culated six months in advance to members for review 
and comment and no adverse comments had been 
made. 
The Delegate from Switzerland congratulated the Council 
on most of the changes but also spoke against the change 
from "Ordinary Member" to "National Member". He felt 
that the term "National Member" was old-fashioned and 
would lead to confusion with Associate Membership. The 
suggested term was "Regular Members". 
The Delegate from China supported the comment by the 
EARSeL Delegate. He remarked that a "National Member" 
would indicate that there could only be one member per 
country. President Fritz stated that ISPRS is not a political 
organisation and that the term "Ordinary" is somewhat 
derogatory in the English language. 
The Delegate from USA noted that 25% of their member- 
ship comes from outside the USA. 
The Delegate from UK asked, and Council agreed, for their 
Resolution on Bylaw XIII for improving the effectiveness of 
Commission Correspondents to be circulated. 
  
The Delegate from Australia asked for confirmation that in 
future there would be a contract for the Congresses with a 
guaranteed return to the Society. The response was in the 
affirmative. 
The Delegate from Austria commented that it was reason- 
able for the Society to receive some return from the Con- 
gress but that the Society should provide "seed" money. 
Second Vice President Barbosa stated that the organisers 
for future Congresses would be offered an interest-free 
loan of up to Swf 100,000. 
The Delegate from Sweden stated that Statute | seemed to 
place international co-operation before science. 
The Delegate for Switzerland asked whether Bylaw XIII.10 
would force Commission Presidents to have a Working 
Group for each Resolution relating to the Commission. The 
President stated that all resolutions must be addressed by 
the Commissions or by Council, but not necessarily by 
creation of specific Working Groups. 
The first General Assembly adjourned at approximately 
5 pm. 
  
Second General Assembly, Tuesday, 15.00-18.00 18th July 2000 
1. Presidents Welcome 
President Fritz welcomed Honorary Member Professor 
Friedrich Ackermann, ITC Rector, Professor Karl Harmsen, 
the CEO of LH-Systems Mr. Bruce Wald, winners of 
awards and other guests. 
6. Admission of New Members 
Certificates of Membership in good standing were pre- 
sented to Delegates of new Ordinary Members from 
Botswana, the Department of Surveys and Mapping, and 
EI Salvador, Instituto Geográfico Nacional. 
An application for Associate Membership was received 
from The Russian Public Organization "Society of Contri- 
bution to the Development of Photogrammetry and 
Remote Sensing". The application for Membership was 
approved. 
7. Changes of Category 
Council reviewed the request from South Africa to 
reduce its positional membership from Category 5 to 2 
and did not support it. The President asked whether a 
donor organisation could be sought to support Category 
5 membership. The Delegate from South Africa stated 
that the reasons for the application were purely financial. 
They have only 146 members and no support from Gov- 
ernment. The request for positional reduction had been 
sent 6 months ago and since then the Society had amal- 
gamated with another society. This may alleviate the 
problem. The GA agreed to defer for six months any 
decision for positional reduction of category of member- 
ship. 
98 
  
14. Presentation of Awards 
14.1 Gamble Awards Were Introduced and Presented 
by Treasurer Professor Rüther to: 
- Dr. Adigun A. Abiodun (Nigeria), Senior Special Assis- 
tant to the President on Space Science & Technology, 
Nigeria and former UN Expert on Space Applications 
(in absentia) 
- Professor Bruce Forster (Australia), Professor of Geo- 
matic Engineering at the University of New South 
Wales 
14.2 The Eduard Dolezal Awards Were Presented by 
President Fritz and the Representative of the Austrian 
Society for Surveying and Geoinformation, Professor 
Karl Kraus to: 
- Dr. I. Katzarsky, Bulgaria 
- Dr. U.R. Rao, Indian Space Research Organisation 
(ISRO), India 
- Parviz Tarikhi, Iranian Remote Sensing Centre (IRSC) 
Iran 
14.3 Helava Runner-up Certificates Were Presented by 
Treasurer Rüther and Mr. Bruce Wald, CEO of LH Sys- 
tems to: 
- 1997 Best Paper Award: Liang Tang, Josef Braun, Ras- 
mus Debitsch 
- 1998 Best Paper Award: E. Jeroen Huising , Luisa M. 
Gomes Pereira 
- 1999 Best Paper Award: V. Sequeira, K. Ng, E. Wolfart, 
J.G.M. Gonçalves, D. Hogg 
International Archives of Photogrammerty and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part A. Amsterdam 2000.