ISPRS - Highlights - Beijing (CN), 20-24 August 2007

Minutes of the Council Meeting,

20 and 24 August 2007, Beijing

Attendees

President Ian Dowman (ID)

Secretary General Orhan Altan (OA)

Congress Director Chen Jun (CJ)

First Vice President John Trinder (JT)

Second Vice President Emmanuel Baltsavias (EB)

Treasurer Stanley Morain (SM)

In attendance for item 11

Finance Officer of ISPRS Foundation Lawrence Fritz

In attendance for item 5 Preparations for the Congress;

XXI^st ISPRS Congress Scient. Committee Chair Jiang Jie (JJ)

In Attendance for Part of the Meeting

ISAC Chair Armin Grün (AG)

MINUTES

•1. Opening

ID opened the meeting, noting that this would be one of the important meetings of the four-year period before the Congress, and expressed hope for a fruitful exchange of ideas especially on the Congress, Statutes and Bylaws, Recruitment, External Relationships. He thanked the Chinese Society for hosting the meeting. ID also thanked the guests attending the meeting.

•2. Approval of Agenda

The agenda above was accepted without change.

•3. Review of Council Meeting in Vienna and all outstanding Actions

OA reviewed the minutes and they were accepted without change. The outstanding actions were reviewed before the meeting by email correspondence

•4. Review of Commission Activities

4.1. Feedback on advice to TCPs

Council noted the good work and achievements in most of the Technical Commission WGs. Council also observed that there are still several WGs which have made an insufficient contribution or simply sleeping. After reviewing all Technical Commission activities, Council decided that the following actions, which were decided in Vienna CM, should be followed strictly in the next term. The important one is;

to change the Guidelines for Technical Commissions that a maximum of 6-8 WGs is recommended for each Technical Commission.

Another reminder should be sent to the TCPs of the importance of their presence at the next Joint Meeting.

4.2. Commission ToRs

Unfortunately most of the Technical Commission Presidents did not send proposals on changes in the terms of references. They should be reminded to do so.

4.3. Bids for Commissions for 2008-12

The possible bids for the Technical Commissions are;

TC I Canada

TC II Germany

TC III France

TC IV USA, Japan (First Choice)

TC V UK

TC VI Netherlands, Slovenia

TC VII Austria

TC VIII Japan (Second Choice), Italy

•5. Preparations for the Congress

5.1. Report of Congress Director

CJ and JJ gave a detailed presentation on the Congress preparations. Council was satisfied with the developments. However the following points which were raised at the Joint Meeting with Technical Commission Presidents were worth mentioning once again at the Council Meeting.

1. General

Check the minimum time to convert the Hall at BICC from GA Setup for Opening Ceremony or leave enough time to go to Great Hall of the People,
LOC should ask Council/TCPs what office equipment they require in their assigned rooms (wi-fi provided),
Secretary General and Treasurer (together with their staff) should share the same room for doing the necessary preparations for the General Assembly. This room should have a safe according to the Contract. (It was also decided to change the President's room to that originally assigned to the Treasurer and to use the large room for meetings.
Simultaneous Translation for the General Assemblies, the Opening and Closing ceremonies according to the Contract should be provided. However CJ sees a problem regarding the Opening and Closing ceremonies.
LOC should provide rooms for TC Board and other meetings
Foundation Board Meeting should be held after the election of the Council,
Printed material of the Congress needs to be carefully spell-checked, ID and JT offered help in this matter whenever needed,
Special waiting room for accompanying persons would be nice,
One registered person is entitled to give one paper, unless giving an invited paper, when he/she can give two papers.
Workshop and Tutorial materials should be published and especially the workshop proceedings should be assigned Vol nos from OA
Payment to the Tutors should be decided ASAP
Putting the abstracts on the web should be investigated
Presentation of the Young Authors awards should be in the technical sessions and the award made during the plenary sessions.
Presentation of the Best Paper and Best Poster Awards of the Youth sessions can be done accordingly at the Youth Panel Session (Best Paper) and the (Best Poster) during the Social Activity of the Student groups on Sunday,
It is good to have all Awards including the Best Paper Awards of the Youth sessions in a adequately printed "Awards Brochure", which will be ready for the Opening Ceremony,
This brochure should be printed in sufficient copies for the Opening Ceremony, 3 Plenary Sessions and the Gala Dinner
It would be good for potential exhibitors to be able to see on the floor plan which companies have already reserved exhibition booths before they place an order and apply for booth nos they wish to occupy,
In the second week there is a traditional meeting with the exhibitors; LOC should assign a room and time slot for this,
In the first days of the Congress there will be a Joint Board Meeting of the Geo-Spatial Information Societies; LOC should assign room and time slot for this,
5.2. Submission of papers and abstracts, panel session speakers
Summer School - funding is an issue to be resolved; MB and CJ to investigate possibilities,
There is a need to discuss the scientific and social program of the Summer School and also the possibility of having poster sessions where students can present their work
Tutorials; 7 proposals received so far, there could have more. TC I has 2 more proposals. Proposals are still possible - deadline is the end November.
Workshop Proposals from Hans Knoop on "ISO/TC211 and CEN/T287 Standardization" and "Land Cover Classification Harmonization" are accepted
Workshop Proposal Gi4DM is pending as this is a 3 ½ days workshop and coincides with the TSs
Amy Budge's proposal on GEOSS Workshop on "Air Quality and Human Health" is accepted,
New proposals for Tutorials and Workshops must be submitted before the end of November 2007,
A proposal for a SS on "Standardization of DEMs" to be followed up by ID and AB.
Additional sessions for microwave and TerraSaR-X are required
A session is required for the SIG
AB proposes TS on UAVs
SS8 will be organized by EuroSDR on a subject proposed by them
SS10 to be organized by Wolfgang Kresse in collaboration with OGC.
For SS16 no response from FIG - Hans-Gerd Maas suggests the topic of calibration. ID will contact Stig Enemark and report back to H-GM
New session proposed by China Academy of Surveying and Mapping - accepted,
There is a need to rethink the topics for the User Forum in order to ensure discussion, especially involving NMAs on production chain issues. It was agreed to hove 3 sessions:

1. production chain for new imaging sensors, chair A Gruen

2. Thematic information extraction from images, chair J van Genderen

3. On demand geo-spatial data updating.... Chairs: C Heipke and K Murray

2 of the 3 User Forum sessions can be organized in the second week,
Preparations of the general program of the Congress including accommodation and social program

LOC should investigate the problem of participants registering before they book their hotels. JG suggested including apartments near the Congress Center, which can take 2-4-6 people.

Communications

CJ noted that they made a contract with REED Business (former GITC) for the preparation of the Congress Daily. The following suggestions summarised below were received from the International Advisory Board Committee meeting after visiting the Congress Centre;

VIP Room 1 seems suitable for paid accompanying persons,

Sustaining Members should advertise on their booths that they are "Sustaining Member of ISPRS", an appropriate sign is needed

•6. Statues and Bylaws

6.1. Council Composition and Fellowships

ID brought 2 alternatives on the Composition of the Council and related organs.

They are;

Alternative 1

Council is enlarged to include TCPs and Regional representatives.

The current Council is replaced by an Executive Board with the same membership as Council. Council meets once a year. An Advisory Board, comprising chairs of the Permanent Committees, the Chair of the Finance Committee, the Editor in Chief of the ISPRS Journal, the Book Series Editor and the ISPRS Webmaster is established, to meet once a year.

Alternative 2

Council is given the right to co-opt Regional Members to balance regional representation on Council. Council's proposals for the members to be co-opted must be approved by GA. The Advisory Board could still be introduced under this option.

The majority of the Council members have expressed their positive thoughts for the alternative 2. However the changes of the Statutes & Bylaws presented at the meeting need to be revised .

6.2. Other changes

Other possible changes in the Statutes and Bylaws are proposals from the Commissions on the Commission ToRs. As the proposals are not ready for discussion TCPs should be persuaded to submit them in time for discussion at the Council Meeting in Istanbul. They should be sent afterwards to ISAC for comments and discussed later at the CM and JM in Durham.

•7. ISPRS Membership

7.1. Report on status of Ordinary, Associate, Sustaining and Regional Members

Membership Status

Type / Cat.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	A	B	C	D	E	Total
AsM	7	1	1											9
OdM	29	21	12	8	5	5	2	4						86
RgM	12													12
StM									8	7	15	27	16	73
Total														181

New Member(s)

Ordinary members

ID tabled applications from Zimbabwe and reported that they had paid one year's subscription. OA would put this to a ballot.

Sustaining Member

CycloMedia Technology BV (40094), The Netherlands
Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Sciences (CRMS) (40095), USA
University of Calgary Department of Geomatics Engineering (40096), Canada
Siberian State Academy of Geodesy (40097), Russia

7.2. Report and actions on defaulting members

OA reported that there is a misunderstanding of the Membership Category of the Ordinary Member of Chile. It was agreed that this is Category 2.

Another issue is the many years of unpaid dues of some Ordinary Members, especially Brazil. For members which do not pay their dues, ID suggests requesting donations from Embassies or their adoption by other members.

The Ordinary Member from Lebanon (OdM 10054) wants to resign from membership of ISPRS.

7.3. Recruitment

Council observed the good development in increasing the number of Sustaining Members; however the decrease in the number of Ordinary Members in recent years is a matter of concern. OA noted that face-to-face discussion and conversation with potential members are the best ways of recruiting new members.

7.4. Honorary Membership

It was noted that a call for the Honorary Members nominations should be made ASAP.

•8. ISPRS Publications

8.1. Journal

OA outlines the report from the Editor in Chief and noted that the Journal will be able to get back onto its publication schedule by early 08 and the publication of several theme and regular issues are guaranteed by the papers waiting in the queue. Actions from the Joint Meeting;

8.2. Highlights

OA gave a presentation on the developments on the E-Highlights and the GIM Page including the technical problems in the appearance of Highlights on the Web page. It was decided to invite Durk Haarsma to the Next Council Meeting in Istanbul.

8.3. GIM Page

OA explained that the publication of the GIM page does not create any problems; however he mentioned that his proposal to publish ISPRS Page every 2 months has been rejected as the other Organizations also have one page per month. However this point and others are subjects of discussion at the CM in Istanbul. A list of responsibilities is attached as ANNEX

8.4. Book Series

OA gave a presentation on the Book Series and the printed Books. He explained that until now they had had good cooperation with the Book Series Editor and the Publisher with four Books published and several books in the queue.

The Congress Book was discussed, EB had met with Zhilin Li, who was to be Editor in Chief. The most important issue at present was to ensure that deadlines were met. ZL would be responsible for this.

8.5. Archives

There are many missing volumes in Digital Archives on the Webpage and Council urged that OA request the ISPRS event organizers to send their volumes to the Web Master ASAP so that this series can be completed

8.6. Home Page; Webmaster3

OA said that the current Webmaster (Fabio Remondino) will not be fully employed at ETH-Z from October of this year, and the future change of the Head of Department of Photogrammetry in 2009 forces ISPRS to look for another location and webmaster ASAP. The possible candidate for the location is TU-Vienna.

OA thanked our Austrian colleague for helping him convince colleagues at the TU-Vienna to host the ISPRS WebPage. It was also noted that the ownership of www.isprs.org has to be transferred from UNSW to TU Wien.

8.7. Database and Blue Book

OA explained that the database distributed at the CM is complete and updated. With the transfer of the ISPRS webpage and appointment of the new Webmaster, the data on the ISPRS WebPages will be updated. There is no need to print the new version of the Blue Book.

8.8. Annual reports

OA reminded all that the deadline for the 2007 Annual Reports is 30 November 2007 and expressed his hope to publish a complete Annual report without delay

8.9. Silver Book

The updated version of the Silver Book with new entries was distributed at the CM but the Web needs to be updated to contain the same information.

8.10. Orange Book

ID introduced proposed changes to the guidelines on holding symposia and on the recommended number of Working Groups. These were agreed by Council and appended to these minutes as ANNEX 6.

OA explained that the latest version of the Orange Book is on the Website and he will produce 20 copies for the JM after the Beijing Congress.

8.11. Green Book

Council was reminded of their requirement to revise and extend the version of the Green Book given as a digital file with the CM files.

8.12. ISPRS Prospectus

OA distributed the newly printed Prospectus resulting from the questionnaire and corrections mainly by JT and ID

8.13. ISPRS Brochure

OA noted that he will not produce a new version of the brochure.

•9. Financial Affairs

9.1. Treasurer's Report including report of the Visit to UBS and Credit Card Payments
9.1.1. Financial Status January 1 to July 30, 2007:

1. Income and Expenses (in Swiss Francs)

This report shows the total income received and expenses paid during each 12-month period (Jan 1^st to Dec 31^st ) for each year (2004, 2005, and 2006), and from 01 Jan - 30 Jul 2007 (in blue). The income in 2007 includes 85,514.15 CHF in member fees and 13,460.07 CHF from Commission 2006 mid-term symposia.

Actual
	31-Dec-04	31-Dec-05	31-Dec-06	30-Jul-07
Income	225,418.18	138,591.39	196,456.91	99,547.66
Expense	164,948.04	190,272.50	145,011.27	71,304.25
Difference	60,470.15	(51,681.11)	51,445.64	28,243.40

2. Investments (Custody Accounts)

The overall value of the custody accounts has decreased slightly since the previous reporting period (February 2007). Only Bond #278859 shows an increase in value. Two units of the Strategy Fund (#279211) were purchased using dividends earned by this account (e.g. reinvestment of dividends).

	2004		2005		2006		30-Jun-07
	Units	Value	Units	Value	Units	Value	Units	Value
#278 856 Bonds [CHF]	717	79,759	625	68,700	0	0	0	0
#359 540 Bonds [USD]	1180	218,817	1180	255,429	1210	251,999	1210	256,442
#278 859 Bonds [EUR]	1014	183,649	1050	191,266	1128	205,041	1128	208,208
#1 640 534 Corp Bonds [USD]	7200	88,421	7200	103,052	7570	104,512	7570	103,220
#279 211 Strat Fund [CHF]	408	49,262	414	52,590	170	21,624	172	21,548
Total Value is CHF		619,908		671,037		583,176		589,418

3. Net Worth (in Swiss Francs)

The value of the custody accounts is obtained from the 30 June 2007 report from UBS. The value of the cash accounts is derived from balances on 30 July 2007.

Value of Total Assets (cash accounts + custody accounts)
	2004	2005	2006	30-Jul-07
Cash acct	55,126.43	14,513.32	32,580.98	69,638.81
Custody acct	619,908.50	671,037.23	583,175.98	589,418.38
Net Worth	675,034.92	685,550.55	615,756.96	659,057.19

4. Status of Membership Payments for 2007

Since 1 January 2007 the Society has received fees from 99 members, most of which are from Sustaining Members, followed by Ordinary members. The table and chart below provide detail for payments by member type.

Paid 01 Jan - 30 Jul 07

	# Paid	Total # Members	% Paid
All OdM	38	85	45%
All StM	48	72	67%
All AsM	5	9	56%
All RgM	8	12	67%
All Members	99	178	56%

Income from member fees 1 Jan - 30 Jul 2007 (CHF)

	Annual Expected	Received as of 30 Jul 07
Member fees	130,000	85,514.15
Ordinary Members	67,100	40,581.03
Sustaining Members	58,600	43,643.31
Regional Members	1,200	756.15
Associate Members	3,100	533.65

9.1.2. Report on Visit to UBS Zurich April 4, 2007

It appears that some of our difficulties with UBS are the result of changes in international banking regulations between U.S. and Switzerland. The person we met with substituted for our assigned account manager, who was indisposed. I learned that banking regulations between the USA and Switzerland prohibit any open discussions pertaining to the Society's custody accounts. There are apparently no problems doing e-banking (receiving money or making payments), or submitting checks for deposit. Furthermore, UBS cannot help ISPRS regarding a "merchant's account" with Telekurs for credit card payments. They handle payments only within the European Union. In light of this information SM recommended further research into service providers for Member subscription payments using credit card.

9.1.3. Credit Card Payments

SM spoke with ASPRS Executive Director (Jim Plasker) about ISPRS establishing a merchant account for credit card remittance of Member subscriptions. Plasker explained that ASPRS uses PayPal as their service provider (please see file://www.paypal.com/). For information on email payments see file://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_email-payments-overview-outside. For website payments see file://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside. For a comparison of payment services from PayPal see file://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_profile-comparison.

It appears that ISPRS could use PayPal as a service provider for members to pay their subscriptions either through email or through the ISPRS website. Neither of these methods requires a merchant account.

9.2. Revision of Subscriptions

Basis:

1. Fees for membership in ISPRS have not been increased since 1997 (approved in Vienna by the GA).
2. General business costs have been rising steadily over the past 16 years and are estimated to have stripped 30-40 percent of the 1997 purchasing power.
3. Council costs have risen most notably in travel, administrative expenses, and Society promotion.
4. Administrative expenses and promotion have risen as ISPRS has matured among its kindred societies in ICSU, and as opportunities for participation in UN, GEO, and other regional activities increase.
5. Membership fees represent the largest source of revenues, followed by royalties and Mid-term symposia (once every Congress period) is the largest.
6. Membership since 2000 has fallen among Ordinary Members and remained more or less static among other types of membership. Between 66 and 75 percent of members in any given year pay their fees. Some members have already been expelled and others may be expelled in Beijing in 2008.

Mitigations:

1. In 2000, Council inaugurated contractual agreements with TCPs for Mid-term symposia and Congress Directors for revenue-sharing to offset rising costs for Society administration. For the 2008 Congress the ISPRS will receive a payment of 10 % on all paid registration fees and 2% on gross income from Commercial Exhibits. For 2006 fees received from Technical Commission were expected to remit 10 % on all paid registration fees at their respective Symposium. Circumstances did not permit this in all cases. Actual agreed-upon percentages varied among the Commissions.

Revenues generated by these agreements are as follows:

2000 Congress	2002 Symposia	2004 Congress	2006 Symposia	2008 Congress
-0- CHF	42,337 CHF	66,719 CHF	39,516 CHF	TBD

2. In 2006 and 2007 ISPRS Foundation has been an important contributor to regional ISPRS Summer Schools. This has allowed Society to allocate its scarce discretionary funds for Science Initiatives, but not to a level that would fund all of the worthy requests.

DRAFT Proposal for GA:

To offset rising costs, Council requests approval for a fifteen percent (15%) across the board increase in all membership types and categories. The attached schedule shows the impact of this increase by membership type and category, as well as the maximum new revenue that would be generated if all current members actually renewed their subscriptions in 2009.

Justification:

1. Finances are level in context of income vs. expenses. There is little protection against uncertainties from year to year; little room for flexibility in worst-case scenarios; and there is no margin for growth.
2. Investments (Custody Accounts) have been flat or declining in value
3. New services to members are not possible (e.g. member awards program; participation in science initiatives; participation in national and regional meetings; etc.).

9.3. Merchandising

On August 18, Mr. Fan and SM traveled to Hong Qiao Market to gather ideas for items that might be merchandized at the XXI Congress. It was agreed that such items should be small, light weight, relatively inexpensive to retail, and manageable in terms of warehousing and financial outlay. Some of the candidate items considered were: silk neckties; Polo Shirts w/ ISPRS logo; Costa Bags for accompanying persons; adjustable size baseball hats w/ ISPRS logo for touring; fans w variety of designs (possibly w/ ISPRS logo); small bronze "pots" w/ appropriate inscription; short Chinese scrolls with inscribed Chinese/English names and ISPRS logo (or Beijing Congress logo); Commemorative stamps; coffee/tea mugs with ISPRS logo.

As a new venture for the Congress and ISPRS, we have no experience as to quantities or prices. It was agreed that small inventories of a few popular items might be best to start, and to add as experience grows. Clothing items requiring a variety of sizes for men and women might result in large inventories with declining value.

No start-up investment was discussed in Council.

Mr. Fan and SM also discussed the prospect for warehousing product inventories in China during the 2008-2012 Congress Period, and shipping appropriate quantities for sale at 2010 and 2012 ISPRS events. During the Congress Period the inventories would be fluctuating as per sales and costs of shipping.

9.4. Science Initiatives and Travel Grants

There were 2 requests under the Science Initiatives as well as the need for the organization of the Summer School before the Congress. ID also proposed that ISPRS should support the AARSE Conference in Accra, Ghana in 2008.

Council decided to support the Summer School with a maximum grant of CHF8.000, provided a more complete budget is presented.

Council discussed other proposals and decided to support;

Bharat Lohani's Proposal from Kanpur, India on the Shortcourse on "Laser mapping: Fundamentals and Data Processing" and with an amount of 3.500SFR;
Gerd König's proposal from Berlin, Germany on "Starting a project /Analysis of E-Learning Software and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and GIS" with an amount of 3.000SFR provided a detailed revised proposal,
To support a 2-day LIDAR school during the SELPER Meeting with an amount of 3.000SFR
To support the AARSE Conference in 2008 with an amount of 3.000SFR

Council noted that at the moment there are no funds allocated by the Congress Committee for the Young Authors' Awards and requested the LOC to seek funds for the Best Paper and Best Poster Awards at the Youth Sessions.

•10. Awards

Nominations for ISPRS Awards will be received by the President or Secretary General for most Awards by 1 January 2008, but for the Brock Award nominations must be submitted by 1 October 2006. The tasks required by the President regarding selections of the jury are included in the Awards timetable.

•11. Foundation

A report on the Foundation was presented by 1VP and Lawrence Fritz as follows:

The Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees was attempted to be held electronically, but decisions were achieved by e-mail correspondence
The Marketing and Promotions Plan has been revised since it was presented to the Council in March 07 and presented to the Board for approval.
The maintenance of The Foundation Web site has now been transferred to Markus Englich at the University of Stuttgart, who has been provided with access to the ETH server to carry out these tasks.
Grants were provided by the Foundation to nine individuals to attend the radar workshop in Costa Rica.
Grants totaling €5000 funded by the Trust Fund Amsterdam 2000, will be available to individuals from Africa to attend Africa GIS in Burkina Faso from 15-21 September 2007 (including GEO workshop ‘The user and GEOSS Architecture - Water and Health' on 15-16 September),

The actions for fund raising at the Congress as detailed in the Marketing and Promotions Plan were discussed. These included a raffle of items donated by the exhibitors, a tick-off box on the registration form, and an ISPRS Founda4tion booth. The details were to be determined following discussions with Chen Jun and Baowu Sun (LOC).

Council agreed that it would spend the maximum permitted by the Annual Amount to assist participants from developing countries to attend the Congress. It is likely that funds will also be provided by the Amsterdam 2000 Fund. Since The LOC will also provide funds to assist participants from developing countries, it was agreed that the same jury should assess all applicants for assistance. The members of this jury will be determined in consultation with the administrators of the Amsterdam 2000 Fund.

•12. ISPRS Committees

12.1. ISAC

There was an extensive brain storming session with the ISAC Chair on the best way for it to advise the Council on ISPRS activities and perform its tasks according its ToRs as follows:

Identify and prioritize scientific and technologic (S&T) trends,
Facilitate excellence in scientific research and development and the use of proper and appropriate technology by evaluating and refining S&T Resolutions,
Collaboration with the ISPRS Council to formulate Resolutions for ISPRS General Assembly,
Reviewing proposed Working Groups Terms of Reference with Council,
Evaluating inputs recommended for changing the overall scope and direction of S&T activities in the Society and advise Council accordingly,
Suggesting collaborative S&T activities with other international societies and intergovernmental bodies.

In order to ensure better cooperation with ISAC and fulfill in the best possible way these ToRs, Council agreed the ISAC chair should be present at the Joint Meetings immediately after the Congress, the Joint Meeting at the last Symposium during the Symposium year, and in the Joint Meeting prior to the Congress.

12.2. IPAC

There is no problem with IPAC involvement and advice services to the Council, however Council expressed the wish that IPAC should be more linked with ISPRS activities.

12.3. CIPA

There was no report of CIPA for the CM; however there is the biannual CIPA Symposium in October 07. OA said that he was informed that the following CIPA Symposium will be most probably organized in Japan and the Symposium director will be Juko Takase, ISPRS Representative to CIPA Executive Board. If this is the case Council should consider nominating a new representative to CIPA Executive Board.

12.4. ICORSE

ID reported on a meeting with ICORSE held during the ISRSE in Costa Rica. In principle it was agreed that the current collaboration over ISRSE should continue with ISPRS input into the technical programme and involvement in the symposium. It was also agreed that the ISPRS expectations of ICORSE involvement in the Technical Commissions was too high and needed to be adjusted. It was agreed that the visibility of ICORSE within ISPRS should be increased by ICORSE:

Making a short annual report.
Making input to resolutions and awards procedures.
Recommending papers from ISRSE for publication in IJPRS.
co-sponsoring TCVII and VIII symposia.
Publicising relevant ISPRS activities through ISRSE mailing list.
ICORSE members taking part in a special session at ISPRS Congress.

12.5. Ad hoc Committee on Standards

Council noted the report of Hans Knoop, Representative of ISPRS to ISO/TC 211 and his wish to have a workshop before the Congress in 2008

•13. Planning of the Celebration Centenary of the Foundation of ISPRS.

OA explained the plans for the celebration of the Centenary of the Foundation of ISPRS and a new strategic plan which can be announced at the celebration.

Involvement of ISPRS Related Organisations (updated 06.09.07) in the preparation of the Centenary Celebration and a proposal for possible activities during the celebration is attached as ANNEX 2.

•14. Preparation of a Strategic Plan for the Society

ID tabled a list of persons, who can work on the preparation of the Strategic Plan. Council reviewed this plan and recommended that if for the final setup a professional help is need to invest a maximum fund of 30-35.000SFR for this plan.

•15. Report of different Meetings

15.1. GeoSibir 07

Council noted the report of JT on this meeting and decided to continue its relation with the colleagues in Novosibirsk and give support for forthcoming meetings

15.2. ISRSE

ID reported on the ISRSE in Costa Rica and noted that the meeting was well organized but outside of the plenary sessions, not well attended. The next conference will be in Italy in May 2009.

15.3. MME07

Council noted that the ISPRS meetings organized during the MME07 were not well attended and decided to send speakers only for Plenary Sessions or the Opening. Noting the importance of this region for ISPRS Activities, Council will make a decision on MME08 closer to the time as this is also the Congress Year.

15.4. Council attendance at Meetings

A list of these meetings has been discussed and attached as ANNEX 1 of these Minutes.

15.5. GEOSS Workshops

ID reported that ISPRS had been involved in organizing a workshop in Costa Rica, and would be organizing future workshops in Burkins Faso (Africa GIS 2007), Yellowknife and Kuala Lumpur (ACRS). There are also discussions about organizing a workshop in Beijing before the Congress.

15.6. EuroSDR

Nothing to report.

16. Relations with International and other Organizations
16.1. United Nations: COPUOS, CODI

It was confirmed that ISPRS booth at the COPUOS Exhibition celebrating 50 years in Space in Vienna was very successful. ISPRS posters prepared by Gerhard Kemper have been kept in UN building for further exhibitions.

ID reported that he had been asked if ISPRS would collaborate with the World Food Programme. He had replied in the affirmative and was awaiting further proposals.

16.2. ICSU and the GeoUnions; IYPE

ID reported on the Unions Meeting and a GeoUnions Meeting in Rome in May. The next ICSU Plenary will be held in Maputo, Mozambique in October 2008. There were proposals to hold scientific activities, organized by Unions prior to the plenary. It was decided that ISPRS would not participate in these.

16.3. GEO

GEO III will be held in Cape Town together with a ministerial summit. It is not proposed to have an ISPRS representative to attend, but SM is preparing a poster on health issues.

16.4. JBGIS

ID reported on the JBGIS meeting held in Moscow at the ICA conference. The joint board meeting was very constructive and approved the ISPRS initiative on the AGIRN portal. Some key points discussed were:

Risk and Disaster management committee to be disbanded but this topic to be kept on the agenda to ensure coordination (See Bengt Rysted's article in GIM this month)
each society will write a short report on how they fund capacity building activities for discussion at next meeting.
JB will support education SS in Beijing - focused topic suggested to be ‘getting students to study geomatics at university'
Agreed to support CODI award for GI innovation in Africa.
We must put ISPRS events on JB website (still to be hosted by FIG)
FIG will continue to be contact address for JB, but secretarial support should go with chair.
I will chair the Board for the next year, and the next meeting will be at our Congress in Beijing.

The Board was not enthusiastic about the proposal to hold a meeting to co-ordinate working group activities on the grounds that WG chairs should be left to develop their own programmes and information was available on other WGs on the societies' website; a meeting would be an additional expense to WG chairs and also take time which employers might not wish to give. The conclusion was that societies should write into ToRs, (as we do) that WGs should collaborate with WGs from other societies and that Council should make every effort to encourage this.

16.5. I*Y

ID reported that the IPY project led by Bea Csatho was proceeding. The IYPE launch would be held in Paris in February 2008 and ID would attend.

16.6. GIS Development (MWF, MME)

Nothing to report.

16.7. EIS Africa; Africa GIS

ID would attend Africa GIS in September and have discussions with EIS Africa.

16.8. Others: IEEE-GRSS; AARSE

ISPRS has been invited to collaborate with IGARSS in Cape Town in 2009, possibly with a session on HRSI. Armin Gruen may also be involved with a tutorial.

16.9. WBCSD

Nothing to report.

•17. Reports from Council (All)

Reports of the Council Members on their activities since the previous CM were presented.

•18. Other Business

A list of Actions from the previous period was discussed and reviewed. The action items of this meeting have been added to this list and attached as ANNEX 3 of these Minutes.

•19. Next Council Meeting

A Schedule of the next Council Meetings are attached as ANNEX 4 of these Minutes

•20. Close

As there were no other items to be discussed, ID thanked the participants for their contributions and reminded them of very urgent business matters arising from this meeting.

ID closed the meeting and once again thanked Chen Jun and Chinese Society for hosting this meeting.