Minutes of the FIRST board of Directors
8th September 1997, Grenoble, France

Notes of Meeting of the EUNIS Executive Committee held on Monday, 8th September 1997 at 3.00 pm in Grenoble, France

1. Introduction

The meeting was held at the Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble on the occasion of EUNIS 97, the third Congress of EUNIS.

2. EUNIS 97

Jean Francois Desnos, the Chairman of the Organising Committee, provided a summary of EUNIS 97. It will be attended by almost 250 delegates from 25 countries. There will be 55 papers and 16 poster presentations. The event was made possible with the help of a large grant from the Ministry of Education in addition to financial assistance from the regional authorities.

Jean Francois Desnos was congratulated on the success of EUNIS 97 and thanked for all his work in organising the event. Yves Epelboin was thanked for his work as Chairman of the Congress Programme Committee.

3. EUNIS 98 and EUNIS 99

It was agreed that EUNIS 98 would be similar to the EUNIS 96 event which was held in Manchester. There would only be invited speakers and it would last just two days. Ivan Vrana offered to hold EUNIS 98 in Prague and he will contact Yves Epelboin soon to confirm this.

It was agreed that EUNIS 99 would be similar to EUNIS 95 and EUNIS 97 and would therefore be a large event with invited papers, contributions and poster presentations. Kristel Sarlin agreed to consider holding EUNIS 99 in Helsinki.

4. EUNIS Officers for 1997 / 1998

The President, Robin McDonough, confirmed that it was his intention to stand down as President of EUNIS. He was delighted to report that Yves Epelboin had agreed to become the new President of EUNIS and he wished him much success during his period of office.

Kristel Sarlin and Martin Price agreed to serve as the two Vice Presidents of EUNIS and Peter Mederly agreed to act as Secretary of EUNIS.

Jean Francois Desnos will act as Treasurer of EUNIS.

5. Executive Committee of EUNIS for 1997 / 1998

It was noted that some countries were not represented on the Executive Committee. In particular we need representatives from:

  • Germany (second representative)
  • Belgium
  • Norway
  • Italy
  • Hungary
  • Denmark
  • Switzerland.
6. The EUNIS Web Pages

It was noted that there were still many gaps in the national pages of the EUNIS web site. All executive members agreed to take steps to correct the omissions.

7. Statute of EUNIS

With the resignation of Bruno Paternostre, the work on lodging the statutes of EUNIS in Brussels have come to an end. It was agreed instead to lodge the statutes of EUNIS in Grenoble under French law and Jean Francois Desnos would undertake this.

8. Funding of EUNIS

It was agreed that long-term funding was essential for the success of EUNIS. The EU was an obvious potential source. However, so far this had not been successful. Yves Epelboin agreed to find the names of people in Brussels who might help this.

9. AXIS Publication

Robin McDonough described AXIS, the publication of the UK National Committee. It is published four times each year. It is keen to include news of EUNIS and will devote one issue to EUNIS 97 including a number of the papers which had been presented at Grenoble.

10. Co-Ordinators

It was agreed that we need to appoint co-ordinators for each activity of EUNIS.

11. Software Costs Investigation

Yves Epelboin demonstrated the benefit of the work of Gordon Young. As a result of the survey on Microsoft costs, an approach had ben made to Microsoft, France who had agreed to halve the price. This work must continue. In particular it was agreed to establish a network of software contacts in each country.

Summary of Actions
  1. EUNIS 98 : I Vrana
  2. EUNIS 99 : K Sarlin
  3. EUNIS Web : All missing countries
  4. Software Analysis : G Young
  5. President : Y Epelboin
  6. Vice Presidents : M Price / K Sarlin
  7. Secretary : P Mederly
  8. Treasurer : JF Desnos
  9. Statutes of EUNIS : JF Desnos
  10. Funding EU : Y Epelboin
  11. Network of Software Contacts : G Young
  12. Co-ordinators in all areas.

 

W Robin McDonough     15th September 1997