Inside This Issue1 – Short Address to ISSMGE Members |
Editorial BoardJean-Louis Briaud Download ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 6 Issue 2 April 2012 |
Short Address to ISSMGE Members, Change of the Name of ISSMGE, A Personal View
By Professor Pedro Seco e Pinto, ISSMGE Immediate Past President
1. Item 11 of the Agenda of ISSMGE Council meeting, that took place in Toronto on 2nd October 2011, was related with the change of the name of the society to ISGE (International Society for Geotechnical Engineering). ISSMGE President has introduced the topic, followed by four presentations for the Change of the Name. I was the sixth speaker and my presentation was Against the Change of the Name.
Subsequently there was a period for discussions, before voting. The results of Voting were:
Against the Change of the Name – 39 votes (61.9%)
For the Change of the Name – 23 votes (36.5%)
Abstentions – 1
I was very happy and well impressed, as in spite the hot discussions that took place there was a great respect for different opinions. The Chief Editor of ISSMGE Bulletin has requested me to write a short address related with my presentation. I would like to inform that the allocated time for my presentation in Toronto Council meeting was 3 minutes. This written version is a little more detailed than my presentation.
2. The diversity of all 88 ISSMGE Member Societies, distributed in 6 Regions, with more than 19000 Individual members and represented in Figure 1, is our great richness and a source of inspiration. It is our great challenge, but also a unique opportunity to rethink ISSMGE, due to the changes of basic societal structures, and to reach a new model. We need to recognize the importance of dialogue to give our hands, to work together, and to reach the optimum solution.
