jan Hörhammer
be Vice Chairman of the General Assembly for the next
term, several seconders amongst members present, accepted by the HMEI General
Assembly present with no opposition.
Voting in of the Council of HMEI for the Following Four Years
Nominations had been received for
nine (9) new councillors:
It was noted that Lu
Hui Guo of Tianjin Meteorological Instrument Works has a term as Councillor, which started last year and so will continue
to 2008.
Under the HMEI Articles of Association and Rules and Procedures, the council can be expanded to have more than its current 8 members and it was suggested that the members might like to include all the nominees in an expanded council of 10 members. This was proposal was moved by Kees Stigter representing Eijkelkamp and passed unopposed by the present HMEI General Assembly.
The new Council for HMEI is thus now composed of ten (10) people being:
Gary Wagner, All Weather, USA
Ulrich Nellen, AMS-Gematronik, Germany
Dusan Mazurek, Microstep-MIS, Slovak Republic
Toshikazu Hasegawa, EKO, Japan
Joseph Parini, InterMet Systems, USA
Kevin Klustner, Coastal Environment, USA
Lu Hui Guo, Tianjin Meteorological Instr. Works, China
Robert Rissland, The Republic Group, USA
Ben Dieterink, Kipp & Zonen, Netherlands
Jan Hörhammer, Vaisala, Finland
Voting in of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council of
HMEI for the Following Four Years
Nominations for the Chairman
and Vice Chairman of the Council were invited from the General Assembly present;
those eligible for nomination to these positions being the new Councillors.
It was suggested that for smooth running of the association the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council would be best to be the same as the Chairman and Vice Chair man of the General Assembly, as in the previous term of the Council.
A comment from the floor noted a possible issue with the Chairman of the HMEI General Assembly and the Chairman of the Council both having a vote and yet both being the same person, with potential of giving some person more influence.
Gary Wagner moved that Ben Dieterink and Jan Hörhammer be respectively the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council. This was passed unopposed by the present HMEI General Assembly.
NOTE:
As there were only sufficient
nominations to fill the various office bearer positions of the Association,
there was no need for a secret ballot of weighted voting, nor to establish a
quorum of weighted votes present. Similarly in the absence of the need for a
secret ballot, there was no need for the appointment of scrutineers.
SECRETARY’S REPORT
The Executive Secretary
presented this report, which covered Secretariat activities during the year. The
Power Point presentation of the Secretariat’s Report also included the
Financial Report 2004 and the Budget 2005.
FINANCIAL REPORT 2004
The report showed a healthy growth in the Association membership,
however there was nevertheless a shortfall for the year.
It was noted that an audit of the 2004 finances was to be carried out shortly and that the Council would be appointing the Auditor in its next meeting.
BUDGET 2005
The budget
revealed that although membership continues to grow, a small shortfall for 2005
would again be predicted. The Council will be looking into strategies to deal
with this.
The Chairman noted that for the future financial viability of HMEI there was a possible need to increase the HMEI membership fees. A figure of a rise of about 25% would confirm the viability of HMEI at its projected membership level for the end of 2005. The Council will discuss this further at their meeting to be held in the next day or so.
General Business
The newly reelected Chairman, Ben Dieterink, then led the
remainder of the meeting.
Possible HMEI special committees
Jan Hörhammer verbally reported on his participation at CBS
in St Petersburg, Russia earlier this year. Jan supported Dieter
Schiessl’s earlier remarks in regard to encouraging HMEI members to be
involved in more of the range of WMO meetings available, as the manufacturers
have technical knowledge and information and of which WMO is not aware and would
benefit from knowing.
The Chairman noted that the Council will be looking at the possible need for Special Committees to help with HMEI members’ attendance at such meetings.
Possible expansion of Member Products Catalogue
The Chairman talked about the potential for the HMEI
Catalogue to be expanded to also accommodate WMO requirements for selecting
member products. He also addressed the possible need for financial input from
members in regard to this additional part of the catalogue, in order that it
could become the world class catalogue as suggested by Mr. Schiessl in his
speech. This issue will be discussed by the HMEI Council.
A suggestion was made that members could contribute in expertise and other such ways in the development of the catalogue rather with money.
Radiosonde algorithms meeting to be held immediately after
the General Assembly with Dr. Kats and interested HMEI members.
The Chairman announced that a meeting between Dr. Kats and
interested members of HMEI, in regard to radiosonde algorithms, was being held
in the meeting room immediately after the HMEI General Assembly and asked that
interested members stay behind at the conclusion of the General Assembly.
Close of GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING
There being no other items the Chairman thanked the attendees for being at the
HMEI General Assembly and declared the Assembly meeting closed at 4.15pm.