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MINUTES OF THE 68 TH EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF IRPA JUNE 2016 EC 68 MINUTES Ref: EC 70-02 Author : B. LE GUEN Date : 5/5/2016 Classification : EC 70-02 - EC 68 Minutes Title : MINUTES OF THE 68 th EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF IRPA Summary : Distribution Intern : IRPA EC Members Participants Renate Czarwinski - President Roger Coates - Vice-President Thiagan Pather – Vice-President for Congress Affairs Bernard Le Guen – Executive Officer Christopher Clement – Publications Director Richard Toohey - Treasurer Ana Maria Bomben Eduardo Gallego Alfred Hefner Richard Vetter Jong Kyung Kim 1/12

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Page 1: Minutes of the 63th 63Executive Council of IRPA Ref : IRPA ...E7EB9E83-CED2... · Web viewThe President thanked Ana Maria Bomben for supporting IRPA’s policy of having a Regional

MINUTES OF THE 68TH EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF IRPA JUNE 2016

EC 68 MINUTESRef: EC 70-02

Author : B. LE GUEN

Date : 5/5/2016

Classification : EC 70-02 - EC 68 Minutes

Title : MINUTES OF THE 68th EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF IRPA

Summary :

Distribution

Intern : IRPA EC Members

Participants

Renate Czarwinski - PresidentRoger Coates - Vice-PresidentThiagan Pather – Vice-President for Congress AffairsBernard Le Guen – Executive OfficerChristopher Clement – Publications DirectorRichard Toohey - TreasurerAna Maria BombenEduardo GallegoAlfred HefnerRichard VetterJong Kyung Kim

Excused member

Sigurður Magnùsson

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1. OPENING

The President, Ms. Renate Czarwinski, opened the session at 9 am on Thursday, 5th May, 2016. She welcomed the Vice President, Executive Officer and Members in attendance and mentioned apologies on behalf of Sigurður Magnùsson for not being able to attend. Eduardo, Chris Clements and his assistant joined the EC meeting later in the day, as did Thiagan Pather, Vice-President for Congress Affairs, who had to attend the opening of the IAEA workshop on uranium mining in the same morning. The President thanked Thiagan for sending a warm welcome email to the EC members.

The President thanked the Executive Officer for the work provided in preparing the current EC meeting and for the nice new layout of EC minutes and documents.

The President gave a detailed list of logistical points for the EC meeting, including lunch arrangements, EC meeting times and facilities.

A security brief was given by the Executive Officer on the EC members’ security during their stay in Cape Town.

2. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA (EC68-01) AND MINUTES OF THE 67TH EC MEETING

The pre-established agenda of the EC68 meeting was then officially adopted with a number of added items. This was followed by adoption of the minutes of the previous EC meeting, with a few changes (ref. Minutes EC68-02).

After adoption of the current agenda and previous EC minutes, the actions from previous EC meetings were reviewed and checked for completion.

3. OFFICERS’ REPORTS

3.1. PRESIDENT’S REPORT (SEE PRESIDENT’S REPORT APPENDED)

The President described her tasks and activities during the previous year, including a large number of IRPA representations in various organizations and amount of administrative work to send letters to organisations, among others:

Participation and presentations at the IRPA Regional Congress in Buenos Aires April 2015 Presentation on “Ethical issues and Radiation Protection Culture” at the AAHP Meeting of the

Health Physics Society Annual Meeting 2015 in Indianapolis (July 2015), with Treasurer Dick Toohey. It was a successful meeting with good feedback.

Opening of summer school in Berlin with talk - Invited welcome address and presentation at the Summer school of the LPS in Berlin on 22nd June 2015

Invited presentation at the WiN Global Conference in Vienna in August 2015

The President was also significantly involved in the preparation of the 50th Anniversary of IRPA.

The President participated in the meetings of the group of expert to Euratom Art 31 with invited presentations in June and November 2015, and recommends work on Article 31 to be pursued, in view of its influence.

She thanked all those who supported her in the world tours and presentations, including Vice President Roger Coates, who managed coordination with WNA and attended annual meeting of RP working group with ongoing issue for WNA, risk at low doses and communication on radiation risk.

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Finally, regarding the European Joint Program for the Integration of Radiation Protection Research (CONCERT), participation of IRPA in the 1st Stakeholder Meeting on the EURADOS Strategic Research Agenda. European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) is being prepared. The goal of this program is to develop a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) on dosimetry with input from potential stakeholders. This is a highly significant research programme at European level. EURADOS sent IRPA’s President a publication on priorities in research for the future to be posted on the website: The President recommended participation in the 30 June 2016 meeting in Munich and the new EC determined participation. The European European Joint Program for the Integration of Radiation Protection Research (CONCERT) wants to see IRPA’s view involved in these efforts in the future.

3.2. VICE-PRESIDENT’S REPORT (REFER TO APPENDED REPORT)

The Vice President presented the current status of membership with IRPA and admissions and new applications for membership and made a few comments on his report: since the Buenos Aires meeting, a lot of work has been carried out, which will be discussed during the various agenda topics. The medal for the Sievert award will go to John Boice was produced and shown to the Executive Council.

Two new associate societies joined IRPA in the 2012-2016 term: Cameroon and Tunisia, it is noteworthy that for IRPA’ 50th year, 50 societies have now joined the Association, in 65 countries, representing some 18000 members. Ghana and Nigeria have now formally applied. The Gulf States (UAE, Abu Dhabi) looked promising 12-24 months ago but unfortunately this has only slightly moved forward.

As to the planned Chilean Society, they were very enthusiastic a year ago but have not proceeded with finalisation up to now.The Societies Admissions and Development Committee adopted a new Model Constitution and a guide for new Associate Societies.

3.3. VICE-PRESIDENT FOR CONGRESS AFFAIRS' REPORTSEE SECTION 4.1

3.4. EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S REPORT (REFER TO APPENDED REPORT)

The Executive Officer presented his feedback on his activities since the last Executive Council meeting in 2015, as well as his report for the 2012-2016 IRPA term.

He also indicated that the project on RP culture in medicine will now be called Radiological safety culture in healthcare. IRPA met with WHO representatives in Geneva.

The Executive Officer then described the status of IRPA’s questionnaire by presenting the 3 key issues presented by the Associate Societies, ie improve communication between IRPA, the AS and members, improve use of website as part of the exercise in communication and finally how to encourage and support developing societies.

3.5. REPORT BY TREASURER (REFER TO APPENDED REPORT)

The Treasurer qualified the current financial situation of IRPA as being good, with typical expenditure and 120 000 US $ currently on the bank account. The Montreal fund is also in very good shape.

The Russian Associate Society contributed the usual 5000 $ a year, the SRP in Britain 4500 £ (approximately 6500 $)

As at the end of March 2016, dues by Associate Societies in arrears included Australasia, Cuba, Cyprus, East Africa (including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), Greece, Israel, Madagascar, Malaysia (surprisingly but the person in charge has been away for a while, so there is no more contact person), Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Poland, and Uruguay; the total amount in arrears is $3,639.

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The Publications Director was asked to flag up on the website unpaying AS with their dues with an asterisk, * in arrears. [Action CC – completed]

The Treasurer expressed a word of warning as to EC travel costs, which keep increasing. As 6 or 7 EC members are in Europe, it would be reasonable to hold future EC meetings in Europe as well.

It was decided to reimburse Mr. Boice, current lecturer and recipient of Sievert Award Recipient for travel and accommodation $ with a waiver of the Congress registration fees.

The tiered dues system has worked well and IRPA received payment. Only 4 countries are currently in Tier 3.

During the 2012-2016 term, IRPA’s financial situation and budget were better than expected thanks to the income from the 2012 Glasgow Congress. For the next term, the Treasurer is not suggesting a due increase.

The Treasurer was congratulated by the President for keeping a good eye on IRPA’s finance.

3.6 PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR’S REPORT(SEE PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR’S REPORT)

The written report by the Publications Director was presented and discussed. The website is the main activity of publications, with approximately 200 pages viewed every day. Visits to the irpa.net website remain steady at approximately 80 visits or 190 pages views per day. On average, three in every four visits (74%) originates from a new visitor. The IRPA Bulletin continues to be the flagship channel for IRPA. Quarterly issues continue to be published, and are translated voluntarily by Associate Societies. We now have nine issues, typically in five languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, Japanese, and Spanish).

The irpa.net news service is increasingly active. 34 news items have been posted in the last 12 months, up from 16 in the previous 12 months. Regarding the website, the Publications Director suggested posting a simple 3-question survey to the Associate Societies asking how the website can be improved.

A suggestion was also made to post model MOUs as well as a prompt with a slide on the website to raise awareness on available publications, something similar to a flag up.

The IRPA Wikipedia entry has been updated by a member of the Publications Director’s team: it is now reasonable and much better than before. However, given the nature of Wikipedia, continued vigilance will be required to maintain this entry.

An attempt is being made to provide a complete collection of Sievert lectures (up to 2012) free of charge via the IRPA website, to mark the 50th Anniversary. There are unfortunately some copyright issues. An update will be given at the EC meeting.

The intention is to obtain an ISBN for the proceedings to make them easier to find. An ISBN is not strictly necessary to make the proceedings referenceable, but it will help the perception that it is a ‘legitimate’ publication. The cost should not exceed more than a few hundred dollars.

The Vice President asked if working spaces could be organised for working groups, ie High Dose Task Group, etc. This would require larger changes to the website and would cost some money, something to be considered for the future. The idea is to have areas for each working group, having their own file area for their own files.

The President praised the Publications Director for his excellent work.

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Discussion on publications of IRPA 14 proceedings

The various options submitted by the Publications Director were reviewed, including a recommendation to go for option 2, ie self-published in pdf format, with ISBN and using the corporate design of the IRPA guidelines.

After an extensive discussion, it was decided to go ahead with the Publications Director’s recommendation, and adopt option 2 (see above).

4. FORTHCOMING IRPA CONGRESS AND IRPA REGIONAL CONGRESSES

4.1. IRPA14 – CAPE TOWN 2016

4.1.1. UPDATE ON PREPARATION BY THE VICE-PRESIDENT FOR CONGRESS AFFAIRS

Thiagan Pather, Vice President for Congress Affairs, gave an update on latest developments of IRPA 14 Congress with final preparations and arrangements. This included a detailed review of the schedule, and roles of the EC members, followed by extensive discussions. See details below:

Summary of IRPA14 arrangements:

As the Congress was about to start, Thiagan Pather was confident that it was going to be an exciting and enjoyable event the following week. A lot of work was provided by all stakeholders.

The Congress programme is available in pdf format for a total of 128 pages. Thiagan Pather thanked Jack and Audrey who had a challenging job finalising it. A smaller pocket size programme booklet is also available. Also worth pointing out to, it is the first time a programme is jointly prepared with ICNIRP. In total, there were 13 collaborating organizations who actively cooperated and contributed. To be a sponsor, a minimum of 300 000 rands (20 000 euros) had to be paid. A major sponsor was Eskom (2 000 000 rands), though their contribution arrived late. Eskom’s sponsorship has helped to balance IRPA14 books otherwise there would have been 1.8 million rands in deficit. The current situation is comfortable. The South African Department of Science and Technolgoy contributed 900 000 rands to help African delegates to come to the Congress. Thiagan thanked IRPA for sponsoring the Congress with 400 000 rands from the Montreal Fund. The Australian Society contributed with 100 000 rands towards the Welcome Reception.

A total of 817 delegates are registered, of which 153 received financial support. There were some late submissions for visas, from Ghana for instance, which means that some delegates may not be able to attend. In total, 68 countries will be present.

54 delegates are expected to stay for one day only. 1500 seats are booked for the plenary session, with 350 seats for each meeting room, for a total of 5 rooms. Registration for the gala dinner is approximately 1000 guests. All students got full registration covered and 35 got partial registration fee.

There will be a total of 30 exhibitors, including the 3 bidding societies.

20 very interesting refresher courses will be offered over a period of 4 days (Monday to Thursday). Alfred Hefner suggested that for the next EC, exact figures on refresher course attendance should be reviewed, with a focus on those with high-attendance rates.

The number of candidates nominated by the Associate Societies to the Young Professionals and Scientist Award is 20.

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Also, the seating capacity for the Associate Society Forum is 350.

IRPA is very pleased that Mr. Amano will attend the opening of the Conference on Monday 9 th May, 2016. It was suggested that a picture of the EC be taken with the IAEA Director after the Congress Opening.

IRPA14 has hired a professional photographer for the whole of the Congress, with copyrights belonging to IRPA14. IRPA14 has also hired a press secretary for press releases and a press release has already been sent to the media with an invitation to attend the Opening Ceremony. The Publications Director will be the focal point and will manage publications during the Congress, ie 2 paragraphs at the end of the Congress to be updated, including a presentation of the new EC by IRPA’s new President. A reminder was given by the Publications Director on the 3 different levels of communication: bulletin, news article, or lower immediate level, ie Twitter.

Documents from the Conference will be posted on the website, including a contribution for the Bulletin with immediate report and picture, success stories, results, upcoming events. There will be 2 parts in the communication: scientific part of the Congress, and EC and future challenges.

There was a discussion on the organisation of the last day of the Congress with the Swedish Academy Gold Medal to be given by the Vice President during the closing ceremony, a session chaired by Thiagan Pather, with a keynote address given by Claire Cousin including an explanation on the medal.

The Vice President proposed that Rich Vetter and Thiagan Pather receive the Outstanding Service Award during IRPA 14. There was also a discussion on speeches, presentations to be made by the EC during the Congress.

IRPA poster session: The Executive Officer indicated that it should receive a real success, with some 50 spaces having been booked. The Organising Committee will prepare a letter allocating the exhibitors a dedicated poster area.

Tellers were then selected and approved by the EC as follows:

- Brett Burke- Katia Gandwerg- Haruyuki Ogino

including a detailed discussion on electronic voting and related process.

The Young persons’ reception will take place on Thursday evening at 6 pm. The EC members will leave the reception at 6.30 to go to the Korean night. As a lesson learnt, in the future it will be more efficient to hold the Young persons’ reception at the beginning of the Congress to leave some time for them to get to know each other and meet again during the Congress.

The Publications Director introduced Haruyuki Ogino, his assistant, who offered his services as a teller during the General Assembly.

To conclude on forthcoming IRPA14, there were a few presentations on the following topics:

ü EC members’ Business programme: summary by the Executive Officerü IRPA 14 Associate Society Forum and General Assembly (12th May): review of agenda and

summarised presentation by the Executive Officer, including a detailed review of the various contributions by the EC members

ü Swedish Academy Gold Medal presented by the Vice Presidentü IRPA 14 Outstanding Service Award presented by the Vice President

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4.2. UPDATE ON 15TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF IRPA IN MAY 2020 IN SEOUL, KOREA.

Jong Kyung Kim gave a detailed update on preparation of IRPA15 in South Korea in 2020. Copies of the status report will be distributed on Thursday afternoon during the General Assembly. All is running well and according to plan, there are no major difficulties at the moment.

4.3. IRPA CONGRESS APPLICATION BY HPS/ U.S. IN 2024 (ORLANDO)

The Treasurer, Richard Toohey, made a summarized presentation on the application of the US for the IRPA International Congress in 2024. During IRPA14, the HPS has a booth and will be wearing the IRPA16 T-shirt, with Richard Vetter and Richard Toohey being senior advisors to the HPS on how to organize the Congress. The HPS got very good rates for the hotel Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando. Ken xxx will be the Chair of the Organizing Committee.

4.4. IRPA CONGRESS APPLICATION BY ARPA/ AUSTRALIA IN 2024 (ADELAIDE)

The Executive Officer presented the IRPA Congress application by ARPA, Australia in 2024, with the Australians being very active and impressive, including a long list of emails sent. They sent an Australian proposal incorporating experience the feedback from Glasgow and have a draft MOU for the Regional Congress in Melbourne.

The 2024 venue will be selected by electronic voting during the General Assembly.

4.5 IRPA CONGRESS APPLICATION BY BRASIL IN 2024 (RIO)

The Executive Officer did not have much information from Brazil. The Brazilian society has sent an official expression of interest received by the Executive Officer and will have a booth at the Cape Town Congress.

4.6 NEXT REGIONAL CONGRESSES

The venues for next Regional Congresses are the Haag (Netherlands), Tunis (Tunisia), Melbourne, and Cuba.

According to the Vice President, one of the 2018 Congresses will include the whole of the EC w for the three other Congresses, approximately 3 EC members will attend. It is reasonable to try to obtain 3 free accesses to Regional Congresses and other members will have to pay. However, there will be no change for the Congress in the Netherlands, as the MOU has already been signed.

Even though IRPA has a MOU already signed for the next European Congress in 2018 in The Haag, Netherlands, it was agreed that the Executive Officer will provide the Dutch society with new version rules on Young Persons.

In the future, the EC will attempt, whenever possible, to hold the EC meetings close to the Regional Congress venue.

The Haag, Netherlands, 4-8 June 2018

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Regarding the Haag MOU, it is a reasonable approach and compromise for Regional Congresses to have EC members pay as per the MOU, apart from 3 clearly appointed official EC members, ie the nominated liaison, President (or designated EC member) and Executive Officer.

According to the Publications Director, IRPA’s support to Regional Congresses could be payment or funding through the Montreal Fund, as it represents only a few hundred dollars once in a while. To which comment, the Treasurer indicated that Regional Congresses can be supported by IRPA, especially in developing countries.

Tunisia - 6-9 September 2018

During the Associate Society Forum in Rabat, Tunisia was officially mandated as a new Associate Society. Consequently, a letter of interest was sent from Tunisia to host a Regional Congress. The Executive Officer has posted the MOU on the EC web section. It is a Congress for African countries, though it will not be easy to organize a Congress in Tunisia even if, in practicality, no African country is totally safe. The same applied to Nairobi and in the end, it was a big success.

A solution would be to tell the Associate Society to provide information on security. The Tunisian government is relatively stable and wants to progress in the area of democracy and openness to the rest of the world. They would be grateful to have official EC support.

For the Tunisian Congress, Eduardo Gallego will be the EC liaison officer.

Cuba – April 2018

The next venue for a Regional Congress in Latin-America was discussed to be La Havana, Cuba in 2018 and unanimously voted during the Associate Society Forum in Buenos Aires, 2015. Of the 10 Latin-American countries, 3 are currently not IRPA members, ie Chile, Paraguay, and Costa Rica. It would be a good opportunity to discuss these new Associate Societies during the Cuba Regional Congress in 2018.

The letter of interest has been received by IRPA, it is a first step in the process. The President thanked Ana Maria Bomben for supporting IRPA’s policy of having a Regional Congress in Latin-America every four years. The date is planned for sometimes in April 2018 and the Convention Center has to be pre-booked one year ahead, ie at the beginning of 2017. Cuba should be informed about rules on Regional Congresses. The Executive Officer will send an answer to Cuban colleagues Juan Cardenas with a model MOU (similar process to the Tunisian and Australasian Societies).

Australia – May 2018

For the May 2018 Melbourne ARPS Congress, the MOU has been posted on the website. An MOU proposal will be sent to the Australian society to organize the 5th Asian-Oceanic Congress (AOCRP). The Australasian Society will hold a meeting on Monday afternoon during IRPA14 in Cape Town, chaired by Brad Cassels.

The Vice President will change the wording of the model MOU with addition of the currency, ie US$. Jong Kyung Kim will mention 3 official EC members during the Monday meeting. For this Regional Congress.

According to the Treasurer, net profits from a Regional Congress may be shared with IRPA but there is no requirements and it is up to the Congress organisers. For example, Helsinki contributed to the Montreal Fund. So did Geneva, with a contribution of 10 000 Euros.

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The decision was made to add one sentence in the MOU indicating that net profits may be shared with IRPA. However, this has to be decided on an MOU by MOU basis. For the Congress in The Haag, it will not be changed and remains as is.

A proposal on a Financial Regional Fund will be discussed during future EC meetings.

Finally, for 2018, the EC will need to look at venues and agree on dates and places for future EC meetings once the exact Congress dates are finalized. As indicated above, Cuba will take place in April, and Melbourne on 20-24 May 2018.

The Executive Officer stated that it was important to set official dates during the Cape Town Congress so as to be able to produce the next IRPA leaflet. The Publications Director will post these venues on IRPA’s website.

5 PROGRESS REPORT ON COMMITTEES AND TASK GROUP ACTIVITIES

COMMITTEES

5.1 RADIATION PROTECTION STRATEGY AND PRACTICE COMMITTEE: THE CONSULTATION ON THE SYSTEM OF PROTECTION

On the Radiation Protection Strategy and Practice Committee, the President received answers from 2 committee members, which concentrated on the initiative sent by the President and Vice President. The letter contained a number of questions.

The document was well received by the large Associate Societies and so far six Associate Societies, have sent very interesting contributions, including SRP 2 days before, or Belgium with valuable comments. Other AS, such as the German-Swiss, Australian, SFRP in France sent interesting proposals on ALARA. Some answers had a broader view so the President focussed on these topics. It was a very good discussion, which should be pursued. There was an interesting answer from 2 individuals: ‘Sorry I can provide you with my own view but not that of my AS’. The President preferred discussing strategic issues with the EC or with the Executive Officer and Vice President, which might be a better way to discuss strategy

The Excutive Officer indicated that the French SFRP was going to make a presentation on this topic during the Associate Society Forum the following week.

According to Eduardo Gallego, this is a good way for common reflection on RP systems as it is not always easy for RP to convey a common point of view (even within each society, which is often very difficult).

There ensued an extensive discussion on this topic and how to come to a compromise. The idea would be to set up professional networks and as a work in progress, send a second round of feedback to focus on core issues, a second round would indeed promote more responses. The comments from the Associate Societies will be uploaded by the President.

Eduardo Gallego ended the discussion by stating that during the Hiroshima Congress with a discussion on ICRP recommendations, IRPA played a significant role.

5.2 SOCIETIES’ ADMISSIONS AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

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The Vice President gave an overview of current admissions, with formal applications from Ghana and Nigeria.

GHANA

Relevant documents were received from Ghana as a formal application including:

Letter of admission Constitution based on the IRPA model. Membership list – with 34 members

According to the Vice President, Ghana meets the requirements for membership. Consequently, IRPA accepts Ghana’s membership subject to the minor changes and confirmation mentioned above.

NIGERIA

The Vice President read the letter of admission to the EC. There was an extensive discussion on the Nigerian AS acronym, which is the same as the Nordic Association.

The Nigerian Society for Radiation Protection will have confirm its acceptance on its formal name during the Cape Town Congress. According to the Vice President, it is a model of an application.

Consequently, IRPA accepts their membership subject to the minor changes and confirmation mentioned above.

5.4 COMMISSION ON PUBLICATIONS

See report by Publications Directors (Section 3.6 above), including discussion and details on the report.

In addition, the Executive Officer suggested the creation of a special bulletin on Cape Town including pictures.

TASK GROUPS

5.5 CERTIFICATION TASK GROUP

Eduardo Gallego indicated that a year ago, the results of the poll were distributed to the AS. In total, 23 answers were received, indicating highly differing practices across the countries. A draft was distributed to the TG members for improvements, included annexes and examples showing how certificates differ between different countries.

The document clearly states how IRPA can advise on certification.

The way forward is to meet on Monday at 3pm, including with Kent Lambert and Colin Partington. The meeting will be announced at the Associate Society Forum, and will last approximately one hour, including a description of the document and collection of opinions. Eduardo Gallego will moderate the meeting. A draft will be prepared within a month and submitted to the EC at the October EC meeting in Madrid.

5.7 EDUCATION AND TRAINING TASK GROUP

Eduardo Gallego and Alfred Hefner made a detailed presentation on current status of this task group and suggests organizing a webinar on the use of the data base by inviting all interested AS to train them by September 2016 (date to be established during the Associate Society Forum). This will allow Eduardo

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Gallego and Alfred Hefner to collect the last opinions before preparing the final draft. This action will be postponed until the next EC meeting. The Terms of Reference (TOR) are completed and a status report was sent to the EC for the 2012-2016 EC report one month before. Eduardo Gallego has drawn up a strategic plan to cooperate with other international organizations.

Eduardo Gallego’s university has offered facilities to organize webinars, and he will need support from the Publications Director to transfer refresher courses into the data base. The Spanish society has started a data base with courses in Spanish. Depending on success, a second training session can be organized.

EUTERP has its own data base on events and education & training. There is an opportunity to merge both IRPA and EUTERP data bases, ideally if it could be done automatically. The Publications Director agreed to look into this.

There followed a discussion on refresher courses that are deemed too expensive by the members and also on their quality. According to Eduardo Gallego, quality should be looked into by the Programme Committee.

5.8 PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF RADIATION RISK TG

Richard Vetter stated the current progress of this task group: 15 were initially ready to help, with finally only 5 who did contribute to the effort.

Web pages were collected from numerous societies, with some having no pages, some having a few and in the country’s language. So all in all, it was not very helpful. However, some of the material collected ended up being really useful. The task group wanted to give some good examples to all AS, and decided to list a few good web links: 2 or 3 are listed under each of the subject categories, followed by an evaluation of each website by the task group. The President sent a letter to all AS in 2016 to advise them on the progress and to encourage them to use the website on this topic.

The question was whether IRPA should have its own webpage to communication on risks instead of having a page communicating on radiation risk but a page focusing on how to communicate risk. A Belgian expert in risk communication would be willing to help IRPA on how to communicate in this area. IRPA has now a page on public understanding with good examples in each category.

The President informed HERCA on the good results and HERCA is now looking forward to display this list. The Executive Officer indicated that he is a strong believer in this important initiative, which should be pursued though it is not easy. According to Jong Kyung Kim, this topic has been a standing debate in Korea since Fukushima.

The President thanked Rich Vetter for a job well done and recommends sending a letter encouraging the Associate Societies to add links to this page, with a final decision by the task group as to the links and information to add on IRPA’s website.

5.9 EYE LENS DOSE LIMIT TG

There has been good progress achieved by this task group. A report was sent to the Associate Societies incorporating their comments and announcing a closing date. The task group has now come out with a protocol and there will be a preliminary discussion at IRPA14.

The draft report includes a proposal: IRPA has to now establish a mechanism for keeping oversight on what happens to tissue doses, which is a developing science. Five years ago, IRPA was caught out for not following what was happening: the ICRP report was published and IRPA had not seen it coming.

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The draft document will have to be sent to all the Associate Societies, with 15 th September 2016 as a closing date for sending their final comments. Equally, all EC members will have to send their comments on this report by 15th September 2016.

5.10 SECURITY OF RADIOACTIVE SOURCES TG

Five years ago, upon a suggestion by SRP, IRPA set up a task group charged with a focus on Security of Radioactive Sources. There has been very little progress in this area and the project has not gone well for a few reasons, including the fact that the chair changed jobs and had no more time to work on advancing the work in progress. Also, there is unfortunately limited access to exchange of information in this area.

It is indeed a top-tier political issue, which sits on the nuclear security summit agenda.

A very active group leader needs to be appointed, to revise the current Terms of Reference and look for an achievable target, with the idea of continuing in this direction in the next term, though in a revitalized form. SRP thinks it is an area where IRPA should have a program and has a nominee for a TG group leader.

The EC agrees to continue work on this topic. Safety and security of radioactive sources, the revised TORs will have to be approved by the EC.

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All items on the agenda having been addressed, the President thanked the EC members for their strong engagement and enthusiasm over the past 2016-2016 term and closed the 68th EC meeting on Saturday May 7th 2016 at 1pm.

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