Zapisnik izviršnega odbora Evropske travniške zveze (Witzenhausen, Nemčija, 11.7. 2001)
Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 11th July 2001 during the EGF Symposium at Witzenhausen, Germany
Present: Ch. Huyghe France President
J. C. Emile France Secretary
V. Jorgensen Denmark Past-President
W. Kessler Switzerland Central Europe
K. Soegaard Denmark Northern Europe
J. Gutauskas Lithuania North-Eastern Europe
T. Vidrih Slovenia South-Eastern Europe
G. Parente Italy Southern Europe
L. t’Mannetje Netherlands Co-opted member
F. Weissbach Germany Co-opted member
G. Nagy Hungary Co opted member
G. Spatz Germany Co-opted member, EGF 2001
A. Kirilov Bulgaria Co-opted member, EGF 2003
V. Vasileva Bulgaria Co-opted member, EGF 2003
Absent with apology: W. H. Prins Federation Secretary
G. Blagoveschensky Russia Eastern Europe
G. Lemaire France Western Europe
Agenda
1. Opening
The president, Ch. Huyghe, opens the meeting with a word of welcome.
The Federation Secretary, W. H. Prins, is not present because of serious backache. W. Kessler will minute the meeting in his place.
The Senior Scientists L. t’Mannetje, G. Nagy and F. Weissbach were invited as consultants to help defining the theme of EGF 2003 to be held in Bulgaria (Point 7 of the agenda).
2. Approval of the agenda
The agenda is approved without changes.
3. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 24 May 2000 at Aalborg, Denmark
The minutes are approved without changes.
4. Matters arising from the minutes:
Re point 4 a: Discussion on the progress of the application for full membership
The discussion to this point is postponed to the next EC meeting.
Re point 5: Report by Jorgensen
The report on the 18th EGF General Meeting at Aalborg, Denmark is approved with thanks to the Past-President, V. Jorgensen.
5. Short report on EGF 2001
The conference is still going on. G. Spatz hopes that it will continue successfully.
The organisers expected 100 participants. But more than 200 wanted to come to Witzenhausen. He thanks his staff, working from 6.30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
He suggested A. Kirilov to start early with the organisation of the 2003 Symposium. Two full years are needed. When choosing the location, the distance to an airport is important to consider.
The most important milestones were the first circular and the poster announcement. The receipt of poster abstracts gave a first idea about the number of participants to be expected. The main information about the Symposium was put onto the Web Site. E-mail was the main means of communication. The possibility to use University facilities helped to keep the fees low.
6. Report on EGF 2002, 19th General Meeting in France
Huyghe told that the programme has been finalised. The General Meeting will be held from 27 to 30 May 2002 at La Rochelle, France. It will offer plenary and parallel sessions, four different mid-conference tours and one post-conference tour (Brittany and Mont St. Michel). Right after the meeting at La Rochelle, there will be the regular meeting of the Pasture Ecology Group at Clermont-Ferrand (France).
The organisers try to offer a programme as attractive as possible. They are also trying to keep the budget balanced.
There will be specific support for junior researchers. If their grant proposal is accepted they will be paid the registration fee and accommodation expenditures. There is money for about 70 people, young researchers of less than 35 years of age (on the opening day of the conference).
All the information (theme, set up, fees, financial support) is available on the Web.
Until 3rd July 2001 402 summaries (paper abstracts) have been submitted. The deadline for the full-length texts is end of October 2001.
There were no questions to Ch. Huyghe.
7. Subject, dates, location and registration fee of EGF 2003, the Symposium to be held in Bulgaria
The Symposium on grassland and forage production will be held at Pleven, Bulgaria. According to A. Kirilov the locations (two big halls in the centre of the town) had been visited only recently and the facilities checked by the Federation Secretary, W. H. Prins. At that time also the subject was presented and discussed. A decision upon the theme should be made today by the EC.
Kirilov presents two suggestions:
A post-conference tour will be offered.
A web site (www.ifc-pleven.el-soft.com/EGF-2003) is available since one week.
Discussion to the subjects:
Optimal forage systems for animal production and the environment
There is no further discussion.
8. Introduction to the 20th General Meeting to be held in Switzerland
The project EGF 2004 will start in late summer 2001 (Kessler). EGF 2004 has the full support of all relevant authorities and institutes in Switzerland.
9. Matters arising from EGF 2000: talk by Prof. Wilkins (Point 5 in Minutes of Business Meeting EGF 2000; introduction by Huyghe
Statements of Prof. Wilkins and comments/suggestions by EC members:
The European Grassland Federation is different from other scientific organisations. Among the people involved there are also farmers. Therefore there should be more farmers’ talks, also forums, mainly during tours. What economics and basic scientists are concerned, we just have to invite the right people to have these aspects highlighted. Furthermore, EGF should write press statements (t’Mannetje).
10. Definitive retirement of W. H. Prins as Federation Secretary in 2002/2004. Should the secretariat continue in its present way (voluntary job) or not?
There are no further suggestions by other Executive Committee members. Kessler is nominated for ratification by the Business Meeting 2004. Kessler accepted this decision.
11. Modernising EGF Proceedings
Preliminary report by subcommittee on (a) new techniques to
reduce printing costs for small batches of books and (b) the
possibilities of publishing on CD-ROM as well as on Internet
The subcommittee (Huyghe, Hofmann, Kessler) met yesterday. Huyghe reports the results:
But: The book is not yet fully replaceable by something else. The book is still mainly required to follow the presentations during the sessions, whereas a CD-ROM with the texts as they are in the book could be most useful to work with after the conference.
At the EGF 2002 General Meeting in France there will be the book as usual.
At the EGF 2004 General Meeting in addition to the book the Proceedings will be made available also on a CD-ROM, but the latter only after the conference.
12. Any other business
Will there be an EGF Occasional Symposium in 2005, in the year of the International Grassland Conference in Europe? There is no Symposium planned so far.
Why not plan an EGF window during the International Grassland Conference? This will be treated later on.
13. Closing
After words of thanks by the President Ch. Huyghe to G. Spatz and his colleagues for organising EGF 2001 as well as to the Federation Secretary W. H. Prins, the president closes the meeting. The next EC Meeting will be in La Rochelle, France.
Zürich, 5 November 2001