Report on the EMS Council Session in April 2018

The EMS Council met on the 10th and 11th of April 2018 in Norrköping, Sweden, at the invitation of SMHI. The session was chaired by Bob Riddaway, President of EMS.

The Council monitored the actions and decisions from its previous session. In addition, it:

• Reviewed the activities of the President, Treasurer and Executive Secretary
• Scrutinised implementation of the strategic plan
• Monitored arrangements for the next Annual Meeting
• Considered the results on the survey of Member Societies and how to enhance the use of social media by EMS

The following are some of the key decisions taken by Council:

1. The proposal from MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) that it collaborates with the EMS in publishing the journal Atmosphere was declined. Though the collaboration would provide some benefits to EMS members, there would be conflict with the publishing interests of some Member Societies. In addition, the requirement for the EMS to “set up special issues with EMS conferences and collect selected papers from the conferences” would conflict with the purpose of ASR, the journal that publishes papers presented at EMS Annual Meetings.
2. The Silver Medal for 2018 was awarded to Tillman Mohr for his key role in shaping the European Meteorological Infrastructure, especially as Director of EUMETSAT. Also the Ninjo project, which developed a monitoring, forecasting and warning meteorological workstation system, was chosen as the recipient of the Technology Achievement Award.
3. Suggestions were made about how to encourage the submission of contributions to the ems-message. These included trying to get more contributions from Associate Members and having more items that might be of interest to amateur members of Member Societies. The Liaison Committee will consider the suggestions that were made.
4. The establishment of an international project to engage working scientists in secondary school education would not go ahead because there appears to be nobody willing to take the lead on behalf of the EMS.
5. The structure of the General Assembly will be modified so that there are more opportunities to share experiences about specific activities (e.g. accreditation and support for early career scientists, including mentoring).
6. Some changes were proposed to the Roles of Procedure of Council and the General Assembly. The changes aim to clarify a few issues and make it easier for Council to carry out votes by correspondence. The changes will be considered at the General Assembly in Budapest.

The next Council meeting will be held on the morning of the 2nd of September 2018 at the Corvinus University in Budapest. The General Assembly will take place in the afternoon.

Bob Riddaway, EMS