Of the Seventeenth Session of the HMEI General Assembly (GA-17)

HMEI GA-17, 2015, THE MINUTES, p. 2

The Minutes

of the seventeenth session of the HMEI General Assembly (GA-17)

Tuesday, 2 June 2015

Geneva, Switzerland

1. Opening by the Chairman of HMEI Council

1.1 The seventeenth session of the HMEI General Assembly (GA-17) was opened by the HMEI Council Chairman, Mr Brian Day at 14:30 p.m. on 9 July 2014 at the at the Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG), Salle 4. He welcomed all participants and guests commenting on the number of distinguished guests at the podium reflecting the importance that WMO places on the manufacturers and service providers to hydro-meteorological community. He then introduced Mr David Grimes, President, World Meteorological Organization. Before giving the floor to the representative of the WMO he wished all HMEI members and guests attending GA-17 every success at MeteoHydex 2015.

2. Welcome addresses by senior WMO officials

2.1 Mr Grimes began his address by reflecting on how the relationship between HMEI and WMO has matured since 2002 and how pleased he is that the HMEI GA-17 coincides with the Seventeenth Session of the WMO Congress (Cg-17) allowing for a healthy exchange of experiences.

A full copy of Mr Grimes’ speech is attached to the Minutes as Annex I.

2.2 Mr Day thanked Mr Grimes for his intervention and then invited Mr Jeremiah Lengoasa, Deputy Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization to speak to the meeting. Mr Lengoasa addressed the meeting on behalf of the Secretary-General of WMO. Mr Lengoasa began his address by encouraging all non-members of HMEI to join the Association and noted that the weather community is expanding to reach beyond instruments to other weather enterprises such as governments, universities, broadcasters and the private sector.

A full copy of Mr Lengoasa’s address is attached to the Minutes as Annex II.

2.3 Mr Day thanked Mr Lengoasa for his comprehensive intervention and then invited Professor Bertrand Calpini, President of the WMO Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation (CIMO), to speak to the meeting. Prof Calpini thanked HMEI for the invitation to address the meeting and extended his own invitation to HMEI members to exhibit in the next CIMO TECO/Meteorex Exhibition in Madrid in September 2016. He then went on to introduce OSCAR (Observing Systems Capability and Analysis Review) project to the meeting stating that some countries intend to use the OSCAR tool to govern their national networks.

A copy of Professor Calpini’s presentation is attached to the Minutes as Annex III.

2.4 Mr Day thanked Prof Calpini for his presentation and invited Mr Frederick Branski, President of the WMO Commission for Basic Systems to speak to the meeting. Mr Branski also thanked the Association for the invitation to address the meeting. He went on to thank the members of HMEI that have been involved in a number of the CBS working bodies and to remind HMEI members of their open policy for representatives to join their working groups.

A copy of Mr Branski’s presentation is attached to the Minutes as Annex IV.

2.5 Mr Day thanked Mr Branski for his intervention and invited Mr David Rogers representing the World Bank and the Global Framework of Disaster Risk Reduction (GFDRR) to address the meeting.

A copy of Mr Rogers’ intervention (Document HMEI GA-17/INF. 8) is attached to the Minutes as Annex V.

The list of participants and guests of the GA-17 session is reproduced at the end of this report.

3. Acceptance of previous General Assembly minutes

3.1 The session was advised that the minutes of the Extraordinary session of HMEI General Assembly (GA-Ext. 2014, Brussels, Belgium, 22 October 2014) was circulated among members and amended by the Secretariat in the light of comments received on its first draft. Taking into account that there were no additional comments received prior and during this session, the GA-17 approved the minutes of GA-Ext. 2014 and authorized the HMEI Council Chair to ratify the document. It also requested the Secretariat to publish the Minutes on the HMEI Website.

4. Chairman’s report

4.1 Mr Day again thanked the WMO senior officials for their valuable input into GA-17 and its deliberations. He also wished everyone a successful MeteoHydex 2015 Exhibition and WMO Congress-17. He noted the achievements over the past four years of his Chairmanship and outlined some of the future challenges for the Association. Mr Day also thanked the Membership of HMEI for their support in living the Association’s Core Purpose, “One Globe, One Industry, One Voice” and encouraged members to speak to the HMEI Executive concerning their ideas/thoughts related to the next directions for the Association.

A copy of the Chairman’s Report is attached to the Minutes as Annex VI.

5. HMEI Council Advisory Panel (CAP) Activities Report

5.1 The Vice-Chair seconded the Chair’s thanks to the valuable input the senior WMO officials have to GA-17 and to the Association in general. He noted that there would be a voting for the vacant position on the HMEI Council and encouraged the members present to vote, if they had not already done so. He reminded the meeting that the Council Advisory Panel (CAP) was formed in January 2014 following the election of Councillors to specific responsibilities within HMEI. It was noted that CAP comprises 8 Council members with the following remits:

· CAP Chair: Andy McDonald (Vaisala)

· Membership & Recruitment: Bryce Ford (Spectra Sensors)

· CIMO Guide: Randolph Ware (Radiometrics)

· Tender Specifications and Training Actvities: Gerhard Pevny (Logotronics)

· Exhibitions Oversight: Zhang Wei (China Huayun Meteorological Technology Corp.)

· Website Development: Ashish Raval (Sutron)

· Budget and OPEX Oversight: Foeke Kuik (Kipp&Zonen)

· WMO Expert Teams Oversight: Vacant

CAP meets once per month and welcomes the inclusion of discussion items from members. These should be sent via email to the Executive Administrator, Robyn Thomas ().

Mr McDonald then reported to the meeting the activities of CAP since the last report at GA-16 in July 2014.

A copy of the CAP Activities Report is attached to the Minutes as Annex VII.

6. Executive Secretary’s report

The session noted that that Executive Secretary’s report was posted on the HMEI website prior to the GA-17 as HMEI GA-17/Doc.6. The report covered activities since the last HMEI General Assembly meeting (GA-Ext. 2014, Brussels, Belgium).

HMEI Secretariat follow up activities

6.1 The session noted that the Minutes of GA-Ext session (Brussels, Belgium, 22 October 2014) drafted by the Secretariat were distributed amongst Members for review. The Minutes, amended in the light of comments received, are submitted to the current General Assembly session for approval (see HMEI GA-17/Doc.2). The Secretariat provided every support to follow up HMEI GA and Council resolutions and recommendations.

6.2 The Secretariat continued to carry out its routine duties including answering the general correspondence, issuing invoices and receipts of membership subscriptions and maintaining the accounts of the Association. Over 40 Circular (CM) and Information (INF) messages were e-mailed during the reporting period. The HMEI Newsletter was prepared on a quarterly basis and posted on the HMEI Website. The Membership database continued to be maintained and updated as required.

6.3 The Secretariat participated in the work of a newly established HMEI Council Executive Panel (CEP) and HMEI Council Advisory Panel, which have been supported on a regular basis through holding Skype conferences. The agenda for each session was coordinated and the minutes of sessions drafted by the Secretariat. Over 15 conferences were held at the time of writing this document. The outcomes of these conferences addressed major aspects of HMEI on-going activities and initiatives.

6.4 Following recommendations and guidance given by GA and the Council, the Secretariat took certain actions to improve information services for Members. These included TendersInfo and other tender related services, the work on the implementation of Website Credit card payment and introduction of Google Analytics. Since the introduction of TendersInfo services over 900 notices have been sent to HMEI members. The maintenance of the HMEI Website continues to be one of the priority activities. All technical issues have been coordinated and resolved through the support provided by the HMEI website developers and Mr Ashish Raval, the HMEI Council Focal Point for Website development.

6.5 Budget 2014/2015 implementation during the reporting period is being accomplished in accordance with the guidance and recommendations given by GA-16 and Council-21. The financial performance of the Association is reported monthly by the Secretariat to the CAP meetings and is audited on an annual basis. It should be noted that much effort and time is spent by the Secretariat every year chasing members who are tardy in paying their membership contributions. It is expected that this activity will be facilitated with the introduction of the credit card facility for payments through HMEI Website.

6.6 The Secretariat carried out all preparatory work for voting through correspondence on the matters raised by the CAP and provided organizational support for nominations and election campaigns for positions of HMEI Chair and Councillor.

Membership drive initiatives

6.7 As recommended by HMEI GA and Council the opportunities provided by Meteorex 2014 in St. Petersburg, World Expo 2014 in Brussels and AMS 95 in Phoenix were intensively used by the Secretariat to promote among the participants the role of HMEI and its membership. These activities were coordinated by HMEI Chair and Mr Bryce Ford, the HMEI Council Focal Point for the Membership and Recruitment. In October 2014 HMEI booklet “Information and Member Benefits” was published to further advance the HMEI membership and recruitment. HMEI posters and other promotional material prepared by the Secretariat were also used during talks and briefings. During the reporting period the following companies became HMEI members:

· Aviation Meteorological Systems, Joint Stock Company (Russian Federation)

· Beijing ChangFeng Micro-Electronics Technology Co., Ltd (China)

· Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement (China)

· Data Quality Systems (Faroe Islands)

· FT Technologies, Ltd (United Kingdom)

· Glarun Technology (China)

· Harris Corporation (USA)

· NESA SRL (Italy)

· Shwe Chan Thar Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd (Myanmar)

· The Weather Company (USA)

· Partonegar (Iran)

· Plair SA (Switzerland)

It should be noted that seven of the above new members first enquired about joining HMEI via our website.

6.8 Unfortunately the following members, for a variety of reasons, decided not to renew their HMEI memberships in 2015:

· Belfort Instrument Company (USA)

· Federal State Budgetary Institution Research and Production Association ‘Typhoon’ (Russian Federation)

· High Sierra Electronics, Inc (USA)

· MeteoExpert Oy (Finland)

· Trimble (USA)

Membership fee issues

6.9 In accordance with HMEI Rules and Procedures, the Secretariat issued the 2015 membership contribution invoices at the end of November 2014 with a due date of 1 January 2015. Unfortunately as it was in the previous year, two reminder notices have been sent and efforts are continuing to encourage payment. It should be underlined that at the time of writing this document there are still 23 unpaid members (as compared with 26 at the same time last year), of which three (Guangzhou Double One Meteorological Equipment Co., Ltd, Jinyang Industrial Company Ltd and MeteoAlb Shpk) owe two years contributions. In particular, as at 5 May 2015 the unpaid members are:

· Airmar Technology Corporation (USA)

· Attex, Ltd (Russian Federation)

· Climatronics Corporation (USA) – have indicated their intention to pay

· Data Quality Systems pf (Faroe Islands)

· DeTect, Inc (USA) – have indicated their intention to pay

· Eigenbrodt GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)

· Essel Shyam Technologies Limited (India)

· General Aviation Applications ‘3D’ SA (Greece)

· Glarun Technology Co, Ltd (China) – have indicated their intention to pay

· Hydrological Services Pty Ltd (Australia)

· Komoline Aerospace Limited (India)

· Leosphere (France)

· Meteolabor (Switzerland)

· Nippon Electric Instrument, Inc (Japan)

· Seaspace Corporation (USA)

· Shwe Chan Thar Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd (Myanmar)

· SITA (Switzerland) – have indicated their intention to pay

· Techsense Green Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)

· Toshiba Corporation (Japan) – have indicated their intention to pay

The following members have not responded to any attempts at communication by the Secretariat. Therefore, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, Article 18 their memberships were terminated due to non-payment in 2014 and 2015:

· Guangzhou Double One Meteorological Equipment Co., Ltd (China)

· Jinyang Industrial Company Ltd (Republic of Korea)

· MeteoAlb Shpk (Albania)

6.10 The meeting noted that in view of the above it should be drawn again to the attention of HMEI members that the prompt payment of the annual contribution is one of the major responsibilities of membership of the Association (Rules of Procedure, Article 22).

Collaboration with WMO

6.11 During the reporting period the Secretariat coordinated the nomination of HMEI representatives to participate in the work of the following WMO Constituent body meetings: CAeM-15 (Montreal, Canada, 15–16 July 2014), CBS-Ext.2014
(Asunción, Paraguay, 8–12 September 2014), RA III-16 (Asuncion, 15-20 September 2014), RA I-16 (Praia, Cabo Verde, 3–9 February 2015) and WMO Congress (Geneva, 25 May- 12 June 2015). Following the WMO notifications for the above sessions, HMEI members were invited to participate and contribute to these events through HMEI Circular Messages (CM). The Secretariat also coordinated with WMO and the local organizers the relevant preparatory activities for these sessions. It should be noted that the current HMEI GA-17 session was planned and coordinated with WMO as a side event of Cg-17.

6.12 The Secretariat provided organizational support in arranging Industry exhibitions during WMO RA III-16 (September 2014) and RA I-16 (February, 2015) where over 20 member companies successfully participated.

6.13 The meeting noted that the Secretariat coordinated the nomination of HMEI representatives to participate in the work of various WMO Expert Teams. At present, over 40 HMEI experts are serving as associate members at the WMO’s CIMO, CBS and CHy Expert and Task teams. Also, HMEI representatives continued to participate in the activities of EMS and GCOS. The reports by HMEI Representatives attending WMO and other meetings are published by the Secretariat on the HMEI website and in the quarterly newsletter.

6.14 The Secretariat coordinated follow up activities based on the deliberations of WMO-HMEI High Level Consultative meeting (HLCM-2, Geneva, 18 June 2014). These were focused on the coordination of arrangements to convene Conferences and Exhibitions and the implementation of the Joint Tender Specifications project. Following consultations held with WMO Higher Management it was agreed to hold HLCM-3 during EC-68 in 2016 because of a very tight agenda for WMO Cg-17 and EC-67.