CIGR Newsletter No 32
CIGR AT CROSSROADS IN ITS EXISTENCE
Dear Friends,
The summer is gone and many of you have enjoyed an opportunity to meet new and old colleagues and friends at some international professional conference or meeting of some kind. I did too and had many rewarding and memorable experiences. To be able to give something, batteries have to be recharged. Meeting with far away colleagues certainly force you to look at alternatives that did not come to your mind at home.
CIGR has a prime objective in facilitating your opportunity to attend such conferences and to get professional contact and co-work in a number of ways. CIGR does this through a number of CIGR conferences and Working Groups. But of growing importance is that we keep you informed about the vastly increased possibilities offered by all the member associations of CIGR. You are given, as a member of a CIGR-connected association, information about and access to all their activities too. In these days with fast increasing international trade, development aid and communications (both electronically and travel), this should be of value to many.
CIGR sees a growing interest for membership from all continents, reflecting this. All continents except Oceania now have regular members and contacts with our General Secretariat. And even there new thinking is under way. There are clear expressed wishes as to what CIGR should do in the area also of a 'World Calendar of Events, for our profession, and in maintaining better services on Internet. CIGR has many brilliant persons that perform ideal work for the benefit of our profession. We must all honour and thank them for their unpaid efforts and dedication. In addition there are some costs that cannot be left unpaid. The sad thing about today's situation for CIGR is that there is a mismatch between what our members wish CIGR to do, and their willingness to pay some fees to make these services possible. A proposal for a new fee system, taking into account the new role and membership structure of CIGR, was not accepted in the last meeting of the Executive Board. A task group was appointed to find a solution that the regional associations can agree upon. That means that CIGR's future management and hence existence is put in the hands of AAAE, ASAE and EurAgEng.
All of you who are personally a member of CIGR should now be aware that you must tell your national association that you are willing to spend a dollar or five a year for the purpose of CIGR. If not, in a few years time there will be no CIGR left as a result of the lack of a financial basis. So we are certainly at crossroads for the very existence of CIGR in the future.
Prof. E. Berge,
President of CIGR.
