2007 Meeting of IFToMM Executive Council

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 60 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0094-114X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2007.09.004

✦ Synopsis

The 40th IFToMM Executive Council Meeting was held in Besanc ¸on, France on 17 and 22 June 2007 at Micropolis, the site of the 2007 IFToMM World Congress. As usual, the status and problems of IFToMM activity have been discussed resulting in a very full agenda. As has been done in the past at the World Congress, the meeting was divided into parts, one immediately before the World Congress, and one immediately after. In this way we are able to deal with changes resulting from meetings of the TC's and PC's during the Congress. Many of the main points of discussion related to reports of activity by Permanent Commissions (PC's) and Technical Committees (TC's), reports of the EC Working Groups (WG's), the Treasurer's report, and the report of Organizing Committee for 12th IFToMM World Congress.

The Secretary General Prof. Ceccarelli reported on his direction of the business and correspondence of IFToMM. In particular, he has managed email postal ballots among the EC members on a number of matters that required decisions and actions before the annual meeting. He also reported as Chair of the WG for a campaign of information. This working group produced three posters and a flyer that have been circulated at the 2007 IFToMM World Congress and have been given to IFToMM officers for further distribution.

The Executive Council has decided to establish a manual for EC Regulations in which procedures and rules that need to be codified, but which do not need to be embodied in the Constitution and Bylaws will be collected. These EC Regulations will be posted on the IFToMM web page so as to be available for all of the IFToMM community.

During the EC meeting several specific problems arose and resulted in the establishment of new Working Groups that will report to the next meeting of the Executive Council. Namely, Working Groups are established for Future Directions of IFToMM and for Identification of the Benefits of participation in IFToMM in order to further promote the organization. Working Groups were also established for Review and Evaluation of TC's, and a working group for Development of a Template for submission of IFToMM Conference Proceeding papers.

The Task Force for IFToMM Journals presented its final report, including a general model for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for any IFToMM sponsored journal.

The provision of IFToMM patronage and use of the IFToMM logo for conferences was discussed at some length. Participation has been approved for many conferences that will be held next year with collaboration of MO's and TC's. In order to regularize the process of approval for IFToMM participation in conferences, a procedure has been formulated for EC approval, and to ensure proper visibility of the conference activity by timely posting of announcements on the IFToMM webpage.

The Honors Secretary, Professor Koetsier and President Waldron reported on the collection of nominations for the IFToMM Honors and Awards. The EC has considered suitable the nominees who have been received for the IFToMM Honor membership, IFToMM Dedicated Service Award, and Award of Merit. The EC forwarded the list of awardees to the General Assembly for approval. The discussion has also pointed out the desirability of making some IFToMM Awards with annual frequency under the responsibility of the EC only. The IFToMM Honorary membership will be maintained with four year frequency. Other IFToMM Awards may be presented during IFToMM supported conferences.

The treasurer's report detailed the financial status of IFToMM by stressing still some problems that are related to arrears due from a few member organizations. Nevertheless, following the clearly set out procedures of the IFToMM Constitution the Treasurer Dr Rooney has presented a proposal for the expulsion of four