Minutes of the IULTCS Executive Committee Meeting
30 October 2003
Pavilion 33, Mezzanine (adjacent to tanning Tech Offices), Bologna, Italy.

The President, Prof. J Cot called the meeting to order at 0930 hrs.

Attendees: J Cot, A Long, J-P Gualino, M Folachier, G Solunto, E Hurlow, S Rajamani, C Page, G Defeo, H-P Germann, J Williams, L Zugno (representing R Teixeira).
Representing Host Society organising committee for 2005 Congress - M Maggioni, I Domat, D Castiello.

1. Apologies for absence:
Apologies had been received from: J Salazar, B Shi, B Chattopadhyay, K Kolomaznik, R Teixeira, G Attenburrow, C B Wood.

2. Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of 28 and 29 May 2003.
These had been circulated previously and there was a request to remove the word "new" from before "President, Mr Max Gimmel" in the report of the activities of Switzerland. Subject to this amendment, the minutes were approved.

3. Matters arising from the minutes
a) Report on the Italian Congress 2005:
The Host Society had accepted the new Congress Guidelines and will await the final document which will be completed shortly after this meeting. Provision would be made for visual displays and possibly video facilities in separate booths adjacent to the main lecture hall. It was agreed that the newly named "Heidemann lecture" would now be included in the first days sessions and would no longer be a separate event.

The committee from the Host Society will divide submitted papers by subject and by country so that not all papers on one section are just from one country. Emphasis was again made that commercial names of products should not be used in a lecture, only generic terms.

The Host Society organising committee presented a draft leaflet which was well received. The following amendments were suggested to the leaflet:
· Change "Poster" to "Visual display"
· Change Heidemann symposium to Heidemann lecture.
· The prefix to the prices should be Euro and not US Dollars.

The Host Society advised that they would start a full promotional campaign in January 2004. It was agreed that a sub-committee of the IULTCS, consisting of the President, J Cot; Vice-
President, M Folachier; Latin Europe Regional Representative, J-P Gualino and Secretary/Treasurer, J Williams, should meet with the organising committee of the Host Society to discuss further progress. The meeting was fixed for Thursday 22 April 2004 in Florence.

b). USA Congress 2007
Mr E Hurlow advised that the ALCA Executive has committed to selection of a site and time for the IULTCS Congress before the end of 2004. The Executive is considering benefits of a city versus a country resort site and suitable date. An organising committee will also be formed to handle all details of the Congress. The Executive Committee suggested that the first two weeks in June would be a reasonable time without any conflict with other events in the leather industry worldwide.

4. President's Report
The President thanked all the colleagues who attended the Executive Committee meeting in Bologna.

The President stressed that, unlike National Associations, the IULTCS had no real headquarters, hence the importance of the IULTCS website for promoting the Union.

Tribute was made to the work done by the Secretary/Treasurer and the President emphasised the difference good communications had in the efficient running of the Union. He expressed considerable sympathy for his predecessor, Juan Manuel Salazar, due to the lack of reports and general communication he had experienced with the previous officers.

On the website, the President outlined some of the improvements that were either being considered or were already in hand to improve the dissemination of the Union activities:

· Home page , dynamic, moving effects, photos, video clips, etc.
· Glossary of leather terms
· On line forum, open to all to request assistance with problems etc.
· World map showing where the Union is active, with details of the appropriate Regional Representative for each area.
· News sheet.
· Photos of each of members of Executive Committee, and profiles, with photos, of Members Societies, etc.
· XXVIII IULTCS Congress in Florence, with photos with dynamic effects, with agreement with the Italian Society
· Possibility of IU standards for downloading directly with password (depending of agreements with SLTC and ISO)
· Revised IUE documents, etc.
· Up dated Statutes, Internal Regulations and Congress Guidelines
· Website Banners - To provide an additional income, allowing Companies etc. to purchase space on our website to display their banners. So far some contacts have been made:
· TFL (1,000 euros per year);
· BLC, UC Northampton, CSIC (600 euros).
· International Leather Magazine - whilst not paying anything, they would allow each Members Society access to their database for a trial period of 7 days free of charge. If Members Societies then wish to continue with this facility, they would then pay the normal commercial rate. (A similar arrangement is being discussed with World Leather).
· Other contacts have been made with: Trumpler, Lederval, Colomer Munmany, COTANCE, Pittards, ECCO, Olcina and F. Capdevila
· A short statement giving the main advantages to Members of joining the IULTCS, and emphasising the protection provided by the IU test methods will be incorporated. (Further details in the Secretary's report).

Importance of Area Representatives was stressed and that they should be aware of their duties and obligations towards IULTCS. They should be active and provide meaningful reports.

The President again emphasised the importance of the IU Commissions and the protection they provided to the leather industry through the test methods. He congratulated then on the work they had done and on the close relationship with ISO which was being developed even further. He also commented on the work of the IUE Commission who were now revising the documents to be able to introduce them onto the website. More details would be given in the IU Chairmen's reports. The President expressed concern that a suitable candidate should be found to replaced Mr C B Wood as Chairman of the all important CEN/TC 289/WG 2 committee, dealing with test methods. The Secretary advised that this matter was currently under discussion and a satisfactory outcome was expected soon.

The issue of electronic voting on matters other than the IU test methods was raised. It was pointed out that, of the three documents under discussion, only the Statutes required voting by the Council of Delegates. The Internal Regulations and the Congress Guidelines were a matter for the Executive Committee only to vote on. The Statutes would be amended to include provisions for electronic voting to amend Statutes.

The President suggested that if Regional Conferences required the IULTCS umbrella, then there should be a fee to the IULTCS per registered delegate. This would be suggested to the Turkish Association who wish to organise a European Conference in 2006.

It was suggested that the Union should now appoint a Regional Representative for Africa and this would be discussed later during the meeting.

To illustrate that virtual meetings were not really necessary, the President gave some figures on statistics about normal exchange of information, proposals, amendments, etc. via E-mail (virtual). John Williams (Secretary/Treasurer) - 312; Juan Manuel Salazar - 216.; myself - 321; Campbell Page - 24; Regina Canovas - 23; Gustavo Defeo - 20; Amanda Long - 15; JPGualino- 13; Volkan Candar - 11; Dr Rajamani - 9. Some members has sent 1 E-mail per year and others never answer any E-mail; therefore it is better to appoint Sub-committees and these could exchange E-mails upon different issues. Virtual meeting has not made any sense, so far!

Agenda of the Presidency till XXVIII Congress in Florence:
a) Invitation to 100th Centenary of ALCA - USA, to give the Wilson Memorial Lecture
b) Latino Americano Congress in Argentina
c) Hong Kong Fair
d) Italy several times in relation to the organisation of Florence Congress
e) Turkey, with DETEK
f) Some meetings with the Secretary, and Spindlemedia somewhere in England or in Barcelona, etc. to revise the website.

An outline of policy was discussed to obtain new Member Societies, such as Thailand, Vietnam, North and South Korea, Ethiopia, Morocco, Portugal, some South American countries (Guatemala), etc. Sometimes it would better that an Associated Member could become full Member by changing to the Leather Council of Tanners, as has just happened in Equador.

The possibility of producing a CD-ROM or brochure to assist in promoting the IULTCS should be considered, together with a marketing budget to cover the cost of producing such a brochure.

5 and 6 Secretary/Treasurers report:
An additional item to the agenda would be a short presentation by the Turkish Association during the meeting.

The Secretary advised that his report had been circulated prior to the meeting to allow time for Executive Committee members to raise any issues, particularly on the financial matters. A copy of the table showing the current state of Members payment of fees had also been circulated.

"A set of accounts for 2002 has been sent to the Auditors and we are awaiting their final report. We need only then send our accounts for auditing every two years, so the next set of audited accounts will be for the year 2004.

We have made efforts to bring the accounts into line and to collect overdue membership subscriptions. We have set up various systems to monitor the accounts more accurately and the current income and expenditure for the year to date is set out below:

INCOME
Subscription Income for 2003 $7,302.98
Outstanding subscriptions collected from 2002 $1,267.17
Outstanding subscriptions collected from 2001 $1,015.19
Congress fees - 236 Delegates @ $30.00 $7,080.00
Total year to date $16,665.34

EXPENDITURE
JSLTC issue no 7, 2002 £2650.82
Spindlemedia - management of website £700.54
Gift for past President £86.36
Secretary - Travel and Admin. £1,161.24
Total year to date £4,598.98 $7,726.25

There are still some minor amounts to be collected on the income side for subscriptions. On the expenditure side, there is a payment to the Auditors (for the 2002 accounts) to be paid as well as the travel costs for the Secretary for the Bologna meeting, together with some small administrative expenses. (Internet fees, stationary etc.). Also still to pay is the Secretary's Honoraria of USD 3,850.00.

A limit was agreed on administrations costs of USD 2,310.00, but this will be slightly over-budget by the end of the year due to the costs of attending Cancun and travel to extra meetings with the President to assist with the improvements of the website.

It is anticipated that the administration cost for 2004 will be below the budget of USD 2,310.00.

The IULTCS Bank accounts now stand as follows:

Sterling current account £ 8,764.52 Equiv. $14,724.39
Bristol and West Equity Bond £15,000.00 Equiv. $25,200.00
UBS Bank current account CHF 20,272.47 Equiv. $15,242.46
UBS Savings Bond CHF 71,112.00 Equiv. $53,467.67

Thus, allowing for exchange rate fluctuations, the IULTCS has assets of approximately $108,600.00 for the year to date. Due to some expenditure still to be paid, this will be reduced by the end of 2003, but it is still a very healthy balance.

As we now have sufficient funds in the sterling account, there seems little point in keeping a current account in CHF. It is proposed, therefore, to transfer ALL the remaining CHF current account into the CHF savings bond account (which can be drawn on at any time in case of emergency). In this way the CHF monies will all attract interest.

As decided by the Executive Committee and endorsed by the Council of Delegates, we are now going to issue invoice for membership fees in USD. Also, the fees are being raised, as agreed previously, to the equivalent of CHF 300 as the base unit. This equates to USD 230.00. (For 0-200 members, and increasing in stages thereafter). New invoices for 2004 membership fees will be issued in early January 2004 and will also have payment terms included, namely, payment within 90 days of date of invoice.

The proposed budget for 2004 is set out below:

INCOME
Membership subscription $10,570.00
Advertising revenue $1,000.00
Total $11,570.00

EXPENDITURE
Secretary honoraria $3,850.00
Administrative expenses limit $2,310.00
Management of website $1,200.00
Travel for Executive Committee $930.00
Total $8,290.00
Excess Income over Expenditure $3,280.00

On income, the advertising revenue may well be higher that the budget. However, we have set it conservatively, as this will be the first year of this income. There are already promised funds for a number of companies and organisations that wish to have their logo on the IULTCS website.

On expenditure, the management fee for the website is currently set at USD 690.00 per annum but with the extra information that is being planned, the costs are expected to increase from our server, Spindlemedia. We have also included an amount to cover the eventuality of any member of the Executive Committee who may not be able to obtain expenses cover for attending an Executive Committee meeting.

If any Member requires more detailed information on the current status of the IULTCS account, I will e-mail a series of tables to them.

I am currently working on the Glossary of leather terms which will be placed on the IULTCS website. It will have about 1500 words with definitions, all in English. Details will also be given on how to obtain a complete version of this Glossary with the words in 9 languages but all the definitions in English

Following the decisions of the Executive Committee meeting I will be working on the Congress Guidelines, the Internal Regulations and the Statutes of the IULTCS to fianlise them, including all the alterations agreed, to enable them to be placed on the IULTCS website.

I have also prepared a brief document which it is intended to add to the website pointing out the benefits of belonging to the IULTCS. Namely, as a forum for scientific debate and as providing protection to the industry through the range of test methods produced by the IU Commissions and adopted by ISO and by CEN. A copy of this document is set out below.

SOME BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP OF THE IULTCS

1. The IULTCS provides a major forum for scientific debate for the leather industry worldwide.

2. Another even more important benefit, is that the IULTCS, through the IULTCS Testing Commissions, provides PROTECTION for the leather tanning industry worldwide by the provision of properly formulated test methods that are totally relevant to leather manufacture and leather usage.

Without the work of the IU Commissions which develop these test methods, the leather industry would be open to inappropriate test methods devised by outside manufacturers trying to force performance standards on leather that bear no relationship to the reality of working with leather.

The IULTCS test methods are recognised by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and many of the IU methods are adopted by ISO as international standards.

Equally, the European Committee for Standardisation (Comite Europeen de Normalisation - CEN) have adopted many of the IU methods by parallel agreement with ISO. These CEN test methods are mandatory in EU member countries

Consequently, the work of the IU Commissions has led to leather test methods that are now adopted as International, European and National Standards. End users of leather are continually being persuaded that only official leather test methods (IU/ISO/CEN) can be used to judge the standards, characteristics and performance of leather."

The Secretary/Treasurer requested that the above document be included in the website to emphasise the benefits of being a member of the Union. The Executive Committee agreed and the Secretary will make the necessary arrangements.

7). Reports of the Regional Representatives:

NORTH AMERICA - MR E L HURLOW

ALCA - Annual Convention - June 19-22:
A most successful annual convention of the Association was held in the beautiful Grandover Resort in Greensboro, North Carolina. In attendance were 122 people from the US leather industry and visitors from around the world.
Awards & Recognitions:
· The John Arthur William lecture on the "Preservation of Hides and Skins" presented by Dr David Bailey was well received.
· 19 technical papers of very high standard were presented and will be published in JALCA.
· The O'Flaherty Service Award was presented to John Moynihan in recognition of his contributions over many years as editor of Shoe Trades Publishing and organiser of the "ALCA Fun Run" event.
· Outgoing President Dr Jerome Levy was recognised for his contributions to the association during his successful tenure in the ALCA executive. Incoming President is Mr. Dean Didato.
Meetings of Committees:
· Meetings of all the technical and education committees took place during convention, and progress reports were submitted during the annual meeting.
· The important Rawstock Committee, that seeks to upgrade the value of raw material, has been revitalised under new leadership.

ALCA - 100 Years:
The 100th Anniversary of the ALCA Convention will take place in St Louis on June 16-20th of 2004. A committee is in place and preparations are well underway for this "Big Bash". Special features of this Convention include:
· Reversion to a 4 day format to accommodate all the activities planned.
· A strong technical program is being planned with approximately 27 papers to be presented. Abstracts may be submitted to Mr Rodney Hammond, at: rodney@setonco.com.
· The prestigious John Arthur Wilson lecture will be given by the current President of the IULTCS - Prof. Jaume Cot.
· An invitation will be sent out to all technical and trade associations worldwide to invite them to attend and send participants.
· Further details including registration forms will be available on the ALCA website: www.leatherchemists.org

JALCA:
The world's premier peer reviewed journal in the English language has committed to translating the abstracts of papers into the Spanish language. This comes as a result of the globalisation of the leather industry, the increased influence Central and South America, and of Spanish speakers in the USA leather industry. Publication of Spanish abstracts should start by January 2004.

NORTHERN EUROPE - WRITTEN REPORT FROM PROF. G ATTENBURROW:

SLTC - Review of Role of the Society
During this year and last year the Society has been conducting a fundamental review of its activities with a view to planning the long term future of the Society. The review is necessary because the Society has shown a steady and significant financial loss over the past few years. There is no immediate threat to the survival of the Society but steps do need to be taken. The Review has considered:

· Professional Grades - Members may be invited to apply for Fellowship
· SLTC Technical sub committee - Under review in the light of the developing situation of IU Commissions, European committees (CEN) and ISO.
· SLCT Journal Format - Publishing the journal in an electronic format as well has a hard copy will be looked at very seriously.
· Local Groups - The need for two groups (Northampton and Northern) has been discussed in the light of a shrinking UK leather industry. For the present both groups will continue.
· Annual Conference: - Combined Conference and dinner Dance Format endorsed at AGM - will consider move to a Spring date to attract more students from BSLT.

Annual Conference 2003
This was held in Nottingham and was attended by 30 delegates. This successful meeting consisted of seven lectures, all of which were of much interest including the Atkin memorial lecture on novel membrane bioreactor technology and reverse osmosis for tannery effluent treatment by Wolfram Scholz of BLC.

SLTC (South African Group)
The SLTC (SA Section) 54th Annual Convention was held in Brits - north of Johannesburg, from 22nd - 25th May at the beautiful bushveld setting of Dikhololo, where buck roam freely between the rooms and bird life is prolific. The event was opened with the Cocktail Party held in the fresh outdoors around a log fire and other Social events were an African Theme Evening and Game drive. The final event, the Annual Gala Dinner was held in an outdoor Lapa with thatch roofing and wonderful autumn decor.

The Technical Programme started with an informative visit to a local Chrome Mine which was arranged by Bayer. This was followed by a presentation on the topic of training by our Guest Speaker, Dr Clive Jackson-Moss from ISTT. The speakers delivered presentations of a high standard, covering a wide array of topics from the raw material through to the finished leather.

Papers on the topic of hide and skin availability and quality were presented by the president of SHALC, the head of the SA Meat Industry Confederation (SAMIC) and a local chemical supplier. Papers with an environmental/ecological emphasis featured strongly, and included a review of the chrome VI debate by our guest speaker; a paper on local legislation from the Department of Water Affairs; a survey of potential ecological impacts of finishing processes; relevant and interesting papers on emissions from automotive leather and digital colour coding. Experiences during the start up of a major tannery in the USA were also presented by a local tannery consultant.

Although the South African Society Database now holds 109 members, only 64 delegates registered for this annual event, (the same amount as the 2002 convention in Port Elizabeth) and this is definitely an item of concern for the current committee and members.

The AGM was held at the convention, and the item of utmost concern, was that the committee should investigate the requirements for future conventions with regards to cost, location and technical content. This task will be handled by the current committee led with enthusiasm by President Pam Allison.

The subject of regional meetings, in addition to the annual event was also raised, and this will also be investigated.

SLTC (Australia)
In spite of repeated requests for information no report has been forthcoming from the Secretary. In November I will meet with Darryl Cassingham (of Packers in Australia) and try to see whether I can get some help in finding out what the situation is there.

Nordic Leather Chemists Society
The Nordic Leather Chemists` Society has approximately 150 members.
President is: Johannes Borge, Borge Garveri AS; N-5250 Lonevaag. Tel +47 56392010
Secretary and treasurer is the Willy Frendrup; address: Indelukket 37, DK 2900 Hellerup. Tel +45 39627447
For the time being, the NLCS is rather passive. NLCS appoints members to the IULTCS committees.

EASTERN EUROPE - WRITTEN REPORT FROM DR K KOLOMAZNIK

The situation of tannery industry in the Eastern Europe is not good. Almost all big tanneries collapsed and now there are only small private companies, whose main task is to stand at very hard all-European competition. Their interest in the membership is minimal. Also the national tanning federations brought up or were cancelled after the transformation of socialistic economy. They were the part of state-controlled activities. Nevertheless, I will try to renew the interrupted contacts, especially with the Russian federation, where is the certain hope for the tanning industry restart. The whole process, of course, is long-term and requires the financial backing. Although the University's finances are limited, there is some possibility to realise personal dealing, which, I think, is the most effective way.

LATIN EUROPE - MR J-P GUALINO

Very little new information to report since the last Executive Committee meeting. As has already been reported, Italy is progressing well with preparations for the 2005 Congress. France will be holding their Congress on 10 to 11 June 2004 in Toulouse. This 2 day event will be a meeting of tanners, leathergoods and shoe Associations.

SOUTH AMERICA - WRITTEN REPORT FROM MS R C TEIXEIRA

BRAZIL, Represented by ABQTIC:
The activities developed after May 2003 were as follows:
· monthly technical meetings in ABQTIC's Headquarters
· vice-presidencies meetings around the country
· participation in fairs: FIMEC 2003, in April, with the realization of "VI FÓRUM DO COURO" and a Vice-presidencies meeting; COUROVISÃO,ECOVISÃO
· participation in the IU Commissions
· participation in the Technical Committees from ABNT: group of technical specifications of leather garments
· participation in the IULTCS Congress in Cancun and also in all the activities of the Union, including a meeting with FLAQTIC's members
· promotion and divulgation of the next IULTCS Congress in Italy/2005 in our technical magazine "Revista do Couro", for our associates and other FLAQTIC's members and in our technical events
· organisation and realisation of our next national congress, "XVI ENCONTRO NACIONAL DA ABQTIC", which was held in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, from 9th to 12th October, 2003, with a participation of around 300 associates.

Unfortunately, none of the other South American members had submitted reports to the Regional Representative, Ms Teixeira.

CENTRAL EUROPE - DR.-ING H-P GERMANN

VGCT has 460 members (approx. 430 personal members + 30 extraordinary members (companies and organisations)).

The national congress and annual meeting was held at Wuerzburg, May 29 -31, 2003 with more than 100 participants; one of the main topics discussed was the new EU Chemicals policy. At the same time there were meetings of the 2 technical committees "Leather Testing and Quality Assessment" and "Chemical Auxiliaries", (this one in connection with the TEGEWA-Association of the Chemical Industry), and of the members of the board of VGCT (next meeting of the board will be on 19th November 2003).

VGCT Awards for 2003 have been presented to Dr. R. Dorstewitz and Mr W. Kerber for the development of the new "Autosplit" splitting machine.

As every two years, the annual meeting of members will be combined with the "LGR Seminar Meeting" in March, next year's meeting will be held 9 to 11 March.2003 at Reutlingen.

VGCT is sponsoring the LGR students' visits to the VGCT annual conferences and the Lineapelle/TanningTech fair in Bologna/Italy. Currently, VGCT is in the process of improving its website.

VESLIC of Switzerland has elected Dr. Alois Puentener as President, recently. The past President Mr Max Gimmel will continue his activities for VESLIC as treasurer.

VOELT of Austria is currently in a process of deciding on the continuation or withdrawal of its membership in IULTCS.

SOUTH ASIA - PRESENTED BY DR S RAJAMANI ON BEHALF OF DR B CHATTOPADHYAY

The IUE Chairman has visited the Metropolitan Leather Technology Centre in Tokyo, Japan and had meetings with Mr TETSUO IMAI. IUE / IULTCS member for North Asia. It has been proposed to organise the 6th Asian and International conference at Himeji city, Japan during 19th to 21st October 2004. The associations from Japan, China, Korea, etc. will support this programme. The participants are expected from Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Vietnam, etc.

A Conference on the recent developments in the Science and Technology including market and management in Leather Sector of South Asian Region has been scheduled during 14th and 15th November 2003 at Kolkata. This programme has been co-ordinated by ILTA and CLRI. During the next Hong Kong (March/ April 2004) fair the IULTCS Chairman Prof. J Cot in co-operation with Dr S Rajamani plan to meet the Asian Country, Leather sector / Technology members and establish link with IULTCS.

NORTH ASIA - DR BI SHI

There was no report presented for North Asia.

8). Additional agenda item:
DETEK, the Turkish Member Society gave a short presentation of their Association and of the suitability of Turkey to hold the proposed European Conference in 2006. Dr Volkan Candar explained the reasons for expanding the Conference from just Mediterranean to European members and he also suggested that Istanbul would be a suitable venue. DETEK will consider the proposal that a fee for each registered delegate is paid to IULTCS, so that the Union can lend its full support.

9). IULTCS Commission Reports:
a). IUC Commission - Dr A J Long
Update on Test Methods
Amendments to the methods that were voted at the IULTCS congress in Mexico have been published in JSLTC. Some of the chemical test methods had a large number of amendments and so these are going to be republished in their final corrected form in the near future.

Review of methods
Some of the ISO methods related to leather are now due for their 5 year review. This process will be initiated at the next IUC/IUF/IUP meeting which it is to be held in Barcelona on the 14th November.

Working relationship between CEN / IULTCS / ISO / SLTC
There have been several meetings recently to discuss the working relationship between CEN, IULTCS and ISO. (This will also have impact on the SLTC with regards to publication of test methods as they produce the JSLTC).

A report has been prepared (by Dr Campbell Page) of recommendations based on the discussions and forwarded to Dr Jaume Cot, President of IULTCS.

Essentially the following was discussed:

· There exists an arrangement at present whereby the IULTCS test committees have special status in ISO. The IUC, IUF and IUP are essentially the respective ISO committees and thus any method adopted by the IULTCS can be accepted to the final vote stage (FDIS) by ISO.
· Also in existence is the Vienna agreement, the aim of which is to allow CEN and ISO to work in partnership on test methods of mutual interest. One organisation of the two agrees to take the lead, and once enquiry etc. is completed, the other completes the final vote stage.
· Concerns have been expressed that in the case of some IULTCS originated methods, (which will have been published by the JSLTC for comment followed by a final vote by ISO, working with CEN according to the Vienna agreement), there is no official opportunity for CEN members to have comment. Just a yes / no vote.

As a result of this a series of proposals have been suggested:
· Any new work items for the IULTCS will be submitted to ISO to see if they are required.
· Any methods from ISO will be submitted to CEN to see if they wish to participate under the Vienna agreement.
· Any methods from CEN should be submitted to ISO to see if they wish to participate under the Vienna agreement.

The above is intended to re-establish co-ordinated work programmes between the three groups.
· IULTCS methods submitted through ISO will undergo the DIS (draft vote) stage whereby comments can be received. If CEN is not interested in the method, then the existing fast track system will be retained.
· Consultation / voting in IULTCS / ISO / CEN will be synchronised. Especially at the ISO-DIS / CEN enquiry and JSLTC publication stages.
· During consultation and ballots, ISO, IULTCS and CEN should be seeing identical documents as far as content is concerned. This is to ensure no disparity between the three groups.
· Once the final stages of the DIS / CEN enquiry stage is reached only written comments should be accepted through appropriate channels. This is to avoid the problems experienced previously with last minute changes, resulting in slightly different wording in IULTCS / CEN / ISO texts.
· The aim currently is to result in 3 equivalent methods. The ideal is to merge the systems to result in 1 document with a dual numbering system. (Similar to the current situation with the International Dairy Federation).
· The issue of joint publication of one standard will have an impact on the SLTC and when discussed at their AGM it was agreed that they are happy to go forward with this. The issue with regards to copyright of methods is being investigated in conjunction with the editor of JSLTC, however no problems are foreseen at present. ISO have offered that after comments have been received from the DIS and draft JSLTC publication, ISO would take over amendments agreed and the final voting, editing, printing and distribution. There would not be a separate IU method, only an ISO IU method (or EN ISO IU)
· According to an agreement reached in 1990, ISO / IULTCS methods are available from ISO to the IULTCS at 50% of the normal price. There is then the option of the IULTCS and SLTC selling these on to members. Also this approach makes the option of internet sales or a compilation CD-ROM possible.

If this approach is agreed by IULTCS Executive Committee then the next step is to draft a working agreements between ISO / IULTCS and also ISO / IULTCS / SLTC.

b). IUE Commission - Dr S Rajamani
The IUE Commission met at Cancun, Mexico on 29th May 2003 and updated the 11 IUE documents on Environment in the world leather sector. A joint meeting of IUF / IUC / IUE / IUP was then held on 30th May 2003 at Cancun, Mexico. The draft versions have been circulated for the comments of the members and the final versions will be circulated early December 2003. The copies of the IUE documents have been provided to the interested members of the other Commissions.

The next IUE Commission meeting is to be held in Switzerland during early part of May 2004. Dr Campbell Page and Dr Jens Fennen, Secretary IUE has agreed to make the local arrangement in the next meeting. The mode of dissemination of the IUE activities and the documents will be finalised in the proposed meeting in SWITZERLAND taking into account the fear expressed by some members on the implications in case Environmental Protection Authorities use some portion of selected documents against the Leather Industry. It has also been decided to organise regional seminar on Environment and Clear Technologies with the participation of selected IUE Members particularly in North Asian (China / Japan) region and Turkey.

c). IUF Commission - Dr C T Page
The last meeting of the IUF Commission was held at BLC on Wednesday 11th September 2002. The next meeting is scheduled for 14th November 2003 in Barcelona.

At the IULTCS Congress in Cancun in May 2003 a combined IU Commission information meeting was held. It was well attended and some useful comments were received for future Commission work. It was a good opportunity for especially South American people to give comments to IU methods, as they often cannot attend meetings in Europe.

In August 2003, Dr Long and myself met with the ISO Central Secretariat in Geneva to discuss closer working relationships. A separate report has been prepared.

Below is a brief summary of the latest aspects related to IUF test methods.

· Approval of ISO methods as EN methods
All ISO Fastness test methods are now also approved as European EN methods. The last 2 were approved in voting in June 2003.

· New Fastness methods
IUF 412 | ISO FDIS 17228 Leather - Fastness tests - Change in colour with accelerated ageing
This method was approved at the Cancun meeting of the IULTCS Council of Delegates. Since then it has been submitted to ISO for development as an ISO method. The latest information is that it will shortly be sent out as an ISO FDIS version for a yes/no vote.

IUF 452 | ISO FDIS 20433 Leather - Tests for colour fastness - Colour fastness to crocking
This method was approved at the Cancun meeting of the IULTCS Council of Delegates. Although not planned for further progress as an ISO method, at the Cancun meeting those attending were strongly of the opinion that it was helpful for many countries to have leather test methods as ISO Standards. So it has been submitted to ISO for development as an ISO method. The latest information is that it will shortly be sent out as an ISO FDIS version for a yes/no vote.

· Updating ISO methods and consequently the equivalent IUF methods
Every 5 years the ISO methods must be reviewed by the IUF Commission (as the equivalent to the ISO Technical Committee responsible for them). All ISO fastness methods are currently up for review. Corrections and update comments have been received and will be progressed further at the next IUF meeting in Barcelona. Once these have been completed and approved, it will be then appropriate to up-date the published IUF equivalents to ensure the methods are in agreement.

· Reviewing old, non-ISO methods
It is a proposal to review the old IUF, but non-ISO methods, to either update them or consider their usefulness. This is a topic to start at the next IUF meeting.

· Publishing of IUF methods. Action please!
For some time now there appears to be difficult to have a complete and correct set of ISO/IUF methods. There are differences between what has been published earlier as IUF and what is published as IUF / ISO Standards by the ISO. This situation must be corrected. I am of the opinion IULTCS must quickly consider the offer of the ISO to publish future IU methods both in the draft form (simultaneously with JSLTC) and as joint ISO / IUC/IUF/IUP Standards in the final version. ISO has offered that copies of the joint ISO / IU methods could be sold individually or in sets on CDs. It would be preferable to be able to say the methods published by ISO are also the IUF methods.

· Summary comments
The program of new work items for the IUF Commission is rather light, so it is therefore good to take this period to update and review thoroughly what methods we already have and ensuring they are available.

Comments are always appreciated, especially with regards to additional methods considered of value to the industry.

d). IUP Commission - Presented by Mr J M V Williams on behalf of Mr
C B Wood
Some 30 IUP methods have been approved by the Council of Delegates over the last three years. The only IUP methods remaining to be finalised are as follows:

· Draft IUP 49 Measurement of bagginess, creep and relaxation
· Draft IUP 50 Measurement of soiling.
These two methods, in their equivalent CEN format, are currently at CEN enquiry stage and it is anticipated that there would be changes required. It is intended to await the outcome of the CEN enquiry and then amend the draft IUP version and publish in JSLTC.

· IUP 9 Measurement of distention and strength of grain by the Ball Burst test
· IUP 32 Measurement of area
These two are now due for 5 year ISO review and it is anticipated that these will be discussed at the forthcoming joint IUC/IUF/IUP Commission meeting in Barcelona on 14 November 2003.

Mr Williams also reported that shortly he hoped to be able to produce a list showing the cross-reference numbers for IU methods with the ISO and EN equivalent numbers. This list would be added to the list of IU methods that is already on the website.

10). Any other business
a). Congress Guidelines sub-committee report.
A draft copy of the Congress Guidelines had been circulated and the Executive Committee accepted all the suggested amendments, subject to some minor alterations and additions that the Secretary will add in. After the final amendments have been completed, the Secretary will circulate the final approved document to all the Executive Committee and to all Members. It will also be posted to the website.

b). Internal Regulation sub-committee report.
A draft copy of the Internal Regulations had been circulated and the Executive Committee accepted all the suggested amendments, subject to some minor alterations and additions that the Secretary will add in. After the final amendments have been completed, the Secretary will circulate the final approved document to all the Executive Committee and to all Members. It will also be posted to the website.

c). Statutes sub-committee report.
A draft copy of the revised Statutes had been circulated and the Executive Committee accepted all the suggested amendments, subject to some minor alterations and additions that the Secretary will add in. After the final amendments have been completed, the document will be presented to the Council of Delegates to gain acceptance of the revised Statutes.

d). Regional Representative for Africa (excluding the Republic of South Africa).
It was agreed that a determined effort should be made to recruit Associations in Africa. The Executive Committee confirmed the appointment of Mr Gustavo Defeo as the new Regional Representative for Africa. Mr Defeo was asked to contact as many countries as possible, excluding the Republic of South Africa which is already represented in the Union by its membership of the Society of Leather Technologist and Chemists (SLTC) who are part of the Northern Europe region.

The Executive Committee were delighted to make this appointment in the hope that eventually Mr Defeo will be able to hand over the role of Regional Representative to a resident of one of the African countries that, hopefully, he will be able to bring into membership.

11). Date of next meeting
The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be held in Bologna on 28.10.04 commencing at 0930 hrs. It is expected that the location will be the same (Pavilion 33, Mezzanine (adjacent to tanning Tech Offices) but details will be confirmed in due course.

The meeting was closed at approximately 1400 hrs.