Hydrographic Society Benelux

News
Annual General Meeting HSB 2005
The fourth Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Hydrographic Society Benelux (HSB) took place on the morning on 18th February 2005 in the aula of Delft University of Technology. After the meeting a workshop was held entitled ‘Differential Navigation Networks’, a report of which will be published in the May issue of Hydro international. The presentations, this report and minutes may also be downloaded from the HSB website at www.hydrographicsociety.nl.

Twenty-three individual and sixteen corporate members attended the AGM. The Minutes of Meeting of the AGM 2004 as published in Hydro International (April issue) were accepted without amendments. The annual report of the chairman and secretary was presented and accepted by the AGM. The annual report of the treasurer was presented and clarified by Rob van Ree. He also spoke a word of thanks to Mr Fluijter, who has kept the accounts for many years but has now indicated his desire to stand down. The AGM accepted the budget and the proposal not to change the contribution fee for members, with the exception of students. A majority of student members actually quit the society when they have to pay their fee; after discussion, it was decided that there would be more communication concerning these payments and Sjoerd van den Brom and Bart van Mierloo would find ways of increasing student involvement. The contribution for 2005 will be corporate members - €375, associate corp. members - €200, individual members - €45, and retired members - €22,50. The first year will still be free for students, the payment then being €10.

The financial auditing committee of Cor Don and Sjoerd van den Brom reported having inspected all accounts over 2004 and found them to be in order. The AGM discharged the treasurer for the year 2004. The members of the financial auditing committee of 2004 will be Sjoerd van den Brom and Peter Boon.
Jan van den Berg reported the activities of the Educational Fund (EF) for 2004. The committee members stay on for 2005. It appeared that there were some proposals of the committee, but according to the board they were too much orientated towards promotion. The board, with the help of the committee, will set out a clear but separate policy for EF and promotion.
Ellen Stuifbergen reviewed 2004 website hits: there were about 200 individual visits monthly. Downloads were the most popular item. The forum and the possibility to place any vacancies were seldom used. In 2005 the corporate members will get a link with their company website. Communication with members by means of the site will be stimulated. Already it is possible to join the HSB through the website and there is an online registration form for workshops. The website will be developed to simplify or take over present tasks of the secretary.

The HSB is a member of he International Federation of Hydrographic Societies (IFHS). The financial situation of the IFHS is a difficult issue; the reserves of the past are decreasing too fast. Besides cutting expenses, the IFHS board has three proposals. The first is to reset the £10 per member at £15 as per October 2005. The second proposal is to ask corporate members to pay extra to the IFHS. In exchange they will get advantages (e.g. lower cost for advertisement in diary/ the Journal or other IFHS magazine). This will be optional and the members will receive a letter in which the proposal will be explained. The third proposal is to grant the IFSH a loan of £10,000. There might be a paid yearly dividend, the amount to be determined by the IFHS board.

The AGM voted in favour of Proposals 1 and 3 with, respectively, 24 in favour, four against and eleven abstentions; and 21 in favour, fourteen against and four abstentions. The members asked the board to reveal to members the IFHS budget (on the website or otherwise) and to be very assiduous on IFHS expenses. With the positive outcome to grant a loan, the budget of the HSB will be changed in tune with this amount.

Further to the retirement of four members of the board: Cor Beemster, Stijn Claes, Tanja Heringa and Floris Siteur, four new Board members were elected. This resulted in the following board for the year 2005: Rob Luijnenburg (chairman), Rob van Ree (treasurer), Hessel Bakker (secretary), Jan van den Berg, Luc Boehme, Durk Haarsma, Niels Kinneging, Ellen Stuifbergen, Wim van Wieren (executive members). After elections to the board, it was requested to send out such invitations sooner and with more information in case of a vote.

Gerard Mallee inquired about the organisation of Hydro ’06. The board is requested to organise Hydro ’06 within Benelux. This will probably not take place in March because of Oceanology ’06. Wim van Wieren will try to form a committee to organise Hydro ’06. The chairman thanked all attendees for their conduct of matters on the agenda and invited them to lunch.

Contact
Att. T.H. Heringa
Postbus 175
1970 AD IJmuiden
Tel: +31 255 545 622
Fax: +31 255 545 645
www.hydrographicsociety.nl