Activities - 2004 - Minutes from the Council Meeting

Background

The Council meeting was held on June 4th in Paris, in the context of the 10th anniversary conference of the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomists (CREE). This text is an abbreviated account, the full minutes were made available to the federated societies.

Present

Executive Committee

• Pieter Rookmaaker (Chair)
• Clas-Håkan Nygård (Secretary)
• Dirk Delaruelle (Treasurer, also delegate for the Belgian Ergonomics Society)
• Dietmar Gude (Web manager)

Delegates

• Knut-Inge Fostervold (Nordic Ergonomics Society)
• Kristiina Juvas (Finnish Ergonomics Society)
• Veli-Matti Tuure (Finnish Ergonomics Society)
• Erminia Attainese (Italian Ergonomics Society)
• Berit Kaasli Klarer (Swiss Ergonomics Society)
• Reg Sell (British Ergonomics Society)
• Martin Schütte (German Ergonomics Society)
• Jan Dul (Dutch Ergonomics Society)
• Steve Chan (Irish Ergonomics Society)

Progress Report and EU-Related Activities

Chairman Pieter Rookmaaker welcomed the delegates on this Council meeting one year after the formal foundation of FEES. Then he walked through the progress report of FEES activities. The results from the questionnaire sent by the Brussels Task Force (BTF) to the societies, asking for relevant national institutions and centres in ergonomics, have been published on the FEES website. The Chairman expressed his sincere thanks to the working group for doing that important task. The following discussion included, among others:

• In planning future activities, the most important aspect is to address explicitly the needs of the national societies, in such a way that the benefits of the FEES membership become transparent both for the societies as well as their individual members.
• FEES should establish contacts with the EU on different levels, thereby getting involved in EU activities and projects relevant to ergonomics. In this context, the field of ergonomics needs to be introduced in an understandable way, pointing out its relevance for the EU agenda. One option is to invite EU officers and politicians for discussions, e.g., on the occasion of the IEA 2006 congress.

With the BTF 1 now having retired, the Executive Committee will establish a BTF 2 as soon as possible and also enhance contacts with EU.

Finances

Treasurer Dirk Delaruelle presented the outcome for 2003 and the budget for 2004. In the start up of FEES in 2003 the balance was positive, because of many activities are to be started in 2004. The proposed budget for 2004 is therefore negative. It is estimated that the budget could be balanced at the end of 2005.

The transactions have been checked by Ernst Koningsveld (Dutch Ergonomics Society). The finances for 2003 and the budget for 2004 were approved by the Council. For the year 2004 two controllers where elected, Ernst Koningsveld and Martin Schütte. The monitoring of the finances by controllers should be added to the rules and will be a matter of approval during the next Council meeting in 2005.

Website

Web manager Dietmar Gude presented the FEES website and updated the situation. The website is built on a concept which includes that it should be professional, ergonomic, easy to maintain, and cheap to run. The delegates found the website very good and wanted to thank the web manager for that.

It was stressed that the development of the website is one of the most important activities at the moment for FEES. The web manager will contact the societies´ web managers to get additional content, e.g., presentations of FEES Council members, together with short description of the national societies in English. In the discussion, among others, the following suggestions regarding content and functionality were brought up:

• A discussion forum related to FEES and/or ergonomics in general.
• Services for practitioners, e.g., about ‘best practice’ examples and recommended ergonomics tools.

Personal Talks with Representatives from National Societies

The Executive Committee had seven discussions with representatives from national societies about their expectations and wishes towards FEES. After completing the talks, a summary is prepared for the next Council meeting as a policy document. The talks were highly appreciated in the societies.

Working Groups

The Executive Committee aims at involving more people in the FEES activities by establishing new working groups. Among others, the formation of the following groups was discussed:

• Working group on seminars, conferences, and meetings.
• Working group on standards in ergonomics.
• Working group on website management, including those of the national societies.

Policy towards Commercial Activities

FEES has been invited to take part in different commercial activities, like trade fairs. Dirk Delaruelle reported from the Ergonoma/Confoseat tradeshow in Brussels, in which FEES participated by having a stand. The event included also a scientific part. This was an experiment to see how FEES can be active in making contacts both to researchers and practitioners. In all, the trade had about 3000 visitors. The participation of FEES was evaluated as positive because FEES aroused much interest as a new network. FEES now has been offered to take part also next year. The Council delegates welcomed this as a good initiative. It was decided that the Executive Committee prepares a short policy statement about future participations in events of this type.

Ergonomics Standards in Europe

Jan Dul (Dutch Ergonomics Society) was asked to provide an introduction to this topic. He suggested, e.g., that FEES should inform about standards, promoting their application, as well as starting a discussion about the future of ergonomics standards (e.g., during IEA 2006). The Council found this an important topic and agreed that FEES should be active in this field. Jan Dul will provide a list of standards which will be published on the FEES website in the near future.

Relations between FEES and CREE

FEES is basically a network for ergonomics and CREE is a network for ergonomists, which divide their aims. For the moment, the contacts between both networks are excellent. One good example of cooperation is that FEES is a co-organiser of the CREE 10th anniversary conference in Paris. Pieter Rookmaaker will discuss the mutual relations with the CREE chairman Philippe Mairiaux with the aim to identify areas of common interests.

Approval of new Societies

The Croatian Ergonomics Society has asked to be a member of FEES. This request was complied with, because FEES follows the rules of IEA and the Croatian Ergonomics Society is already a member of IEA. The decision was approved by the Council.

Next Council Meeting

Based on an invitation of the Ergonomics Society, the next Council meeting will take place in conjunction with its annual meeting, on April 3rd, 2005, in Hatfield, Great Britain.

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Page created 2004 by Clas-Håkan Nygård - last revision 11.10.2007 by Dietmar Gude