Draft Minutes
Professional Development Committee Meeting
Regency II, Radisson Deauville Resort
Miami Florida, USA, December 11, 2001
17:30-19:30

Attendees List

Cristina Rodriguez (CAMET)
Sylvester Joseph (CARIMET )
Joa Herz da Jornada (SURAMET)
Yoshito Mitani (NORAMET, Chairman)
Paulo Ferracioli (INMERTRO, observer)
Hermon Hedmondson (JBS, observer)

Agenda

1. List of Participants
2. Approval of the Agenda
3. Review of the PDC report to GA
4. Presentation of the Subregional Reports and discussion

ANDIMET by Juan Carlos Castillo
CAMET by Cristina Rodriguez
CARIMET by Sylvester Joseph
NORAMET by Yoshito Mitani
SURAMET by Joao Herz da Jornada

5. Review of the Proposals for 2002 activities for PDC
6. Review of the minutes of the meeting with Mr. Schroeschwarz of PTB
7. Review of the SIM proposal to OAS on the establishment of OAS Scholarship on Metrology Training
8. Review of the initiative by Council on the PDC status from Committee to Coordination.
9. Other business
10. Conclusions

2. Approval of the Agenda

The agenda was approved

3. Review of the PDC report to GA

Yoshito Mitani explained the contents of the PDC report in the GA workbook, which covers from Sept 2000 to July 2001, and distributed the materials which will be presented in the GA on the PD meetings in Quito and Tegucigalpa. The materials were considered useful for subregional planning of PD, and it was expected that CARIMET would hold a similar meeting in 2002 using the similar guidelines, which is annexed to this minutes.

4. Subregional report

SURAMET representative presented a document which is a draft proposal of request for the educational institutions to include metrology in their curriculum, Joa Herz da Jornada presented a document entitled " Terms of Reference Proposal to introduce topics on metrology, standardization and quality in the curiricula for undergraduate courses."
. Chairman encouraged to analyze and comment on this material in the next meeting.
SURAMET also made a comment on the need of support of SIM for the scholarship for advanced training in metrology. This issue will be discussed in the point 7.
CAMET reported that their new metrology lab will be ready for open in Jan. 2002, and the PD meeting in Tegucigalpa was very successful and effective for promoting metrology.
NORAMET reported that, in its two meetings in 2001, there was a strong committment of NORAMET countries to provide training courses upon request by other subregions.
CARIMET reported their activities in relation with CARICOM to promote metrology activities, and also reported the activities carried out in Jamaica in conjunction with the GA in 2000.

5. Review of the Proposals for 2002 activities for PDC

Chaiman explained the comparative table of the activities proposed for 2002 and in progress in 2001.
All member are requested to make subregional proposals on specific topics which meet the needs of the subregions at the GA.

6. Review of the minutes of the meeting with Mr. Schroeschwarz of PTB

Chairman made comment on the meeting with PTB representative, Mr. Reiner Schroeschwarz at CENAM in May. However, PTB is now proposing a general plan of cooperation with SIM, which will be presented in the council meeting on Friday, Dec. 14, no particular discussion was made.

7. Review of the SIM proposal to OAS on the establishment of OAS Scholarship on Metrology Training

Chairman explained the development of the proposal of a metrology scholarship within the framework of OAS scholarship, which was asked by the SIM president after he and Oscar Harasic had meeting with IACD representative. After receiving several comments from the member countries, the last version was prepared and included in the PDC report to GA in CD. However, since IACD had asked to include some scholarship programs which is very much similar to the last version that SIM prepared, the council had asked on Sunday Dec. 9th to PDC to present at least one program in this period before Dec. 10th, which was the next Monday. In spite of the interest of several institutions who were informed this program by e-mail a few weeks in advance, only one proposal from CENAM on Mass Metrology Training Course was presented through the official channel. Those institutions from Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil were encouraged to present proposals as soon as possible for the next period. It was highly recommended to include those program of advanced studies on metrology which have been requested by SURAMET countries and could be offered by some of their member countries.

8. Review of the initiative by Council on the PDC status from Committee to Coordination.

Other business

Chairman explained on this issue presented in the item 7 of the PDC report to GA that after the discussions in the council meeting on Sunday Dec 9th, it was decided to reject the proposed modification to the structure of the PDC (Chapter 8 of the Statue) and was suggested that the PDC and the TC should try to have always joint meetings, in order to have good participation from subregional representatives and WG chairs.

The meeting was adjourned at 19:30

Guidelines used in subregional meetings:

1. Objectives
2. The importance of the PD in Metrology
3. Actual situation in the subregion
4. Institutional and subregional development plan
· Institutional and Subregional Strategic Planning
· National Metrology Institute (NMI Scientific, Industrial and Legal Metrology)
· Services covered
· Establishment of traceabilidty
· Activities for development
1. Basic Infrastructure
2. Human Resource Development (HRD)
3. Programme of Comparisons
4. Priority Setting
5. Sub-Regional and Regional cooperation for HRD
-1 CAN and ANDIMET
-2 CTCAP and CAMET
-3 SIM/OAS project
-4 Inter Regional (APMP for Quality System)
-5 Bilateral (PTB, NIST, NRC, IRMM, etc.)
7. Conclusions
-Institutional Development Program.
Coverage of Services
Human Resources
Infrastructure
-Program of Subregional Cooperation
-Program of SIM activities
Human Resource Catalogue
Courses, Seminars y Training in Subregion offered by Local Institutions
-Technical stay by OAS funding.
-Academic Program by Designated Institutions
Specialist Program (Diploma)
Master Course
Doctor course
Post Doctoral Fellowship