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Geotechnical News • March 2016
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
dures or even statutes on how to pro-
ceed with the symposia in the future
or how to organise FMGM as a whole.
Nevertheless all previous symposia,
since the first in Zurich in 1983, have
been successful and generated a lot of
international interest in the specialised
topics dealt with.
Despite the success of the
de-facto
arrangement there is no guarantee that
FMGM will continue to be as success-
ful in the future and therefore during
the 8th International FMGM Sympo-
sium, held in Berlin in 2011, a general
assembly was held to discuss the
future of the symposia. It was agreed
that a formal FMGM Secretariat
should be established. Several people
and organisations were contacted
about this and the British Geotechni-
cal Association (BGA) has agreed to
host a Secretariat for FMGM. This
was formally announced at the Sydney
symposium. The new FMGM Secre-
tariat will be formed as a subcommit-
tee of the BGA Executive Committee
and will be made up of people from
the BGA Executive Committee, the
existing FMGM supporters and other
co-opted people. The new FMGM
secretariat will have its own financial
arrangements, sitting under the current
BGA financial organisation and to
date over £10,000 has been pledged
by companies and organisations with
interests in the subject. During the
Sydney symposium several people
were approached and agreed to par-
ticipate in the committee affairs of the
new Secretariat. In addition an FMGM
LinkedIn discussion group (named
“Field Measurements in Geomechan-
ics”) has been initiated to distribute
information.
The principal aims of the new Secre-
tariat are to:
1. Set up and maintain a list of per-
sons, organisations and institutions
that want to be associated with
FMGM.
2. Establish and develop a new
FMGM website.
3. Distribute an annual newsletter.
4. Establish financial independence
for FMGM. This has and will con-
tinue to be done by approaching
members of the FMGM commu-
nity, particularly service providers
and instrumentation suppliers, for
financial support in running the
Secretariat.
5. Establish written guidelines for fu-
ture FMGM Symposia, including
how to decide where they should
be held, how to run the symposia,
how to share the risks between
local organisers of an FMGM sym-
posium and the FMGM Secretariat
and updating the guidelines after
each symposium and;
6. Explore the feasibility of estab-
lishing an international FMGM
Society or a Technical Committee
on Field Measurements as part
of the International Society of
Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical
Engineering.
Anyone wanting more information
about the new FMGM Secretariat can
write in the first instance to Andrew
Ridley (andrew@geo-observations.
com) or join the LinkedIn discussion
group and post a comment.
Andrew Ridley
Geotechnical Observations Limited
The Peter Vaughan Building
9 Avro Way Brooklands
Weybridge Surrey KT13 0YF
Tel: +44 1932 352040
Email: andrew@geo-observations.
com
The Vancouver Geotechnical Society
and the
Canadian Geotechnical Society
69th Canadian GeoteChniCal ConferenCe
Topics and specialty sessions of local and national relevance to geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering
October 2 to 5, 2016 • Westin Bayshore Hotel • Vancouver British Columbia
