REPORT OF THE FIG FOUNDATION 2000-2001

FIG General Assembly, Seoul, 6-11 May 2001

The FIG Education Foundation had its Annual Meeting and meeting of the Board of Directors during the FIG Working Week 2000 in Prague. At this meeting it was decided to propose to the General Assembly that it decides to establish an FIG Foundation under FIG administration by transferring the FIG Education Foundation from Australia to Denmark and making the necessary legal actions and commitments and by keeping the goals and principles of the FIG Education Foundation as long as possible. This decision was then confirmed by the General Assembly.

The preparations to transfer the administration of the Foundation from Australia to Denmark started immediately after the General Assembly although the adoption of the new statutes and rules for the FIG Foundation was postponed to the next Annual Meeting and the meeting of the Board of Directors and the FIG General Assembly. These meetings took place in Seoul, Korea in May, 2001. The Statutes of the FIG Foundation were adopted at the Annual Meeting in Seoul and then confirmed by the FIG General Assembly 11 May 2001. At the same time the FIG Education Foundation was formally closed.

No legal actions were needed in Denmark to transfer the Foundation to Copenhagen when it was established  under the FIG umbrella. The Foundation activities have already been started and the funds from Australia have been transferred to the new bank account in Denmark. The administration is now fully operated from the FIG office. The Foundation has its own bank account and accounting system but its result is included in the overall accounts of the Federation. The process to close the FIG Education Foundation in Australia is still under way.

As the Foundation is part of FIG there will be no special membership to the Foundation and therefore no membership fees will be charged for 2001. 

The Board of Directors and the Annual Meeting of the Education Foundation were held in Seoul and this meeting made its recommendation on the General Assembly for the statutes of the FIG Foundation.

The statutes were prepared in a working group whose members were Iain Greenway and Stig Enemark, both Directors of the Education Foundation and the Director of FIG office. The preliminary ideas were also discussed at the FIG Bureau meeting in Providence in December 2000 and finalised at the Annual Meeting of the Foundation in Seoul..

The basic ideas include:

• To maintain the goals of the Education Foundation as much as possible however there shall be a clear split between the responsibilities of the Foundation and the Federation
• Grants from the Foundation could be given e.g. as scholarships or/and grants to projects developing curricula for surveying education, capacity building in developing countries etc.
• Grants should not be used in sponsoring FIG representatives to participate congresses of member associations (these shall be financed from the FIG budget), visits of representatives from member associations to participate FIG meetings, congresses etc (this funding should be arranged either through aid-programmes or be included in the congress budget)
• To start collect money from FIG events by including a certain sum in the registration fee (it is already agreed that in Washington this will be US$ 5 per delegate and later US$ 10)
• Voluntary contributions to the Foundation directly and in conjunction with registering to the events shall be continued.
• To start giving grants as soon as possible e.g. so that in 2001-2002 funds can be used so that the total assets do not fall below Swiss francs 40,000 and thereafter use 50 per cent of annual income.
• The administration of the Foundation should consist of a Board of Directors which is nominated by the Council. The chair of the Board of Directors shall be one of the Vice Presidents (the one responsible for fund raising and finances) and the majority of the Directors shall have expertise in education in surveying disciplines and be familiar with FIG.

The income of the FIG Foundation in 2000 include:

The total assets of the Foundation 31^st December 2000 were Swiss frs 43,339. Contribution from the working week 1999 from Sun City arrived in February 2001.

34 people registering for the Working Week in Prague each contributed US$ 25 and 6 persons US$50 to the Foundation through check-off on their registrations for a total of US$1,150. 

28 people contributed US$ 25 each and 5 people US$ 50 each to the FIG Foundation in conjunction to the working week in Seoul in 2001. The total amount of voluntary contributions through registrations was thus US$ 950.

For the future Congresses and Working Weeks registrants will be invited to contribute to the Foundation by voluntary mark-off on their registration forms. At the Washington Congress there will be both option for the voluntary contribution but in addition in the budget US$ 5 is budgeted for the Foundation in the directly in the Congress budget.

The Board of Directors that was elected in Prague include: Holger Magel, Chair, Stig Enemark (Denmark) and Iain Greenway (UK) appointed by FIG and John Curdie and John Medbury appointed by the Institute of Surveyors of Australia (ISA). 

In Seoul a new Board of Directors was appointed by the FIG Council. The Directors for period May 2001 - December 2002  are:

• Prof. Holger Magel, Germany, President

• Prof. Stig Enemark, Denmark, Director

• Iain Greenway, United Kingdom, Director

• John Hohol, U.S.A., Director

• Prof. Ian Williamson, Australia, Director.

Prof. Holger Magel
President of the FIG Foundation
Email: [email protected]

19 May 2001