Actes du colloque

Proceedings of the 18

International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013

have voting right. Considering that some of the TC’s deal with

multidisciplinary problems, the chair, exceptionally, can appoint

a non-ISSMGE Corresponding Member, provided he/she is an

internationally recognized expert able to contribute significantly

to the TC activities.

The TC members have the duty to respond when asked to

do so and to carry out delegated activities as agreed. The TC

Chair may suggest to the ISSMGE President to remove or

replace TC members who are not “active”. Only the President

can remove or replace a TC member. The term ”not active”

refers to non-responsive members within the time frame set by

the Chair unless good reasons exist for the lack of response.

In the case of non-responding members on the TC, the chair

should have follow-up with three steps: Chair first contacts

member itself; if no response, Chair contacts Member Society,

asking Member Society to verify status and, if necessary, to

replace member.

Involvement of Industry

The ISSMGE caters for the needs of all members of the

geotechnical community. The composition of TCs should

ensure a mix of academics, researchers and practitioners on the

committee appropriate to the subject area of the TC. As a

guideline, practitioner involvement should preferably exceed

25% on any TC increasing to 50% or more in the case of TC of

a mainly practical nature.

The Chair of the TC should likewise be drawn from a sector

of the profession appropriate to the subject area of the

committee.

ACTIVITIES OF TECHNICAL COMMITTEES

Terms of Reference and Task Forces

At the commencement of the TC’s activities, the Chair submits

the Terms of Reference (work plan and proposed deliverables)

to the TOC for approval. The TOC consults with the ISSMGE

President on the scope of work and reverts to the Chair with

comments. Once approved, the Terms of Reference are

circulated to the TC membership by the Chair. The Secretary

General will advise Member Societies of the Terms of

Reference of all TCs and update the ISSMGE website as they

become available.

The Term of Reference should include activities

contributing to achieving the following aims:

Objective 1

Disseminate knowledge and practice within the TC’s subject

area to the membership of the ISSMGE:

1. Organize specialty conferences, symposiums and

workshops.

2. Encourage preparation of keynote lectures, state-of-the-art

lectures including new technology, general reports for

conferences organized by the International Society, regional

conferences and conferences organized by Member

societies.

3. Develop ideas for broad participation of ISSMGE individual

members through, for example, prediction events, surveys,

or other means.

Objective 2

To establish guidelines and technical recommendations within

the TC’s subject area:

1. Collect available standards, codes, and guidelines, and

translate non-English ones into English if necessary.

2. Prepare overview of the standards, codes, and guidelines.

3. Evaluate the similarities and the differences.

4. Make guidelines and recommendations for practice (can be

methodological ones for new complex problems and/or

technical ones for specific items).

Objective 3

Assist with technical programs of international and regional

conferences organized by the ISSMGE:

1. Promote to present the findings of the TC in main sessions

and discussion sessions.

Objective 4

Interact with industry and overlapping organizations working in

areas related to the TC’s specialist area:

1. Identify overlapping organizations and decide how to

interact with them.

The work of the TC commences as soon as possible after

approval of the Terms of Reference by the Technical Overview

Committee and the President. Both the TOC and the President

can require changes to the terms of references.

The Chair is encouraged to develop task forces for specific

activities and assign the responsibility to TC members to lead

these activities. These TC members will be called “Leader” of

the “titled” Task Forces of that TC. The Leaders of the Task

Forces of a TC together with the Vice Chair and the Secretary

form the Executive of the TC.

The Chair is to submit a list of proposed TC meetings to the

TOC. Although these meetings may change, it is important to

notify the general membership at an early stage of potential

meetings to allow for appropriate planning and coordination of

ISSMGE events.

Responsibilities of TC

A TC is responsible for discussing, advancing and developing

knowledge in its specialist subject area. Wherever possible, it

should seek to synthesize this information into a form that is of

use to the geotechnical profession and to disseminate it to the

membership of the ISSMGE. There should be a balance

between the advancement of academic research and the

translation of appropriate research findings into practice.

Activities

Technical Committees may use a variety of means for

achieving their objectives. Typically these would include

specialist discussions, symposia, academic/practitioner forums,

specialty conferences, surveys, etc. Active involvement by the

TC in International and Regional Conferences organized by the

ISSMGE is strongly encouraged.

All conferences, symposia etc organized under the auspices

of the TC must adhere to the principles set out in the ISSMGE

conference manual. The TC shall seek approval from the

President and Secretary General before it gives official

endorsement to any conference or activity organized by bodies

outside the ISSMGE.

The TC shall establish a system to save its work on a web

site. Links should be made with the ISSMGE and the GeoWorld

sites.

Deliverables

The terms of reference of the TC should include tangible

deliverables such as reports, seminars and proceedings or other

visible output. Particular emphasis should be placed on co-

ordination of research efforts and the translation of research

findings into practice.

Each TC is required to submit two reports to the ISSMGE

Board: an interim report in time for the mid-term Council

meeting, and one administrative report six months prior to the

International Conference for presentation at the Council

meeting. Both reports are to be submitted to the TOC and to the

Secretary General. In addition, a short progress report to the

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