00-4 The 4th General Meeting and the new statutes
The ongoing business
As requested by law, the DLMS User Association had the yearly General Meeting, this year held in Munich on September 6th in Munich. It was combined with the Metering Europe 2000 Conference and Exhibition. This combination was very interesting, it was possible to listen to papers concerning liberalisation and concequences for automatic meter reading, to see many examples at the different booths, and to discuss and decide on items concerning the DLMS UA. Ongoing business were the business report, the financial matters, and the elections. Three replacements in the Management Committee took place, which is now guided by the new president, Mr. G. Kmethy (Schlumberger). The other members are Mr. G. Galabert (EDF), Mr. G. Riboldi (Goerlitz), Mr. T. Salo (Enermet), Dr. T. Schaub and Dr. M. Wisy. Mr. J.-C. Grossiord is the auditor. The Management Committee appointed Mr. P. Fuchs as General Secretary and Mr. R. Odoni as Treasurer.
The new statutes
The second edition of the statutes mark quite a change, compared with the first edition dated 1997. The privileges of the three founder members are no longer existing. There is even a statement to avoid that one company can have more then one seat in the Management Committee, or to avoid that the President and the General Secretary belong to the same company.
Besides the Full members paying the full fees exists now a new member category, the Associated members. This membership is free of charge and is reserved for associations with similar goals, where a mutual interest for a cross membership exists. At the time being, the M-Bus User Group and the EURIDIS Association have joined on this basis.
As mentionned before, there is now a president (elected by the Management Committee among ist members) and a General Secretary who assumes administrative and executive functions. Three to seven representatives of Full members can be elected by the General Meeting to be members of the Management Committee.
The upcoming items
The most interesting point was the presentation of the ongoing work concerning conformance testing. The working group convenor presented the actual findings of the WG, which consists of representatives of eight companies. Actually, the specifications and the test plans are established, three offers were received and presently in the evaluation process, and the business plan is established. Members will be informed more deeply of the ongoing process. Next steps are
- to select the tool provider
- to set up the legal frame
- to develop the test tool