IGS Council Members Elections

To members of the IGS: The IGS bylaws prescribe that up to half of the Council be elected
every two years. Therefore, a postal ballot election will be held in spring 2004 to elect eight
Members to the IGS Council for a four-year term, starting in June 2004.
The eight elected IGS Council Members, whose term expires in 2004 are: 1) J.W. Cowland (Hong Kong-China) 2) D.R. Fettig (USA) 3) M. Kamon (Japan) 4) J. Lafleur (Canada) 5) E.-S. Lee (South Korea) 6) M.-L. da Costa Lopes (Portugal) 7) B. Myles (United Kingdom) 8) J. Paul (United Kingdom).
The IGS bylaws stipulate that a Council Member may serve two consecutive terms; hence,
J.W. Cowland, D.R. Fettig, M. Kamon, E.-S. Lee, M.-L. da Costa Lopes, and B. Myles are
eligible for re-election. They will have completed one, four-year term as Council Members
by spring 2004.
Among the elected IGS Council Members, therefore only J. Lafleur and J. Paul are not
eligible: since now, I take this opportunity to thank both of them for their important effort,
during the eight years of their mandate, for the development of our Society, and in
particular I am very grateful to J. Paul, for his full dedication to the IGS, before as
Chairman of the IGS Education Committee and more recently as Chairman of the IGS
European Activities Committee.
Moreover, there are two Co-opted IGS Council Members, whose four year term expires in
2004 as well, and they are: 1) V. Feodorov (Romania) 2) M. Sadlier (Australia).
Therefore, I encourage you to stimulate discussion in your Chapter in order to select one
IGS member, who is able to attend all IGS Council meetings, to consider standing for one
of the Council positions. It is important in fact that all geographical regions are represented
on the Council and that its Members reflect the scope of the geosynthetics discipline.
Under the Bylaws of the IGS, only IGS Members are eligible for these positions.
Candidates must be able to travel to and attend the IGS Council meetings, which are held
usually once a year. Meetings of the IGS Council are generally held basically in
conjunction with international and regional conferences.
A signed letter of application together with a biographical note (not exceeding 12 lines) and
a photograph should reach the IGS Secretary no later than 31 January 2004. Candidates
must strictly adhere to the 12 line limit to ensure equal presentation space for all
candidates. In their letter to the IGS Secretary, candidates must clearly identify their
country of residence.
Biographical notes will be published in the March 2004 issue of “IGS News” (with photo),
on the IGS World Wide Web home page (www.geosyntheticssociety.org), and in the
postal-ballot package sent to each IGS Member.
Taking into account also some experiences of the past, my sincere suggestion is to
coordinate the efforts in your Chapter in order to select not more than one candidate: this
candidate, if supported unanimously from your Chapter membership, will have more
chances to be elected.
Should you need further information, don’t hesitate to contact me directly or the IGS
Secretary Peter Stevenson (igspete@aol.com or igssec@aol.com ).
– Daniele Cazzuffi, International Geosynthetics Society President