I just wanted to put this information out to make sure everyone knows about the FIG as a resource.
The FIG (pronounced F-I-G, never FIG) is an international organization of member organizations from many countries. From their web site FIG:
FIG is the premier international organization representing the interests of surveyors worldwide. It is a federation of the national member associations and covers the whole range of professional fields within the global surveying community. It provides an international forum for discussion and development aiming to promote professional practice and standards.
From the US, the members are the ACSM and The Appraisal Institute. The map below shows countries which have member organizations:
The FIG is divided into ten Commissions:
Commission 1 – Professional Standards and Practice
Commission 2 – Professional Education
Commission 3 – Spatial Information Management
3-D Cadastre
Commission 4 – Hydrography
Commission 5 – Positioning and Measurement
GNSS Developments and Modernization
Commission 6 – Engineering Surveys
Commission 7 – Cadastre and Land Management
Cadastral template
3-D Cadastre
Cadastre 2014
Commission 8 – Spatial Planning and Development
African Task Force
Commission 9 – Valuation and the Management of Real Estate
Commission 10 - Construction Economics and Management
Each country can have a delegate to each of the ten commissions. I am the US delegate to Commission 6, Engineering Surveys. Dave Doyle is the delegate from the US for Commission 5.
Each Year they have a working week in a member country, and every fourth year there is a Congress and General Assembly.
The working week this year is in Rome, Italy. Here is a link to the technical programme: 2012 Working Week Technical Programme (draft)
If you look through here, you can see that there are a LOT of good papers to be presented.
Also, the proceedings from past working weeks and Congresses are available online:
Finally, they have an online reference library:
I have been to the 2006 Congress in Munich, 2007 working week in Hong Kong, 2008 working week in Stockholm, 2010 Congress in Sydney, 2011 working week in Marrakech, and will be going this year to Rome. I also went to a deformation conference in Baden, Austria in 2005 (I think it was 2005) and another deformation conference last year in Hong Kong. All of these were really interesting, as you get a feel for what is being done all over the world, not just in the US.
I hope the above links are useful. There is a lot of FREE information out there.
Interesting.....a tax deductable trip to Rome in May......hmmmmm.
Also interesting, the diversity of presenters.
Only a few from the USA and Canada though.
Thanks for the info, John.
I was on my way to Belgium to attend with Dave Wahlstrom, who presenting that year but something else came up. I will make a trip eventually. The education committee was always very helpful and giving when I was researching Engineering Survey topics.
I'll see you there at some point.
Cheers,
Ralph
John,
Thank you for your dedication to the Profession.
I took a look at the home page and couldn't find any information on membership. Does our membership in ACSM/NSPS automatically include FIG?
Don
Don: It is a membership of organizations, so if you are a member of ACSM, you are automatically a member of FIG. I'm not real sure it matters-I think all pay the same to go to a conference, for example. The nice thing is that all of the proceedings are available to anyone, irregardless of if you belong to a member organization.