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SIM Council Meeting
DRAFT MINUTES
COUNCIL MEMBERS
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues SIM President, ABBS Taynah Souza On behalf of SIM Secretariat, INMETRO OBSERVERS William Anderson QSTF Chair, NIST
DRAFT AGENDA
1. Introduction and Welcome/Introducción y Bienvenida
Meeting:
1. Introduction and Welcome
2. Verification of Quorum
3. Approval of Agenda
4. Approval of the Minutes from previous Council Meeting
5. Matters arising from the General Assembly
CR 01/05: Following CR 06/04, the appointments for TC and PDC Chairpersons shall be done one year in advance to the end of the term.
Luis Mussio then asked to review CR 07/03 which states that the representation of SIM to the JCRB will be held by the Quality System Task Force Chairman. For him it was not clear whether the representation of SIM to the JCRB should be made by the QSTF Chairman or by him. The Council discussed the question and it was then decided to change the text for this resolution.
CR 02/05 (supersedes CR07/03): The representative of SIM to the JCRB will be Luis Mussio. William Anderson called attention for the fact that the representative to the QSTF should also be part of the delegation to the JCRB. The following resolution was proposed and approved by the Council:
CR 03/05: The TC Chair and the QSTF Chair shall be part of the SIM delegation to the JCRB meetings.
Luis Mussio then proposed the revision of CR 07/02, about the QSTF. This revision concerns the appointment of the QSTF Chairperson, which has already been appointed by the Council as the JCRB representative. The following resolution was then proposed in order to supersede the previous one:
CR 04/05 (supersedes CR07/02): a task force will be set up to review QS implementations in SIM members for the purpose of the CIPM MRA, which will be formed by CIPM-MRA signatories. The chairperson of the QSTF will be appointed by the Council.
6. Report on 2004 Budget
Yoshito Mitani also talked about the Internet training that had been subscribed to a fee of US$ 10,000.00 per year. He said he had received only a few responses and Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues suggested we sent a formal letter informing about this program and inviting SIM Members to participate in it, in order to avoid the wasting of such investment.
Yoshito Mitani also called attention to the event that occurred in Rio de Janeiro, in INMETRO, which was really successful and could be used as an example for next events. The Council decided to approve the draft report presented by the PDC Chair, who will send the corrected version to SIM Council members.
Luis Mussio then talked about the funds managed by LATU, explaining that the resources that were left would be spent in the events held in Barbados and a seminar to be held in Bolivia next week, about Length. He also mentioned that he paid for tickets, per diem and hotel of some participants to Barbados events or else he would not have other ways to spend the money and would have to return the money to the OAS. He emphasized that next year we should be more careful not to let too many activities to the end of the year. Luis Mussio will prepare his report and send to the Council by the end of February.
7. Definition of SIM activities with the 2005 OAS Project
CR 05/05: The regional coordinators should follow up with members on the submission of their support letters to the Metrology Project and report to the Council of the results.
8. Report from SIM Representative to JCRB
9. 2005 SIM Calendar
NCSLI (August) - SIM President will make a quick presentation about SIM and Willie May will present SIM Chemical Project. Sully Milesi, from Paraguay, and Jose Dajes, from Peru, will be SIM participants on the booth. The Council discussed the feasibility of distributing some souvenirs to among participants, as for example: pen drive, internet connector, t-shirts, calendars.
BIPM (March) - invited SIM to participate in their meeting in Paris, but the participation will not be funded. Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues read the invitation letter, which mentioned the main topics of their meeting. She suggested that SIM representative to this meeting should be someone involved with QSTF discussions or JCRB. William Anderson suggested sending someone from NIST or NRC. They will check this feasibility and meanwhile Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues will respond to BIPM informing that two SIM representatives will participate in it.
CCQM (April) - SIM representatives: Willie May, Jim McLaren and Yoshito Mitani. JCRB (May) - SIM representatives: Steve Carpenter, Luis Mussio and William Anderson.
EUROMET (May) - SIM representatives: Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues and some other representative which will be appointed in due time.
APMP (September) - SIM representative: Steve Carpenter.
10. SIM Brochure/SIM Directory
About SIM Directory, Luis Mussio explained that we have been having problems with contacting SIM Members. The Council suggested that we could have an option of registration form through the Internet web page, what could facilitate the contact updating.
11. DWG/QSWG Chair
CR06/05: To appoint Jose Dajes, from INDECOPI, Peru, as chairman of the Documentation Working Group.
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues then informed that she wished to resign as the Chair of Quality System Metrology Working Group, and proposed the name of Anthea Ishmael, from Barbados, to be the chair of the QSMWG for the remainder of her term (till GA 2005). The Council agreed.
CR07/05: Confirm the designation of Anthea Ishmael from BNSI, Barbados, as chairman of the Quality System MWG.
Second Day
COUNCIL MEMBERS
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues SIM President, ABBS Taynah Souza On behalf of SIM Secretariat, INMETRO
OBSERVERS
William Anderson QSTF Chair, NIST
Meeting:
12. Navy Project - Loan of Equipments
They explained they are a non-profit organization, which mainly donates equipment to interested countries as long as have enough resources to fund their counterpart, which involves the logistic necessary for implementing the equipments. The also have some initiatives concerning training activities, that could be useful for countries not interested in equipment donation.
In essence, it was presented the IMCAP project, explaining how countries could take advantage from their projects. They have programs for calibration support, and they can support not only private initiatives but also governmental initiatives.
After their presentation, Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues asked how they heard about SIM and Steve Carpenter explained that he himself had invited them to make this presentation to the Council in order to offer a better view of their projects, as he believes some countries could benefit from the Navy Project.
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues thanked them for the opportunity and the Council then moved on to discuss how SIM members could benefit from their options and it was thought that it would then depend on what we expect - in case this is training, we could work with all countries but in case this is another kind of action, working through subregions would be more feasible.
Steve Carpenter then said to the Council that now with the information received we could decide if we should take next steps and what are they. He also remembered that the NMI interested in participating in the project should be aware that there are commitments and there are costs in the counterpart. He also said he will find out with NIST it they would like to commit themselves in some way to help the others.
Coordinators will have to find out what the needs of their subregion are and if they are interested in incurring in such costs. The Council believes that training activities seem to be the first possible possibility to benefit from their offer and that equipment loans would then have to be made in an individual basis (country by country).
13. TC/PDC structure
Yoshito Mitani then called attention for the deficiencies in communications, and for the future he sees a possibility of having the regional coordinators participating in TC/PDC meetings, instead of having another representative of each subregion for that. The structure would then be TC/PDC/Working Groups and regional coordinators representing the subregions on TC and PDC meetings.
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues then suggested the subject would be discussed during the TC/PDC meeting of February 09th and that after that they bring a suggestion to the Council.
14. 2005 General Assembly
The Council established the date of June 30th as the deadline for deciding the program of the events and the hosting hotel, in order to he Council to disseminate the information among coordinators.
Hermon Edmondson took advantage to request Brazil to present a seminar on legal metrology during GA 2005. Luis Carlos Gomes said it would be a pleasure for Brazil to present the seminar and suggested that the organization for the event contacts Cesar Luis, the Chair of LMWG, from Inmetro, to settle the necessary arrangements for it.
15. Document SIM #09
CR 08/05: The Council approved the new version of the Document #09 'SIM Procedure for Review of the Quality System of NMIs'.
16. Other Business
a. Raise the awareness of the importance of Metrology in Economic Development, trade and competitiveness to obtain political support.
Steve Carpenter said that there are other countries interested in being included in the initiatives, like Central American countries but there is nothing decided about it.
Oscar Harasic then informed Council Members that the agreement between PTB and OAS was formally signed on January 24th. He reminded that there have been no changes on the agreement and that it just represented a formalization of the project, which is already being developed. Oscar Harasic also informed that the activities related to this project have just been held in the area of chemical metrology even though the project also includes accreditation. A copy was provided to Taynah Souza for the record and distribution to those interested countries by fax, under request.
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues made some comments about the difficulties faced by Grenada, asking the Council whether there is something that could be done in order to offer some help from SIM. She suggested the organization of a visit of some of SIM Council to the country. The Council agreed and she therefore will make the necessary arrangements for that with people from Grenada Bureau of Standards.
SIM President, Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues, thanked all participants for their presence, remembering that the next Council meeting is scheduled for August, in Washington.
Having no more subjects to discuss the meeting was closed.
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