The Council meets in Munich August 3-4, 2003

The FIG Council had its first meeting after the 125th Anniversary celebrations, held last April in Paris, in Munich, August 3-4, 2003. The meeting was held at the DLE (Direktion für Ländliche Entwicklung) in Munich and the topics included several important issues for the future of FIG.

The Council discussed the draft for the new FIG information policy that will be circulated to the member associations in October/November 2003 for their comments. It is planned to be adopted by the General Assembly in Athens in May 2004. Vice President Bettina Petzold who is chair of the working group in preparing this policy paper is interested in hearing the comments from member associations on how to improve the information flow between FIG, its member associations and individuals in member associations.

The Council adopted an updated version of the FIG Definition of Surveyors, which will now go for discussion in the Commissions and for adoption of the General Assembly in Athens.

A Memorandum of Understanding with International Hydrographic Bureau was adopted by the Council. Before final confirmation of the General Assembly it has to be adopted by IHB.

The Council also discussed the FIG World Report on Good Practices. The next meeting of this working group will take place in Hamburg in September and the first concept will be discussed during the Regional conference in Marrakech in December 2003.

As normally the Council got update reports on the next FIG events: Working Weeks in Athens and Cairo and Congress in Munich in 2006. The Working Week in April 2005 will be especially interesting, because it has been agreed to do it together with the GSDI 8 Conference. Hagen Graeff, President of DVW attended the Council meeting to discuss the FIG Congress and Intergeo 2006. The German Council has initiated a FIG Forum that takes place during every Intergeo in Germany. It provides a good platform for German surveyors and other visitors to get familiar with FIG. The next FIG Forum will take place in Hamburg in September 2003.

The 2nd Regional Conference in Morocco is well under preparation. Already before the deadline for abstracts the number of offered papers exceeded 100. United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has confirmed that it will co-sponsor this event. As a response to the academics of Africa a special roundtable will be organised in Marrakech to discuss surveying and GIS education in Africa.

Under membership issues the membership of the Association des Géomètres Algériens was formally returned. There were also several requests about membership from countries that are not yet members of FIG. The University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland and the University of Southern Mississippi, Marine Science, USA were adopted as new academic member which increases the number of academic members to 64.

The Council further adopted a grant programme with Intergraph, corporate member of FIG.