The meeting starts at 14:45 h

Object of the meeting

This meeting follows the adoption by the BEMEKO members of the new statutes (enclosed in attachment) at the date of November 17, 2011.

The three members of the new Steering Committee (SC) were elected end of November, through an e-mail voting procedure,  by and among the five current members i.e.: the Scientific Metrology Service of the FPS Economy (represented by Jacques Nicolas), the Electrical Metrology Service at Laborelec (represented by Philip Vergeylen), the Mechatronics Pole at the Université catholique de Louvain (represented by Christian Eugène), the Measurement and Instrumentation Laboratory at the Université de Liège (represented by Philippe Vanderbemden) and the ELEC Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (represented by Leo Van Biesen).

These new members of the SC (elected for 3 years renewable) are Christian Eugène, Leo Van Biesen and Philippe Vanderbemden. Paul Sente, the new Secretary and Information Officer is ex-officio a fourth member but without right of vote.

Statutes

The three voting members sign 3 copies of the new statutes and everyone keeps one for himself. An additional copy is kept by the secretary.

Election of the President of the Steering Committee

After discussion, the three voting members choose Philippe Vanderbemden as the new president who accepts. His mandate is for 3 years renewable.

Election of the delegate to the IMEKO General Council

Christian Eugène, the former delegate, accepts, with thanks of all the members, to continue this mission. The mandate is also for 3 years renewable.

Rules of internal order (RIO)

It is agreed to elaborate the RIO progressively, at the pace of bringing administrative information at disposal.

Annual Report

For evident reason of simplification, it is agreed that the annual report of the SC diffused among the BEMEKO members will be written in English rather than in French + Dutch.

The present report has to be considered as the 2011 report.

Financial Situation

The current balance of the BEMEKO account will become negative after payment of the annual Belgian membership dues to IMEKO.

Several solutions are examined:

•   To appeal to the federal State for supporting the IMEKO dues (as BEMEKO is a scientific association at the Belgian level). This idea, developed by Leo Van Biesen, could not be realized until now due to the lack of federal government of full exercise. We know that, since the date of our meeting, this obstacle disappeared.
• A moderate increasing of the fees to 150 EUR, completed by the cash could solve the problem but the risk is to discourage some members.
• To count in 2012 on an enlargement of the paying members of BEMEKO  (if possible with payment before end of March to benefit from a discount of 5%, thus 45 EUR on the IMEKO dues).T

This latest situation is hoped by everyone. The strategic reflections hereafter evoke this way.

Strategic reflections

A mini brain-storming on the ways to be followed to give a new impulse to our association leads to the following ideas:

•  To enlarge the scope of the association to domains of measurement not yet represented (until now, the members were all specialized in electrical measurements). Christian Eugène will identify the federative themes which are presently emphasized inside IMEKO in order to pass them on to BEMEKO keeping that way certain synchronization between both associations.

• To encourage the creation of groups of exchange of information inside each discipline represented in BEMEKO in order to
• create links between people concerned by the same subject
• allow fast and effective exchanges of information aiming to propose scientific solutions or simply  service missions
• provoke a  natural impulse to share his competences with the other members and every person or company interested
• To try to obtain subsidies at the federal level, namely for the IMEKO dues
• To encourage the universities, the high schools and the specialized institutions to become (or to become again) member of BEMEKO (UGent, ULB, KULeuven, ERM-KMS, ECAM, ISIB, ISIL, De Nayer Institute…)
• To propose to industrial companies active in measurements and instrumentation (Agilent, National Instruments, Rhode&Schwartz, Tektronix,…) to sponsor certain activities for instance by completing by technical presentations (exhibition of material) an annual meeting with scientific presentations of our members (communication of “tenors” on topical subjects, and of young researchers on their research in progress).
• To create a website specific to BEMEKO (this capacity was formerly practically unexploited by the IBRA website, who hosted our secretariat). More details hereafter.

BEMEKO Website

In his position of information officer, Paul Sente suggests to create and to be responsible of a website specific to BEMEKO.

He emphasizes the following arguments:

• promotional argument : we give to the members the opportunity to present their activities or simply to have a link with their own web page,
• a federative argument : the names of the actual members of our association and their field of activities are clearly shown and this trends to demonstrates that the reference core for measurement activities is well represented by BEMEKO,
• a scientific argument : a rubric “actualities” will be organized both for informing the members and the visitors on the important events in the domain of measurement in Belgium and in the world and for contributing in such a way to give a visible scientific credibility to BEMEKO,
• an informative argument : the visitors can easily and fast identify the members and their competence domains.

The members of the SC applaud this initiative of Paul Sente and support him fully in this direction.

Miscellaneous

BEMEKO News

Christian Eugène is ready to continue on an irregular basis to send information useful to the BEMEKO community (mainly information on international conferences) by e-mail to a list of interested persons. This list must be actualized. Paul Sente proposes that the subscription / unsubscription to BEMEKO News will be possible via the website. A part of this news can also be duplicated on the website. These proposals are approved.

Follow up

The members encourage Leo Van Biesen in his projects of contact with the federal level and with the Flemish Universities and high schools. They hope a return of info as soon as possible.

IMEKO World Congress 2012

The next IMEKO World Congress will be held in Busan, South Korea, in September 2012.

Leo Van Biesen will attend this congress in his quality of member of the IMEKO advisory board. He nevertheless encourages our new president Philippe Vanderbemden also to participate in order for him to meet the leaders of IMEKO and its technical committees and the chairmen of foreign associations. The information is given that the deadline for the abstracts is postponed at end of December 2011.

The meeting is ended at 16:15 h