FIG General Assembly 2012

Razza and Cheng Elected as New Vice Presidents - Working Week 2015 Goes to Bulgaria and 2016 to New Zealand

Rome, Italy, 6 and 10 May 2012

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FIG General Assembly listening the FIG fanfare at the first session of the General Assembly in Rome.

FIG General Assembly 2012 was held during the Working Week in Rome, Italy. In total 71 different member associations were present at the two sessions of the General Assembly and in total 350 delegates attended the General Assembly sessions. The first session was attended by 66 member associations and 65 the second session out of which 58 were allowed to vote. The participants represented all membership categories as well as observers.

The main item on this year’s agenda was the election of two Vice Presidents for 2013-2016 and election or appointment of Commission Chairs Elect for 2013-2014 who under normal conditions will become Commission chairs for 2015-2018.

The General Assembly elected Geom. Bruno Razza from CNGeGL from Italy as Vice President of FIG for period 1.1.2013.31.12.2016 at the first election. He got 33 votes when Mr. Yaacoub Saade from OSL, Lebanon got 14 votes and Dr. Pengfei Cheng from CSGPC, China PR got 10 votes )one invalid vote). In the second round Dr. Cheng got 30 votes and Mr. Saade 27 votes (one invalid vote) so Dr. Cheng was elected as the second new Vice President of FIG. Mr. Razza and Dr. Cheng will replace Dr. Dalal S. Alnaggar (ECSM, Egypt) and Mr. Iain Greenway (RICS, United Kingdom) in the Council.

At the ACCO Meeting 5 May Commission Chairs appointed Dr. Yerach Doytsher as the Commission representative to the Council for 2013-2014. He will replace Dr. Michael Sutherland who is the current ACCO representative.

The General Assembly appointed following Commission Chairs elect for period 1.1.2013-31.12.2014: Ms. Liza Groenendijk (GIN, Netherlands, Comm. 2); Geom. Enrico Rispoli (CNGeGL, Italy, Comm. 3); Ms. Angela Kesiena Etuonovbe (NIS, Nigeria, Comm. 4); Prof. Volker Schwieger (DVW, Germany, Comm. 5); Dr. Ivo Milev (USLMB, Bulgaria, Comm. 6) and Prof. Liao Jinping (Patrick) (CIREA, China PR, Comm. 9). In the elections Mr. Brian J. Coutts (NZIS, New Zealand) was elected as Chair Elect in Commission 1 after getting 49 votes (Dr. Ping Xiao (CSGPC, China PR) got 9 votes); Ms. Gerda Schennach (OVG, Austria) to Commission 7 after getting 21 votes in the first round and 27 votes in the second round (Dr. Daniel Steudler (geosuisse, Switzerland) got 25 votes both in the first and second round while Ms. Claire Galpin (OGE, France) got 12 votes in the first round, in addition on the second round there were 6 invalid votes); and Mr. Kwame Tenadu (GhIS, Ghana) was elected as Chair Elect in Commission 8 after getting 40 votes while Mr. Raymond Chan (HKIS, Hong Kong SAR, China) got 18 votes. Under normal circumstances these newly appointed / elected Commission Chairs Elect will be elected as Commission chairs for 2015-2018.

In the selection of venues for FIG Working Weeks 2015 and 2015 Sofia, Bulgaria was selected as the host of FIG Working Week 2015 after getting majority of votes (34 votes) already in the first round (Kathmandu, Nepal and Bucharest, Romania both got 10 votes). In selection of the venue for FIG Working Week 2016 Christchurch, New Zealand was successful after getting 43 votes against Bucharest, Romania that got 11 votes.

Under the issue of future voting rights the Working Group established by the General Assembly in Marrakech in 2011 presented its proposal to the Council after having a discussion at a Presidents' meeting in Rome. The proposal included following recommendations to the Council:
1) the voting system be changed;
2) that the right to vote remains with members associations;
3) that a sliding scale of voting, relative to association’s membership numbers, be adopted;
4) that Council prepare a proposal (and after consultation with the members) to be adopted no later than at the 1st session and to be used at the 2nd session of the General Assembly at Kuala Lumpur in 2014.
These recommendations were adopted unanimously by the General Assembly. The Working Group worked under chairmanship of Brian Coutts (NZIS, New Zealand) and deputy chair Henning Elmstroem (DdL, Denmark).

At this General Assembly, FIG appointed immediate past Vice President Mr. Matthew B. Higgins as an Honorary Member of the Federation.

The General Assembly admitted two new member associations to join the Federation: The China Land Science Society (CLSS) became the third member association from China P. R. and the NP Cadastral Engineers that became the second member association from Russian Federation. The number of member association is now 105 representing 87 countries after member associations from Botswana and Niger were expelled and the membership of Association des Geométrès et Toeograehes du Burkina from Burkina Faso was restored.

The General Assembly further endorsed the membership of two new corporate members: Meridian+ from Russia and KQ Gee Technologies Co from China P. R. The number of corporate members is now 25.

The General Assembly further accepted 7 new academic members: Makerere University, Geomatics and Land Management Department (Uganda); UNIGIS International Association; Abia State Polytechnic, Surveying and Geoinformatics Dept (Nigeria); Kazakh National Technical University after K. I.Satpaev (Kazakhstan); Lebanese Canadian University, Faculty of Science and Art (Lebanon); Hogere Zeevaartschool, Institute for Hydrography (Belgium); Universidad de Jaen, Programa en Catastros. Valoraciones lmmobiliarias y Urbanismo (Spain); and The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (China P. R.). The number of academic members is now 90.

The General Assembly endorsed a new FIG publication: Spatially Enabled Society. This publication no. 58 is a joint publication of FIG-Task Force on Spatially Enabled Society in cooperation with GSDI Association and with the support of Working Group 3 of the PCGIAP.

The General Assembly further decided on the membership fees for 2014 to be the same as in 2013 so 4.48 EUR per member up to 5,500 members. The surplus from 2011 was 80,020 EUR.

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18 May 2012