SIM Council Meeting
July 29th, 2002
NIST
Washington - United States

DRAFT MINUTES

Attendance list

Council Members

Felipe Urresta, President, INEN
Oscar Harasic, SIM Executive Secretary, (OAS)
Ismael Castelazo, Chairman, SIM Technical Committee, (CENAM)
Yoshito Mitani, Chairman, SIM Professional Development Committee, (CENAM)
Luis Mussio, SURAMET, Coordinator, (LATU)
Hermon Edmondson, CARIMET, Coordinator, (JBS)
Willie May, NORAMET, Coordinator, (NIST)
Hratch Semerjan, SIM/JCRB Representaive
Carlo Roberto Ochoa, CAMET Coordinator, (CONACYT)
Jose A. Dajes Castro, ANDIMET Coordinator,
Willie May, NORAMET Coordinator (NIST)
João A. Herz da Jornada, on behalf of Armando Mariante, Former SIM President, (INMETRO)
Paulo Ferracioli, SIM Secretary, (INMETRO)

AGENDA

1. Introduction and Welcome / Introducción 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 on SIM Activities for the First Semester 2002 / Informe sobre las actividades del SIM para el Primer Semestre de 2002
7. Report of Technical Committee Meeting / Informe de la Reunión del Comité Técnico
8. Report from SIM Representative to JCRB / Informe del Representante del SIM en el JCRB
9. Progress on General Assembly Organization / Progreso en la Organización de la Asamblea General
10. Discussion and Election of SIM Officers during General Assembly / Discusión y Elección de los Representantes del SIM durante la Asamblea General
11. Redistribution of 2002 Budget among Working Groups / Redistribución del Presupuesto de 2002 entre los Grupos de Trabajo
12. Progress of 2003 Project / Progreso del Proyecto 2003
13. Progress of PTB-SIM Program / Progreso del Programa PTB-SIM
14. AICD Scholarship Program / Programa de Becas AICD
15. Report of NCSLI Liason / Informe de NCSLI Liason
16. BIPM Associate Membership Fees / Honorarios de Miembro Asociado del BIPM
17. Other bussiness / Otros asuntos.

1) Introduction and Welcome / Introdución y Bienvenida

President Felipe Urresta welcomed the Council Members.

2) Verification of Quorum / Verificación de Quórum

The quorum was verified, twelve members of council being present.

3) Approval of Agenda / Aprobación de la Agenda

The agenda was approved with the following ammendments:

1. Introduction and Welcome / Introducción y Bienvenida
2. Verification of Quorum / Verificación de Quórum
3. Approval of Agenda / Aprobación de Agenda
4. Progress on General Assembly Organization / Progreso en la Organización de la Asamblea General
5. Discussion and Election of SIM Officers during General Assembly / Discusión y Elección de los Representantes del SIM durante la Asamblea General
6. Report on SIM Activities for the First Semester 2002 / Informe sobre las actividades del SIM para el Primer Semestre de 2002
7. Report of Technical Committee Meeting / Informe de la Reunión del Comité Técnico
8. Approval of the Minutes from previous Council Meeting / Aprobación de la Acta de la Reunión Anterior del Consejo
9. Matters arising from the Minutes / Asuntos derivados de la Acta
10. Redistribution of 2002 Budget among Working Groups / Redistribución del Presupuesto de 2002 entre los Grupos de Trabajo
11. Progress of 2003 Project / Progreso del Proyecto 2003
12. Progress of PTB-SIM Program / Progreso del Programa PTB-SIM
13. AICD Scholarship Program / Programa de Becas AICD
14. Report of NCSLI Liason / Informe de NCSLI Liason
15. BIPM Associate Membership Fees / Honorarios de Miembro Asociado del BIPM (ELIMINATED)
16. Report from SIM Representative to JCRB / Informe del Representante del SIM en el JCRB
17. Other bussiness / Otros asuntos.

4) Progress on General Assembly Organization / Progreso en la Organización de la Asamblea General

The agenda for the General Assembly was approved and the members discussed the program for the Seminar. It was stated that the final program shall be approved in the first week of august by Felipe Urresta, who has been keeping contacts with Mr. Lee Ward concerning the events.

5) Discussion and Election of SIM Officers during General Assembly / Discusión y Elección de los Representantes del SIM durante la Asamblea General

Due to the new dates of the GA and elections, the dead line for the presentation of candidates has changed.
It was agreed that Oscar Harasic shall send a communication to all members with the information about the elections and dead lines.

6) Report on SIM Activities for the First Semester 2002 / Informe sobre las actividades del SIM para el Primer Semestre de 2002

The president made a brief comment on the activities from the first semester. The president asked the PDC chair to report about the results of regional PDC meetings in CAMET and CARIMET . The purpose of these meetings was to find out the needs of the regions. This information shall be sent to the persons in charge of preparing the budget for next year.
Yoshito Mitani asked the countries that keep regular courses to communicate him so that he can offer these courses to the other institutes that get interested.

Hratch Semerjian said that NIST does offer regular courses but this courses have a cost that cannot be avoided. NIST can save places for the participation. Oscar Harasic mentioned OAS scholarships may be used to cover the costs, and suggested a commission should be created to decide among the candidates for these trainings.

Resolution
The Council request the NMI that offer regular courses to register them in OAS through the regional coordinators.
The chaiman of the PDC will send the communication and forms to the regional coordinators who will be responsible to send it to the members.

PDC report was presented by Yoshito Mitani . A summary is annexed to these minutes.
Joao Jornada made comments about the question of documents of NCSL and how to disseminate them among SIM members. Also suggested to study the possibility of producing SIM papers about some basic concepts.

7) Report on Technical Committee Meeting / Informe de la Reunión del comité Técnico

The chair of the Quality System Group, Albaluz Quintero from Colombia, sent a message informing that she had moved to another position and resigns as chair of the group.
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues, from Antigua and Barbuda Bureau of Standards (ABBS) was appointed as chair of Quality System Group.

Resolution
Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues, from Antigua and Barbuda Bureau of Standards (ABBS) is appointed as chair of Quality System Group.

Ismael Castelazo stated that it may be necessary to create a task force with the specific task of reviewing the QS implementation in SIM Members signatories of the CIPM - MRA.

The Task Force should prepare a report on the acceptability for the TC. The TC should prepare a report of the reviews for the JCRB.

Resolution
Council approves the proposal of the TC to create the task force for reviewing the QS in SIM CIPM-MRA signatories. The task force work will be coordinated by the SIM representative to the JCRB

Some guidelines were stated for the work of the task force:
- Any SIM Member can request the review of their QS, even if they are not yet signatories of the MRA
- A meeting to review QS of NMIs will be held at least once a year. This meeting will be open to all SIM Members and observers from other RMOs, and will provide the opportunity for discussion and comments.
- The QS of each NMI will be reviewed at least once every five years.
- The task force will be open to all but decisions will be taken by the signatories.

Ismael Castelazo informed about the request from the Legal Metrology working group, concerning the Multiple Membership to SIM per country. The discussion of this topic was adjourned to the next Council meeting.

Ismael Castelazo presented the draft of the SIM Document No. 7, Registration of SIM comparisons.
After a fruitful discussion a final draft was finished and the document was approved.

Resolution
Document SIM 7, "registration of SIM comparisons" is approved.

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

The minutes were approved without amendments.

9) Matters arising from the minutes / Asuntos derivados de la Acta

No matters arose from the minutes.

10) Redistribution of 2002 Budget among Working Groups / Redistribución del Presupuesto de 2002 entre los Grupos de Trabajo

After some discussions, no decision was taken about redistribution of the budget.

11) Progress of 2003 Project / Progreso del Proyecto 2003

Oscar informed that the project has already been approved by OAS for four years but the budget has not yet.

12 ) Progress of PTB-SIM Program / Progreso del Programa PTB-SIM

Willie May made a report on the progress of the SIM - PTB program.
The program was presented to the German government and according to the available information, is waiting for approval.

13) AICD Scholarship Program / Programa de Becas AICD

It was agreed that Yoshito would visit OAS and prepare a written report.

14) Report of NCSLI Liason / Informe de NCSLI Liason

João Jornada talked about the importance of the documents and courses. He proposed a stronger interaction between SIM and NCSL on this question.
The question about the translation was discussed. It was agreed that Luis Mussio will present the report to the NCSL board of directors, which will include the proposal to start a formal cooperation related to the translation of NCSL technical documents of interest for SIM.

15) BIPM Associate Membership Fees / Honorarios de Miembro Asociado del BIPM

This point was ELIMINATED from the Agenda

16) Report from SIM Representative to JCRB / Informe del Representante del SIM en el JCRB

Ismael Castelazo made a summary of the last JCRB meeting. The minutes of the meeting are available to the council members. The principal issue of this report was already discussed on Item 7 of this agenda, concerning the review of the QS.

17) Other bussiness / Otros Asuntos

Sim Web site.
Paulo Ferracioli raised the question about the problems concerning the payment of the maintenance of SIM website. Luis Mussio explained what had happened with the payment.
It was noted that the page should show information of the GA. The SIM secretariat will update this information.
Oscar Harasic informed about mirror web site at OAS server and the difficulties to update the information directly.
It was also noted that in the information of members in the Web page was missing some information, like the one concerning NCSLI. Paulo Ferracioli informed that in the website there were information mainly from the formal members of SIM but that it would be updated to also include the associate members PTB and NCSLI.

Hermon Edmondson mentioned the possibility of having SIM becoming a member of the Caribbean Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ)