SIM INTERAMERICAN METROLOGY SYSTEM
Council Meeting
Ocho Rios, 29th September 2000
DRAFT MEETING MINUTES

Attendance list
Felipe Urresta, President (INEN)
Oscar Harasic, SIM Executive Secretary (OAS)
Armando Mariante Carvalho, Past President (INMETRO)
Yoshito Mitani, Chairman, Professional Development Committee (CENAM)
Jose Dajes Castro, ANDIMET, Coordinator (INDECOPI)
Miguel Tevez, CAMET, Coordinator (CONACYT)
Roosevelt DaCosta, CARIMET, Coordinator (JBS)
Willie E. May, NORAMET, Representative (NIST)
Luis Mussio, SURAMET, Coordinator (LATU)
Léa Contier de Freitas, SIM Secretary (INMETRO)

Observers:
Hector Nava-Jaimes, CENAM, Mexico

1) Verification of quorum
The quorum was verified to exist, nine out of ten Council members being present. No presence list was signed.

2) Welcome
Felipe Urresta, the newly elected SIM President, welcomed Council members and invited observer.

3. World Trade Organization (WTO)
Further to what was discussed in the General Assembly, the SIM Council agreed that it should approach the WTO with the aim of stressing the importance of metrology to the procedures of conformity assessment. Furthermore, SIM should stress the importance of mutual recognition arrangements for establishing the equivalence of national measurement standards and of calibration and measurement certificates to the elimination of barriers to trade. To this effect, the SIM Council should prepare and approve a position paper to be delivered to the WTO.

4. Project submitted to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Further to the presentation and explanation on the project submitted by SIM to the IDBI conducted in the General Assembly, the SIM Council agreed that it would be necessary and important that both the President and the Past President maintained close contacts with IDB officials with the aim of monitoring the analysis of the project by the Bank.

5. Calendar
The SIM Council agreed to the following meetings:
a. SIM Council, to be held in the first week of December, during the Metrologia 2000 Congress, São Paulo, Brazil, provided the OAS project budget were approved. Otherwise, the meeting should be postponed until January. The main issue of the agenda would be the elaboration of the year 2001 Business Plan;
b. Technical Committee, also to be held during during the Metrologia 2000 Congress, before the SIM Council meeting, in order to provided elements to the Business Plan;
c. Professional Development Committee, also to be held during during the Metrologia 2000 Congress, before the SIM Council meeting, in order to provided elements to the Business Plan; and
d. Ad Hoc Group, to be held in March, in Washington, USA, with the aim to prepare the 2002 Project to be submitted to the OAS.

The SIM Council asked the Secretary to prepare a one year calendar listing:
a. metrology and related meetings, such as those of the Comite International des Poids et Mesures (CIPM), Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Comites Consultatifs of the CIPM (CCs), Joint Committee of the Regional Organizations and the BIPM (JCRB), National Metrology Institutes Directors', International Organization of Standardization (ISO), Organization International de Metrologie Legale (OIML), International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), International Accreditation Forum (IAF), Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), World Trade Organization (WTO), etc.; and
b. SIM meetings, including those of the Council, the Technical Committee (TC) and its Working Groups (WGs), the Professional Development Committee (PDC).

It was noted that, traditionally, the TC, WGs and PDC met in Anaheim, in January, on the occasion of the National Measurement Conference (NMC), and during the July National Conference of Standards Laboratory (NCSL). However, it was also noted that those meetings were mostly attended by people from the NORAMET sub-region and very few people from the other sub-regions.
The Council also took note of the convenience of, on some occasions, to hold a Joint Meeting of the TC and PDC.

6. Business plan
The Council decided that the SIM business plan would be the responsibility of Luis Mussio, from LATU, Uruguay, and that it should be delivered as soon as possible.

7. Strategic plan
The Council noted the importance of continuing the exercise of strategic planning.

8. Support letters
The Council stressed, once more, the importance of all SIM institutes obtaining the support of their government to the projects submitted to the OAS and the IDB. The number of support letters had been very small of the past few years, what made the OAS, for instance, to cut down the amount of funds authorized to the 2000 Project. Therefore, the Council determined that the Secretary would send a message to all SIM institutes instructing them on how to proceed in order to have their government official support sent to both the country mission to OAS and the director of the country at IDB. A model letter would be forward to the institutes.

9. Next meeting
The next meeting in São Paulo, in Brazil, on 3rd December.