SIM INTERAMERICAN METROLOGY SYSTEM
Council Meeting
Rio de Janeiro, 2nd and 3rd May 2000
DRAFT MEETING MINUTES

Attendance list

Armando Mariante Carvalho, SIM Standing President (INMETRO)
Oscar Harasic, OAS SIM Secretariat
B. Stephen Carpenter, Chairman, Technical Committee (NIST)
Ismael A. Castelazo, NORAMET Representative (CENAM)
Luis Mussio, SURAMET Representative (LATU)
Léa Contier de Freitas, SIM Secretary (INMETRO)

Observers:
Giorgio Moscati, CIPM Member and Special Advisor to the President of INMETRO
Josefa Paredes Villalobos, Assistant to SIM Secretary (INMETRO)

1) Opening
Armando Mariante Carvalho welcomed the Council members to INMETRO and informed the meeting that he recognized the importance of SIM to the Americas as soon as he was appointed President of INMETRO a month ago. He also informed the meeting that he was eager to support all the planned activities for the year 2000. Steve Carpenter, on behalf of the Council members thanked the opportunity to meet at INMETRO.

2) Verification of quorum
The quorum was verified to exist, five out of nine Council members being present.

3) Approval of the Agenda
The agenda, which forms Appendix 2, was approved without amendments.

4) Approval of previous meeting minutes
The approval was deferred to 20th May 2000, by electronic voting. The resolutions made during the meeting were already circulated to the Council.

5) Reports
SIM President:
The President told the meeting that INMETRO went through a series of changes, in its structure and management. This meant increased support to international activities and, consequently, to SIM itself. He would endeavor achieve the full re-organization of the SIM Secretariat at INMETRO.

OAS SIM Secretariat:
Oscar prepared a report on 1999 activities and accountancy to the new OAS Agency, which did not make any comments (the Agency should be fully operational in May). The US Mission has asked Steve Carpenter to accompany Oscar Harasic to a meeting with OAS authorities to discuss the possibility of having a multi-year project which would provide SIM, during its consolidation period, with an annual running budget. That would make the OAS and the Foundation to look at SIM as a line item at the Foundation, with a budget of perhaps US$ 300,000.

The countries that compose the board of directors of the OAS Agency for Cooperation are Argentina, Antigua and Barbuda, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Venezuela.

Chairman Technical Committee:
the minutes of the TC meeting held in Anaheim, January 17th, form Appendix XX. In March, a meeting was held for analyzing the results of a pilot study in the chemical field, which had 9 countries participating. Results were erratic, showing that they were not consistent. As a consequence, three other studies shall be conducted. The pilot study report shall be sent to OAS in order to show how important it is to support metrology. The final analysis of the mass comparison had been finished and showed that results were also erratic. Therefore, laboratories would be assigned a number so that their names would not be disclosed. The suggestion had been made of renaming the exercise as a pilot study. The Chairman informed the meeting that SIMNet should be used for a mass metrology course. The Legal Metrology…..National Conference of Weights and Measures.

Chairman Professional Development Committee:
Ismael Castelazo represented Yoshito Mitani and handed a list of activities proposed for 2001. He also presented the concept of a training CD on metrology concepts and calibration procedures, developed by xxxxx, which could be corrected, adapted and translated into Spanish. The Council decided that although this kind of material is very much useful and needed in the SIM countries, SIM itself should not be directly involved in the production of the translated version. All the same the company is encouraged to produce such material. Luis Mussio pointed out that NCSL had offered their publications for translation. They have produced a set of 14 publications ranging from environmental conditions to calibration procedures. Before SIM takes any action, a report on the translation of one of the documents should be awaited. A letter was presented to the Council suggesting the creation of three working groups for scientific, industrial and legal metrology. The Council suggested back to the PDC that, instead, the Committee is enlarged by one representative of the legal metrology group and two or three representatives of the Technical Committee. The Council takes note of the other point on establishing collaborative training program.

Coordinator NORAMET:
NORAMET is at an interesting point, after having signed a MOU, in the way of the MRA, managed by the CIPM. Should NORAMET continue? The consensus seemed to be that the NORAMET agreement should include Appendix C of the MRA. There is no SIM related activity in the region, which does not come under SIM.

Coordinator SURAMET:
Activities of SIMNet, all four countries took part, etc…

SIM Secretariat:
Re-organization of SIM files should be attempted in June during the meeting of the ad-hoc group, which will prepare the project for 2001.

6) Report on March 2000 JCRB meeting
Deadline

7) Ratification of SIM procedures for approval of CMCs
The Council ratifies the electronic voting, taken in April, and assigns the number 6 to this reference document. The Council members then discussed the character of the SIM database and it was agreed that all submitted data would get into the database classified by the flags established in document no. 6. NIST will set up the SIM database, which will have its maintenance decided later.

8) Discussion of representation to the JCRB
NRC should be informed that representation to the JCRB, according to the rules agreed in Technical Committee meeting held in Montevideo in 23rd April 1998, should now go to another institution and that a name should be chosen during the General Assembly. Term non-renewable, an institution can not serve consecutive terms, the council elects a representative upon the suggestion of the TC. The three-year term now served by Alan Robertson would expire in April 2001 leaving enough time for the transition. If Alan Robertson decides to end all his professional activities upon retirement the newly elected representative could start his term immediately.

9) Accountancy for 1999
The accountancy for the 1999 project was included in the report to the OAS prepared by Oscar Harasic mentioned in item 5.

10) Discussion of proposed activities and budget for 2000
Steve Carpenter reported on the project budget as proposed to OAS for funding after the approval earlier in the year. Appendix documents as originally prepared by the recipient countries had to be put together into only one documents to comply to OAS rules. Recipient countries were told to provide the names of the people who would hold the SIM account in their respective countries, so that funds could be forwarded.

11) Proposed activities and budget for 2001 project
The chairmen of the TC and PDC would ask again the respective working groups to forward proposals for next year's project. The sub-regional representatives should be informed of this and be asked to encourage their counterparts in both committees to put forward any proposals of interest to the sub-region. Proposals presented by the PDC are enclosed as Appendices. The information requested, analyzed by both chairmen, should be available for the ad-hoc group meeting in June, ready for inclusion in the 2001 project to be submitted to OAS for funding.

The title of the new project was discussed. Out of the suggested titles the following was considered to be in line with OAS policies:
"Measurement infrastructure in support of free trade and protection of the environment"
The above mentioned ad-hoc group should consist of Oscar Harasic, Steve Carpenter, Luis Mussio, Léa Contier de Freitas and a CENAM representative, and meet in Washington, from 11th (Sunday) to 17th (Saturday) June 2000.

12) Election calendar
Following the SIM rules of order (article 11), the Executive Secretary will send the announcement for the election of the President and the call for nominations by the end of May. Submissions should be made no later than 25th August 2000. The OAS representative called the attention to the fact that throughout the existence of SIM, since 1979, the President had always come from either SURAMET or NORAMET. He also told the meeting that it would be desirable and beneficial to have another sub-region putting forward a name for the office of SIM President. This would keep in line with the spirit of the OAS Chart and would give the newcomers to SIM the opportunity to serve as a link among the Northern and Southern countries. Additionally, they would promote horizontal cooperation among the most and the least developed national metrology institutes within SIM.

13) Preparation for General Assembly
The Council recognized the hard work that would be entailed in the organization of the GA and workshop that is being prepared as an associated event. As agreed in the discussion of the budget for 2000, US$ 20,000 (twenty thousand dollars) out of SIM funds, would be used towards covering the costs of putting on the meeting. It should be emphasized that, as again agreed before, funds used to support the participation of representatives could only be used to cover travel or per diem expenses due to lack of adequate funds. Participants should be encouraged to seek financial support from their own institutions. Oscar Harasic will prepare the convocation to the General Assembly

14) Other business:
PTB support to SIM as participant member Léa Contier de Freitas reported to the meeting that representatives of the Technical Cooperation Division of PTB had a meeting with the President and the Secretary of SIM in April. PTB emphasized that their support could take advantage of their bilateral cooperation agreements. They were willing to welcome guest reserachers to stay from 6 months to two years at their laboratories, take part in a few comparisons, although not as pilot laboratory and send experts to courses and events organized by SIM. The Council appreciate the offer and would notify all the SIM members to whom this could be applicable.

Homepage
Both Steve Carpenter and Léa Contier de Freitas offered to inquire their respective institutions whether the SIM homepage could be maintained by either of them. They would sort out the matter between them as soon as they had an answer and inform Council members. It was agreed that the home page should have an updated directory, meeting calendar, list and text of approved documents and all Council and General Assembly resolutions. The homepage should have links to metrology related websites.

Strategic planning
The Council recognized that the planning exercise was very useful but that it could only continue if additional funds were made available. SIM support to I. Castellazo application to BIPM director post The Council decided to write letter to the CIPM president in support of the above mentioned application.

Electronic voting
The Council decided that since electronic voting had already been taken for one document and that it would speed up decisions, a procedure for electronic voting should be prepared. The Council designated the documentation working group to put forward a proposal.

List of Appendices
Appendix 1 - Presence List
Appendix 2 - Agenda
Appendix 3 - Memorandum from Yoshito Mitani, PDC Chairman
Appendix 4 - Report on the 4th meeting of the JCRB meeting, Washington, 22-21 March 2000 Appendix 5 - SIM Procedure for Review of Calibration and Measurement Capabilities submitted for Appendix C of the CIPM MRA
Appendix 6 - Annex V, Execution Plan 2000, OAS Project
Appendix 7 - List of proposed courses and workshops for 2001