SIM Council Meeting
July 27th, 2003

Ottawa - Canada
DRAFT MINUTES

ATTENDANCE LIST

Felipe Urresta INEN SIM President
Janusz Lusztyk NRC- CNRC NORAMET Representative
Hermon Edmondson JBS CAMET Representative
Luis Mussio LATU SURAMET Representative
Ismael Castelazo CENAM Technical Commitee Chairman
Steve Carpenter NIST Technical Advisor
Oscar Harasic OAS Executive Secretary
Yoshito Mitani CENAM PDC Chairman
Hratch Semejian NIST JCRB Representative
Cynthia Zapata ONNUM CAMET Observer
Miguel Viliesid CENAM Observer
Harold Sanchez ICE (Costa Rica) Observer
Eddy So NRC-CNRC Observer

AGENDA
1. Introduction and Welcome / Introdución y Bienvenida
2. Verification of Quorum / Verificación de Quórum
3. Approval of Agenda / Aprobación de Agenda
4. Approval of the Minutes from previous Council Meeting / Aprobación de la Acta de la Reunión Anterior del Consejo
5. Matters arising from the Minutes / Asuntos derivados de la Acta
6. Report of Working Group for organizing next GA / Informe del grupo de trabajo para la organización de la GA
7. SIM Projects / Proyectos SIM
- Final report of 2002 project
- Definition of SIM Activities with the 2003 OAS Project
- OAS Project Preparation for fiscal year 2004
- Proposal of a new SIM Project 2005-2008 "Metrology for the Development of the Subregions"
8. SIM International Relationships / Relaciones Internacionales de SIM:
- SIM Representation to NCSLI Meeting
- Report from SIM Representative to JCRB
- SIM Participation at the CGPM
- SIM - OIML (pending proposal)
- Update of PTB- SIM Project
9. Action on Council and Committee Vacancies / Vacantes en el Consejo y Comités
10. Other Business / Otros Asuntos
- NIST proposal for the CGPM

MEETING

1. Introduction and Welcome / Introdución y Bienvenida
Janusz Lusztyk, General director of the INMS - NRC -CNRC, welcomes those present to Ottawa, and to the NRC, making wishes for success in the activities to be held during the week.
The President of SIM, Felipe Urresta, thanks NRC for organizing the activities and opens the meeting.

2. Verification of Quorum / Verificación de Quórum

Ten council members present, quorum is verified.
Being absent Taynah Lopes, Luis Mussio will prepare the minutes of the present meeting.

3. Approval of Agenda / Aprobación de Agenda

Yoshito Mitani, proposes to add: Calendar for 2004.
With the proposed amendment the agenda is approved.

4. Approval of the Minutes from previous Council Meeting / Aprobación de la Acta de la Reunión Anterior del Consejo

Comments to the minutes:
On item 6, the presentation of Ismael Castelazo did not described the use of SIM money, but only the part of the budget corresponding to CENAM.
In item 15, instead of 2004 - 2008 project it should say 2005 - 2008 project.
With this amendments, the minutes are approved.

5. Matters arising from the Minutes / Asuntos derivados de la Acta

This item will be discussed in point 10, Other business.

6. Report of Working Group for organizing next GA / Informe del grupo de trabajo para la organización de la GA

Luis Mussio informed that:
- Hotel for the council members is reserved
- The name of the event was changed to "SIM annual metrology week", taking out the reference to the GA, making the seminars the central point of the week.

The offer of COPA airlines to give discounts if accepted as official sponsor of the event was discussed.
The council ratifies the decision of having COPA airlines as sponsor. This decision was voted electronically.

The program for the week was discussed. The program was shortened due to the low budget remaining for this activity.
The final proposal will be sent to Panama, and to the other members of the Council. A copy of the proposal is appended to these minutes.

Pending items of the program:
- Participation of Janusz Lusztyk as lecturer.
- Participation of OIML, Oscar Harasic will contact OIML (Dr. Magana).
- Clarify the scope of the proposed activity on Prepackaged and Labeling, because it has been the same title in the past two years.

7. SIM Projects / Proyectos SIM

- Final report of 2002 project: Steve Carpenter, presented a summary of the 2002 report sent to AICD. The report and all the annexed material was sent in a CD to the Council.

- Definition of SIM Activities with the 2003 OAS Project: Steve Carpenter reported on the activities planned for 2003. One important issue, he mentioned, was the change in the disbursement plan, changed from 3 disbursements to 2, what will allow that all the budget be available by the date of the GA meeting. The report for the first disbursement is under preparation.

- Chemical Metrology activities are going to be supported, in coordination with the SIM - PTB project.

- SIMNET: A new server is going to be put online outside of NIST firewall. A brochure is being prepared, explaining what is needed to connect to SIMNET and how to establish the connection. It was proposed to Netcast the GA meeting by SIMNET.

- The USA OAS mission will support a NIST project to distribute time & frequency equipment for each country. The project will set up in each country the basic equipment for GPS signals reception. As in short time, time stamps will become fundamental for electronic commerce, this activity will set up the basis to establish traceability for all the American countries.

- OAS Project Preparation for fiscal year 2004: As this is a continuation of the four years project, it is only needed an action plan and budget. The submission is under preparation and will be finished by the three NMIs that are administrating the budget, NIST, CENAM, LATU. At present only five letters of support were received, what jeopardizes the budget for next year. The President will send emails asking for the letters of support.

- Proposal of a new SIM Project 2005-2008 "Metrology for the Development of the Subregions". The deadline for submission of the new project is March 2004. The preparation of the project will be coordinated by the Technical Advisor. One of the important things is to develop a theme. As 2005 is the deadline for the establishment of FTAA, the project must be related to FTAA.

8. SIM International Relationships / Relaciones Internacionales de SIM:

8.1 SIM Representation to NCSLI Meeting
Luis Mussio informed that the NCSLI booth arrangements are done, and that a new edition of the brochure was printed, which unfortunately being only two weeks old is already obsolete. A display for the SIM booth was prepared by the OIAA from NIST.

8.2 SIM Representative to NCSLI board of Directors.
The SIM representative to NCSLi Board of Directors, made a brief summary of the last meeting held in Boulder. The minutes of the meeting will be sent to the Council.
It was proposed to ask NCSLI to subsidize the participation of persons of least developed NMIs in the NCSLI courses. This proposal will be presented to the next Board of Directors.

8.3 Report from SIM Representative to JCRB
The 10th JRCB meeting was held in Tsukuba, March 2003. This SIM delegation was composed by Hratch Semerjian, Ismael Castelazo and Luis Mussio. A copy of the minutes will be sent to the Council. Hratch Semerjian summarized the most important points of the meeting:
- For the March meeting of the JCRB, SIM should send a report about the QS review of the MRA signatories. The procedure and other issues of the review will be discussed on the QS Task Force meeting to be held on July 28th. As not all the QS will be fully implemented by December 2003, the issue of extensions should be discussed on the QSTF meeting.
It was suggested to propose to the JCRB to have a meeting for strategic planning and Metrology impact. As the October meeting is too close, the proposal will be done in the March meeting of the JCRB.
It was informed the discussion about the statement to be used in the calibration certificates of the MRA signatories.

8.4 SIM Participation at the CGPM
It was stated that SIM has no official representation in CGPM, and as such, no official position is needed.

8.5 SIM - OIML (pending proposal)
Oscar Harasic and Ismael Castelazo participated in OIML, SIM proposal is in the OIML webpage. We are waiting until the OIML GA, where a decision is going to be taken.

8.6 Update of PTB- SIM Project
Oscar Harasic reported that OAS proposed some changes to the text and that PTB accepted the changes. Even though the agreement is not yet signed, the funds are already in PTB and some activities have started.

9. Action on Council and Committee Vacancies / Vacantes en el Consejo y Comités

The TC Chairman Ismael Castelazo has been appointed to succeed Angela Samuels as Executive Secretary of the JCRB. As this appointment is a two-year commission starting next September, Castelazo will not be able to complete his three years term as TC Chairman. The Council congratulates Ismael Castelazo for this appointment.

Hratch Semerjian has been designated as Acting Deputy Director of NIST. Due to the work load of his new position, it will not be possible for him to continue as SIM representative to the JCRB.

Steve Carpenter moved to appoint Luis Mussio as TC Chairman for the remaining of the term. The motion was seconded by Ismael Castelazo and approved by the council.

CR 06/03. To appoint Luis Mussio as TC Chairman for the remaining of the term.

Due to the strong connection of the TC and the JCRB activities, it was moved that the TC Chairman should also be the SIM representative to the JCRB.

CR 07/03: The representation of SIM to the JCRB will be held by the TC Chairman.

CR 08/03: Hratch Semerjian is appointed as alternate SIM representative to the JCRB

Janusz Lusztyk was designated Acting Director General of the National Institute
for Nanotechnology. He will continue with the international representation of INMS.

10. Other Business / Otros Asuntos
10.1 Visit to Dominican Republic.
Felipe Urresta, Steve Carpenter, Oscar Harasic and Hector Nava Jaimes will go to Dominican Republic as a pre assessment requested by the Dominican Government.
The date for the visit is August 25th to 27th.

10.2 Council Meetings - Calendar 2004.
It was decided that the meetings will be held, even in the case where quorum is not reached, in which case no decision can be taken. It was suggested that the quorum could be reached using teleconference facilities.
The proposed dates for Council meetings are:
- February 1st, together with the Chemical Metrology activities in Costa Rica.
- April 30th. Together with CENAM 10th anniversary.

10.3 SIM financial reports
Hratch Semerjian expressed the convenience of having SIM financial reports. This issue is left pending for the next meeting.

10.4 Pending Issues from Last Meeting
- A position paper on SIM activities shall be prepared to be sent to members of CIPM. Felipe Urresta and Taynah Souza are going to prepare it.
- Felipe Urresta pointed out that the presentation to NCSLI meeting shall be prepared in accordance to CR09/02.
- Felipe Urresta is going to prepare a letter asking all NMIs to send an updated list of designated laboratories to the secretary, in accordance to CR11/02.
- Supporting letters to the budget.
- The Secretary must send a letter to all NMIs asking them to send a support letter for OAS.
- Felipe Urresta shall send a letter of support for this program (scholarships and training)

- For the next GA the Working Group shall be composed by five members of the Council: the President, TC Chair, PDC Chair, Executive Secretary and the Representative to NCSLI.

- SIMNET Status
- Central subject of the GA/03, approval

- The Council decided to have representation at the meetings of NCSLI, EUROMET, OIML and APMP annual meetings. The SIM President is expected to attend these meetings; if he's not available to attend these meetings he will designate another representative.

- The Council decided to establish two other meetings - one of the Working Group responsible for the General Assembly organization and another one to discuss the calendar of future activities, included the next Council Meeting date (See Annex I, which was presented by Panama after the meeting and Annex II, which was compiled after the meeting for comments).

11. Closing of the meeting.

Having no more issues to discuss, the President thanked the present for their contributions and closed the meeting. The next meeting will be held during the SIM activities in Panama, September 2003.