Zapisnik izviršnega odbora Evropske travniške zveze (Witzenhausen, Nemčija, 11.7. 2001)

Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 11^th 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
2. Approval of the agenda
3. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 24 May 2000 at Aalborg, Denmark
4. Matters arising from the minutes:
   Re point 4 a: Discussion on the progress of the application for full membership
   Re point 5: Report by Jorgensen
5. Short report on EGF 2001
6. Report on EGF 2002, 19^th General Meeting in France
7. Subject, dates, location and registration fee of EGF 2003, the Symposium to be held in Bulgaria; it is expected that Dr. Kirilov or a colleague will be able to report the plans to the Executive
8. Introduction to the 20^th General Meeting to be held in Switzerland
9. Matters arising from EGF 2000: talk by Prof. Wilkins (Point 5 in Minutes of Business Meeting EGF 2000; introduction by Huyghe
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?
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
12. Any other business
13. Closing

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 18^th 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, 19^th 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 3^rd 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:

1. Future role of grassland systems in Europe
2. 1. The place of annual crops in grassland farming
   2. Potential of grassland
   3. Environmental and economical aspects
3. The role of annual fodder crops in grassland farming
4. 1. Production
   2. Utilisation
   3. Environmental and economical aspects

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:

• In Western Europe the main forage crop is maize. In Bulgaria it is pea, vetch, fodder beet, sunflower etc. (t’Mannetje)
• The main topic should support/include grassland (Vidrih)
• EGF should stick to grassland and grassland systems (Weissbach)
• The Agenda 2000 will lead to a conversion of arable land to grassland because of problems arising from crops (Parente)
• What elements do the two suggestions include? (Jorgensen)
• New title (t’Mannetje) and subjects of the sessions according to suggestion I above:

Optimal forage systems for animal production and the environment

1. 1. Potential of grasslands
   2. Forage crops in grassland farming

2. 1. Economic and ecological aspects

There is no further discussion.

8. Introduction to the 20^th 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:

• Low participation of basic science: This will be different in France (Huyghe)
• The economy side was also weakly represented
• EGF needs a political voice: The science should have a stronger influence on politics; in Brussels it is not known that grass is the main resource for protein (Parente)
• Long term strategies are needed: EGF could build Special Interest Groups (advisory groups)

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?

• W. H. Prins will retire in 2004
• The Secretariat will continue in the present way (voluntary as it was)
• Parente suggests W. Kessler (Switzerland). Switzerland is in the centre of Europe, Kessler has been active in EGF for ten years now, and he is multilingual.

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:

1. Any electronic storage medium would favour lower production costs and would therefore allow low-price Proceedings. At the moment a cheap alternative to the book is a CD-ROM. Maybe one day in the future, when much higher data transfer rates will be possible, the proceedings will be made available on the Web.
2. The production of an EGF CD is relatively easy and cheap. Furthermore, a CD-ROM has the advantage of being searchable. It is also possible to add extra value by using multimedia facilities (animated presentations, sound, pictures, films).

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