News in 2021

FIG General Assembly 2021 - first virtual ever - Report   

20 and 25 June 2021, online

On 20 and 25 June the FIG General Assembly was held in conjuction to the e-Working Week 2021. It covered both the 43rd and 44th General Assembly agendas because of the postponement of the General Assembly 2020 due to the COVID19 pandemic, and this was also the first virtual General Assembly ever.

The General Assembly was divided into four sessions:
  1. Presidents report and agenda items, Sunday 20 June 2021
    watch recording
  2. Get to know your candidates, Sunday 20 June 2021
    watch recording
  3. Result of the elections and FIG Governance, Friday 25 June 2021
    watch recording
  4. The work of FIG, Friday 25 June 2021
    watch recording
  5. Closing session
    watch recording

In total 73 Member associations are included in the roll call. The 73 official delegates represented the member associations in the elections, representing in total 89 votes. The General Assembly sessions were open for all.

In the Presidents meeting held on 25 June 2021, 50 presidents/heads of delegations attended.

The minutes from the General Assembly will be available soon. This report highlights the most important decisions that were adopted by the General Assembly. You can also watch the videos of each of the General Assembly sessions.

Election of two FIG Vice Presidents

Three candidates contested for the two Vice President posts for 2021-2024:

  • Ghana: Kwame Tenadu, Licenced Surveyors Association of Ghana - LISAG,
  • Nigeria: Mohammed Mamman Kabir, Nigerian Institution of Surveyors NIS,
  • Sweden: Mikael Lilje, Swedish Professionals for the Built Environment, Samhällsbyggarna

In the first round Mikael Lilje got 54.8% of all votes and was therefore elected directly for the first position.


In the second round Kwame Tenadu with  72.1% of all votes got the second position.

A very big thanks to all three candidates and their associations who nominated them.

Originally, this voting should have taken place in 2020 and the elected Vice Presidents were going to start their term at the beginning of 2021. The delay of the General Assembly caused the Council to decide that the current Vice Presidents would continue until the end of the General Assembly 2021 and the new Vice Presidents would take over immediately from there. Mikael Lilje stays on Council, and Kwame Tenadu replaces Orhan Ercan, Turkey, who is now stepping down.

At the closing this was marked with a thank you from the President and a short statement from Orhan Ercan accompanied by a small video with pictures.

Future FIG conferences

After intensive discussions with the LOCs from South Africa, USA and the candidates fro 2025, Australia and Poland, Council took the following decisions:

  1. Congress 2022 will be in Warsaw, Poland instead of Cape Town South Africa
  2. Working Week 2025 will be in Brisbane, Australia
  3. Congress 2026 will be in Cape Town, South Africa

With these decisions the next FIG events will be:

Year Location
FIG Congress 2022 Warsaw, Poland
FIG Working Week 2023 Orlando, Florida, USA
FIG Working Week 2024 Accra, Ghana
FIG Working Week 2025 Brisbane, Australia
FIG Congress 2026 Cape Town, South Africa

The General Assembly welcomed the decisions with an overwhelming majority.

The General Assembly also authorized Council to take further extraordinary decisions within the next months if necessary.

Read more on the selection on the future destinations

In the video of session 2 you can meet the organisers from both Warsaw Poland (2022) and Brisbane Australia (2025), and in the Closing there is an interview with the Local organisers from Cape Town and from Poland.

New members

Two new member associations were admitted by the General Assembly:

  • Zimbabwe Institute of Geomatics - ZIG 
  • Association of Surveyors of the Solomon Islands

Unfortunately it was also necessary to expel members due to unpaid arrears. Members that were expelled were:

  • Colombian Society of Surveyors, Colombia - MA-10124
  • Society of Professionals of Land Information Technologies (SPLIT), Georgia – MA-10099

However, in case FIG will receive payment from these associations they will be reinstalled.

Welcome to FIG to all new members:

In the video of General Assembly session 3 you can watch a thank you greeting from the two new member associations

Honorary members

Three new honorary members were adopted by the General Assembly

  • Dr Robin McLaren
  • Mr. Jim Smith
  • Prof. Michael Barry

In General Assembly session 3 you can watch their thank you greetings.

Ten new Commission Chairs elects

The elected commission chairs elecs will start their actual term as commission chairs 2023-2026:

  • Commission 1:   Timothy W. Burch, USA
  • Commission 2:   Dimo Todorovski, Netherlands
  • Commission 3:   Sagi Daylot, Israel
  • Commission 4:   Malavige Don Eranda Kanachana Gunathilaka, Sri Lanka
  • Commission 5:   Ryan Keenan, Australia
  • Commission 6:   Werner Lienhart, Austria
  • Commission 7:   Rohan Bennett, Australia/Netherlands
  • Commission 8:   Kwabena Asiama, Ghana
  • Commission 9:   Peter Ache, Germany
  • Commission 10: Anil Sawhney, UK

Welcome to all and also a big thanks to all associations for their nominations and support.

Engagement committee

One recommendation of the Task Force on Governance was to establish an informal Engagement Committee to create interest, motivate and encourage qualified people and member associations to apply for volunteer senior posts in FIG. FIG Council suggested to the General Assembly establishing already now an informal Engagement Committee as described in the Council response, Key issue E, for a trial period from now and until 2025.

Appointed in June/July 2021, the committee could assist in promoting the search for the next President and two Vice Presidents (to be elected in 2022).

The General Assembly voted on this issue:

FIG Council will work on how to compose this engagement committee.

Task Force on FIG Governance


Most of FIG General Assembly session 3 was dedicated to the results of the Task Force Work on FIG Governance. Chair of the Task Force, FIG Vice President Diane Dumashie presented the results of the Task Force work.
Hereafter FIG President Rudolf Staiger gave a council response to the work and also thanked Diane Dumashie, the core group and all those who have responded to questionnaires, online meetings etc for their valuable contributions.

Three topics were selected for breakout groups as part of FIG General Assembly session 3:

  1. Member Benefits: The benefits of being a member of FIG - of the different membership categories (moderated by Louise Friis-Hansen, FIG Director)
  2. Brand: Understanding and defining the FIG brand (Moderated by Diane Dumashie, FIG Vice President and chair of the Task Force on FIG Governance)
  3. YSN transitioning and integration: Increasing and enabling young surveyors to transition from the YSN (moderated by Kwabena Asiama, Chair of Young Surveyors Network)

The outcome of the breakout discussions will be included in the minutes of the General Assembly.

The presentation and also the summaries after the breakout discussions can be viewed in the recording of FIG General Assembly session 3.

The work of FIG

In the General Assembly agenda reports and also video presentations of the commission, network, task forces and permanenent insitutions are available. The General Assembly accepted all reports in the agenda.

General Assembly session 4 included a selection of the work that has been undertaken within the later years. FIG Vice President Mikael Lilje and Commission Chair Hartmut Müller, who also serves during 2021 and 2022 as the commission representative to Council (ACCO representative) chaired this session, and it included:

  • Land Administration Domain Model
  • Water Governance Challenges in Africa
  • International Boundary Making  and International Boundaries on Unstable Ground
  • FIG Cooperation with UN-Habitat - Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) incl the two latest publications
  • The History of Surveying - Seven books covering three millenniums of measurement of earth
  •  The Volunteer Community Surveyor Programme - VCSP
  • 20 years of FIG Foundation

Please view the recording of General Assembly session 4

The General Assembly was divided into four sessions:
  1. Presidents report and agenda items, Sunday 20 June 2021
    watch recording
  2. Get to know your candidates, Sunday 20 June 2021
    watch recording
  3. Result of the elections and FIG Governance, Friday 25 June 2021
    watch recording
  4. The work of FIG, Friday 25 June 2021
    watch recording
  5. Closing session
    watch recording

Further readings


Session 3 - Diane Dumashie talks about the results of the Task Force on FIG Governance


FIG President Rudolf Staiger and his council in session 1

Presentation of the History of Surveying written by Jan De Graeve and Jim Smith in General Assembly session 4 - The Work of FIG.

 

 

Louise Friis-Hansen
June 2021