Work Plan 2015-2018
Original work plan in .pdf-format
Terms of Reference
- Professional practice, legal aspects and organisational structures;
- Codes of ethics and applications;
- Changes to society and ways of working and the corresponding impacts
on professional practice;
- Community perceptions and understanding about the surveying
profession;
- Participation in FIG Standards Network.
Mission Statement
The mission of Commission 1 is to:
- build the capacity of professionals to adapt to changing
circumstances. Changes are affecting the operation of surveying
practices, their management and their professional structures under the
challenges of widening professional activities and a changing world;
- create a community of practice to share knowledge about professional
standards and practice challenges and responses by surveying
professions; build links to regional and world structures for surveying
professionals that focus on issues around professional standards and
practice;
- support professional surveyors by providing tools and approaches to
dealing with common practice issues;
- develop individuals as professional surveyors and provide
opportunities for them to continue to develop as part of the surveying
community.
General
Commission 1 will continue the work begun in the previous quadrennial
period as well as exploring new issues. In particular, it will
continue the work on international boundaries and take up the issue of the
standardisation of ethical standards in the international context. The
Commission will further raise the question of gender issues in surveying and
investigate whether there is a need and/or demand for a Women in Surveying
Network, along similar lines to the Young Surveyors Network. If it is
proved to be so, then similarly, a new Network may be a “spin off” from the
Commission.
In order to ensure a sustained and appropriate balance in the attendance
Working Weeks and Congresses at and contributions to the work of the
International Federation, a forum will be established where professional
surveyors in private practice can discuss matters particular to their roles
in the societies to which they provide their professional services.
With the increasing mobility of professional practitioners and the
continuing growth of the globalised community, a forum also will be
established in which discussion can take place with respect to the mutual
recognition of professional qualifications among the international surveying
community. This issue has been a topic previously, but the demands of
a changing society suggests that it should be a topic of ongoing discussion.
The Commission will liaise with the Standards Network and the Young
Surveyors Network as required in order to continue the work of those groups.
Working groups
Working Group 1.1 - International Ethics Standards
Policy issues
- To review the current FIG Ethical standards in the light of FIG being a
member of the worldwide coalition being formed to develop International
Standards in Ethics;
- To review the definitions of ethics in land, property and construction;
- To study ethics within the surveying profession and prepare
proposals how to respond to the competition to market the profession as ethical for
current & future generations;
- Surveying professionals practice in a variety of work environments
increasingly internationally and are required to respond to constant
changes ethically in how they deliver services. This creates challenges
to them in how they practice and challenges on how to adapt to change.
Identifying and sharing;
- new ethical ways of working from around the world will provide
practical examples of ways others have successfully adapted and will
build a set of case studies of change.
Chair:
Gary Strong (UK)
Specific project(s)
- To consider the current and future role of ethics in surveying;
- To review and revise the definition of ethics produced by FIG which
will underpin and link to the International Standards being developed;
- Prepare proposals how to respond to the competition to market the
profession as ethical for current & future generations;
- Participation on behalf of FIG as a Coalition member developing
International Ethics Standards.
Workshop(s)
- Participation in FIG Working Weeks and other major FIG events with dedicated
technical sessions and/or workshops as appropriate.
Publication(s)
- International Ethics Standards by coalition – FIG accredited;
- Revised FIG Ethics.
Timetable
- Final report at the FIG Working Week Sofia, Bulgaria 2016/17;
- Publication of International Ethics Standards 2016/17;
- Revised FIG Ethics 2018.
Working Group 1.2 - Women in Surveying
Background
The WG plan for 2015 – 2018 is to continue the work of the Working group
- Under represented groups in Surveying with a focus on gender issues. The
proposal is to setup an international network of women in surveying to
further investigate the issues and promote the participation of women in the
surveying industry. Using the power of social networking
and Internet communications the WG will endeavour to analyse the status of
women in the surveying workforce across the FIG community. In
Australia the SSSI Women in Spatial (WIS) group was created some years ago
in an effort to raise the numbers of women in the spatial industry. This
number was extremely low and remains low. Statistics have been gathered over
the years to monitor the number of women in the Surveying and spatial
industry in Australia and New Zealand. As we have heard during recent FIG
working weeks presentations and workshops, the situation is similar across
the international FIG community. The WG plans to apply the experiences
gathered in the Australia and New Zealand studies to the international
surveying community.
Co-Chairs:
Robyn McCutcheon and Winnie Shiu
Policy issues
To reference the previous work focusing on women in surveying by the FIG
underrepresented groups in surveying.
- To build an international group focusing on women’s involvement in
Surveying;
- To use social networking to build the WG and create effective
communications amongst the group;
- To gather statistics on an international scale to illustrate women’s
involvement in surveying.
Outputs
- To publish
and present annual reports on the activities and findings of the WG during
each FIG WW.
Working Group 1.3 - International Boundary Settlement and Demarcation
Background
Working Group 1.3 will continue the work of Working Group 1.4 in the
2011-14 Work Plan, led by Haim Srebo and Bill Robertson, which led to the
comprehensive FIG Publication 59: "International Boundary Making".
Policy issues
- To deal
with theoretical, methodological, legal aspects and analysis of practical
cases in international and national boundaries;
- To investigate and report on the long-term definition, demarcation,
maintenance, recovery & stability of international land and maritime
boundaries;
- To liaise with FIG Commissions 4, 5 and 7 on matters of common
interest.
Chair:
Don Grant
Activity
Workshop in a dedicated technical session at the 2016 FIG Working Week in
Christchurch, New Zealand.
Publication
An FIG publication on the long-term definition, demarcation, maintenance,
recovery & stability of international land and maritime boundaries.
Timetable
Final report at the FIG Congress 2018
Working Group 1.4 - Forum on Engagement of Private Practitioners
Policy Issues
Anecdotally there appears to be a decreasing number of private
practitioners engaging with FIG. The emergence of large user group
conferences (ESRI, Hexagon, Trimble, etc.) may affect attendance at FIG
Working Weeks and Congresses, by private practitioners in particular, which
in turn may make FIG less attractive to sponsors and exhibitors. FIG
needs to attract a broad spectrum of professional surveyors as well as
exhibitors and sponsors to be sustainable into the future.
Commission 1, being the Professional Standards and Practice commission,
will address the needs of the private practitioner – what are the hot
issues, what do they want from FIG, what is missing in FIG from a private
practice point of view?
Convenor:
Malcolm McCoy
Actions
- To test the
hypothesis by collecting data on conference delegates - government,
academic, private;
- To monitor numbers and percentage numbers over a number of
conferences / working weeks – to ascertain if the private sector is
under-represented in first world counties rather than emerging nations;
- To promote an active FIG private sector program attractive to
practitioners;
- To review the mission of Commission 1 to ensure it is relevant to
professional surveyors – particularly in the private sector.
Goals
- To increase
private sector involvement and make FIG an important part of professional
surveyors life
- To constantly monitor Commission’s Mission Statement and keep up to
date and relevant in an ever changing world.
Working Group 1.5 - Forum on Mutual Recognition
Policy Issues
A Task Force on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications was
hosted by the FIG from 1998 – 2002 and resulted in FIG Publication No. 27
Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications. Since then there has been
little formal reflection on the progress made, in light of the European
Community and other agreements, and there are further developments to be
reviewed and supported, such as the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Framework
Agreement on Surveying Services. Many barriers to the mutual recognition of
surveying professionals remain, and new barriers are emerging.
This WG has the particular aim to review and revise the existing FIG
Publication. Additional activities will include a review of the existing
mutual recognition frameworks and agreements in place and the updating and
promotion of the FIG Mutual Recognition webpage.
Convenor:
Kate Fairlie
Actions
- Workshop to coincide with the 2016 Working Week in Christchurch, New Zealand
- Update to FIG Mutual Recognition webpage
Publication
The former FIG Task Force on Mutual Recognition of Professional
Qualifications published FIG Publication No. 27 Mutual Recognition of
Professional Qualifications in 2002. This Working Group will look to revise
and update this publication for 2018 with particular reference to new
developments, new needs and current barriers to implementation.
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