Extracts from the 15th General Conference

Nakhon Ratchashima, Thailand 1995

The General Conference was held during the 16th ACRS at Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. Professor Shunji Murai, General Secretary of the AARS presided in the absence of the immediate past president. As usual the General Secretary presented the annual report and financial report.

There were three applications for new membership. These were from Laos People's Democratic Republic, China Taipei and Jordan. It was recognized that the Article 6: Membership, in the Statute of AARS, should be amended to consider membership under special criteria. Also Amendment to Article:7 was required to limit the number of participants at the General Conference and to enable to conduct the General conference during the absence of the Executive Chairman.

These amendments were made after threadbare discussions. Laos and Jordan were then admitted as ordinary members of AARS under the country criteria and China Taipei was admitted as ordinary member under the criteria of "region".

Dr. Ryutro Tateshi, Chairman, "1 km database in Asia" informed the General Conference about the Working Group meetings held so far. He expected that some data sets will be ready before the 17th ACRS and will be distributed free of charge.

A report on the 1st meeting of GIS Text book/Software for Education Working Groups were presented by Dr. Ryoskma Shibasaki and Dr. Kohei Cho. The meeting discussed on the target of the text book/software/dataset for education, guiding principles for preparing the text book, schedule for publication and configuration . The General conference deeply appreciated the efforts and a number of participants offered support.

The General Conference once again elected Prof. Shunji Muri as the General Secretary by voice votes. However, Dr. Suvit Vivulsresth, the Deputy General Secretary, who was very strongly urged to continue in the position, requested the members to elect a new person. He stressed that the pressure of his work as Secretary General of National Research Council of Thailand may not allow him to do justice to his tasks as the Deputy General Secretary. He himself proposed the name of Mr. Manu Omakupt of Thailand who is a dedicated founder member of AARS, for election as Deputy General Secretary in his place. The General Conference thereafter considered the nomination of Mr. Manu Omakupt and elected him with voice votes as the next Deputy General Secretary.