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TOWARDS 2000
This led to renewed debate, sometimes behind the scenes, at meetings and Annual
Assemblies such as the 46th Annual Assembly in Glasgow, Scotland in August 1993. This
became what could be termed a ‘burning issue’ leading to an extraordinary meeting of
the Executive Council where a submission written by Dr Glenn Ziegenfuss was put by
the United States of America (USA), supported by Canada, to consider a proposal for the
establishment of a single secretariat.
17
The Executive Council decided to approach this
matter with deep reflection and to make a decision based on a cost versus benefit analysis.
This eventually resulted in a request for the institutes hosting the two different secretariats
to put forward costed proposals for providing IIW with a merged function, including an
Executive Director and support staff.
18
Two subsequent meetings were held by the
Executive Council to further examine the role and
objectives of IIW. The combined result of these meetings
was for the Institute to come up with a corporate plan that
incorporated the views of Member Societies regarding
the outcomes of the strategic plan and absorbed them
into a plan for future action. In discussing the
administrative structure, the single secretariat
suggestion was examined initially by the
Executive Council but no benefits could be
identified over the current arrangement. Despite
this finding there was still an element of tension within the IIW community,
particularlybetween theBritishand theFrenchdelegations.MrMarcelEvrard,
the Director General of the Institut de Soudure, was to comment that ‘relations
had been tense during previous years when the merging was discussed
in small groups, and internally at the Executive Council, before 1990’.
19
Pride and a possible sense of history was an inordinate part of the British
consciousness
20
and the potential loss of the General Secretariat to the French would have
been difficult to contemplate if it indeed was to become a reality. Across the Channel,
French pride would have come into play too in the eventuality of any decision being
made that included the likely loss of the Scientific and Technical Secretariat to the British.
One consideration, not widely known or expressed at that time, was the likelihood of the
payment of considerable value added tax (VAT) in France if the secretariat was situated in
Paris, whereas IIW’s current status with the secretariat based in the UK meant that no tax
would be required on its financial transactions.
Besides these considerations, it was a time of great social and political upheaval
in Europe following the breakdown of the Soviet Union when the Baltic, east European
Marcel Evrard