Chair’s Report 4 th IVS General Meeting Concepción/Chile, January 9-12, 2004

1. Chair’s Report 4th IVS General MeetingConcepción/Chile, January 9-12, 2004 • Wolfgang Schlüter • Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Fundamentalstation Wettzell

2. Thanks to University of Concepción and in particular to the TIGO groupand to the Coordinating Centerfor preparing and hosting the 4th IVS GM 2006 Local Organizing Committee: Hayo Hase, chair Jenny Neumann, Secretary Oscar Cifunente IVS Coordination Center Dirk Behrend (NVI, Inc./GSFC)

3. Thanks to the Program Committeefor the preparation of the scientific program Dirk Behrend (NVI. Inc./GSFC-USA) Johannes Böhm (TU-Vienna, Austria) Oscar Cifuentes (UdeC/TIGO-Chile) Ed Himwich (NVI, Inc./GSFC-USA) Yasuhiro Koyama (NICT-Japan) Jinling Li (SHAO-China) Seiji Manabe (NAO-Japan) Arthur Niell (MIT-Haystack, USA) Axel Nothnagel (Univ. Bonn - Germany) Pierguido Sarti (IR-INAF, Italy) Alan Whitney (MIT-Haystack, USA)

4. IVS General Meetings • IVS GM 2000 “Highlights and Challenges of VLBI” Kötzting – Germany, February 21-24, 2000 • IVS GM 2002, “Prospectives for the Future” Tsukuba-Japan, February 4-7, 2002 • IVS GM 2004, "Today's Results and Tomorrow's Vision" Ottawa-Canada, February 9-11, 2004 • IVS GM 2006, “Next Generation VLBI2010” Concepcion-Chile, January 9-11, 2006 IVS set goals for the future and consequently improved its products with time to meet service requirements

5. Important steps since GM2004,not complete and very general • Newsletters are an important tool for information • IVS Observing Program has been evolved in order to improve the product quality and quantity • Digital recording systems implemented and continuously improved • E-VLBI Experiments continued and improved successfully, routinely employed for Intensives • CONT05 has been observed to demonstrate the VLBI capabilities and the capabilities of combination with other techniques, IGS and ILRS requested their components to enhance the activities during CON05. • And more …

6. Working Group 3 report: “VLBI2010: Current and future Requirements for Geodetic VLBI” By Arthur Niell, Alan Whitney, Bill Petrachenko, Wolfgang Schlüter, Nancy Vanden- berg, Hayo Hase, Yasuhiro Koyama, Chopo Ma, Harald Schuh, Gino Tucari Report was reviewed by Gerhard Beutler, IAG President, and Jan Kouba, formerly IGS analysis coordinator. Report is a very good basis for the coordination of future activities Report provides good arguments for new developments Report supports to obtain funds Report is distributed to all members Report should be distributed not only within IVS to experts but also to administrators and agencies which make use of IVS products “Next Generation VLBI2010”

7. VLBI 2010 Committee established at the DB-meeting in Washington in September 2005 Members : W. Petrachenko (chair), D. Behrend (CC), J. Böhm, B. Corey, R. Haas, Y. Koyama, D. MacMilan, Z. Malkin, A. Niell, G. Tuccari Motivation To contribute to global geodesy at highest level, it is necessary to maintain ongoing research activity directed at continuously improving the VLBI technique. Primary function is to promote and guide research into the improvement of the technique of geodetic VLBI, Take integrated view of VLB I, evaluate the effectiveness of proposed system changes Take over responsibility for encouraging the implementation of WG3 recommendations VLBI 2010 Committee

8. Nancy Vandenberg retired Dirk Behrend became the new Director of CC and chair of the OPC FAGS representative in the Board: FAGS has nominated Roy Booth, Onsala - Sweden From the Directing Board

9. Let’s keep the good work! Thank you!