Activities - 2004 - Report May 2003 to May 2004 |
BackgroundThis Activities Report is a slightly abbreviated version, the full report was made available to the federated societies. IntroductionThe Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES) - belonging to the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) - is the 'umbrella' of the ergonomics societies in 15 countries in Europe. FEES was approved to be a network of IEA in the Council meeting in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2003. The 15 societies are the following:
The formal foundation of FEES took place in the context of the 48th Spring Conference of the Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft in Munich, on May 7th, 2003. The Council was attended by thirteen delegates from twelve different societies. The first Executive Committee for FEES was elected at that Council meeting. The president is Pieter Rookmaaker from the Netherlands, secretary general is Clas-Håkan Nygård from Finland, and treasurer is Dirk Delaruelle from Belgium. The Executive Committee had two meetings during the year 2003 (June 10th in Brussels, Belgium, October 23rd in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands) and two meetings during the year 2004 (February 13th in Leuven, Belgium, and May 7th in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands). To the Executive Committee meetings different persons from FEES working groups or other were invited to discuss matters of mutual interest. The Executive Committee meetings were joined by: Veerle Hermans and Jaques Malchaire (Brussels Task Force), Ernst Koningsveld (IEA 2006 chair), Jan Graafmans (invited expert on EU-related matters), and Philippe Mariaux (CREE). WebsiteThe FEES website was opened during the foundation meeting of the federation in May 2003. The web manager is Dietmar Gude from Germany. The website has been updated several times during the year and provides now the most essential data about FEES. EU-Related MattersThe working group Brussels Tasks Force (BTF), which was established already a few years ago with the aim to invent EU related ergonomic activities and institutions, came to an end with its present constellation. The BTF group (Veerle Hermans, Jaques Malchaire, and Roland Gauthy) has done valuable work with finding relevant links to different institutions. The links are presented on the FEES website. The group sampled also a questionnaire from the societies with relevant national addresses to ergonomics related sources. The Executive Committee members have discussed with several persons (i.e., Jan Graafmans and others) with the aim to disseminate information about various facilities by the European Union for the FEES-members. Contacts with SocietiesThe main part of the information from the FEES Executive Committee to the societies has gone through the secretary, but all Executive Committee members have had personal contacts with many of the societies. ‘Personal talks with societies’ was started in the beginning of the year. The three Executive Committee officers have had talks with the presidents of the societies and the FEES representatives about the societies’ expectations and wishes towards FEES. A preliminary summary of the talks will be given at the Council meeting in June in Paris. Regularly contacts with IEA executives have been established. ConferencesFEES was a co-organizer of the 48th International German Ergonomics Conference in Munich, organised by the German Ergonomics Society (GfA). FEES organised a European session and had its Council meeting and foundation meeting during the conference. FEES took part in the Ergonoma/Confoseat (2nd European tradeshow on work place and work situations ergonomics) in Brussels, April 7th to 9th. This was an experiment to see how FEES can be active in making contacts both to researchers as well as practitioners in a commercial conference like this. The participation will be evaluated in order to make rules for FEES participation in commercial conferences in the future. Regularly contact with CREE has been taken during the year in order to plan the 1st European Forum for Professional Ergonomists in Paris, June 4th to 5th, 2004. FEES is a co-organiser with the Dutch Ergonomics Society to the IEA 2006 conference in Maastricht 2006. IEA 2006 chair Ernst Koningsveld has reported the proceedings in the planning regularly. Pieter Rookmaaker is the contact person for FEES to IEA 2006 organisers. Paris, June 3rd, 2004 FEES Executive Committee Pieter RookmaakerClas-Håkan NygårdDirk Delaruelle |
________ Page created 2004 by Clas-Håkan Nygård - last revision 11.10.2007 by Dietmar Gude |