IIW History 1990-2015

at the IIW Annual Assembly in 2005, in Prague, Czech Republic, it was therefore a fitting tribute that Stular received the Arthur Smith Award for dedicated service to IIW over many years. With respect to other awards for service, IIW also introduced Service Recognition Awards for the Chairs of IIW’s Working Units who had a minimum of 5-years’ service in those capacities. Among those who had achieved recognition for their services in 2011 were Mr Vincent van der Mee (The Netherlands – (Commission II) and Mr Ernest D. Levert (USA – Commission IV), whose services were very much appreciated. A special token of gratitude was presented to Dipl.-Ing. Dietmar Rippegather

Dietmar Rippegather

(Germany) in recognition of three consecutive three-year terms and meritorious service in a ‘difficult and challenging role’ as the Chair of Commission VI Terminology (C-VI). 25 The issue of membership fees was never far from the minds of a number of delegates at theAnnual Assembly in Singapore in 2009 and a request was made for serious consideration of an alternative method for the calculation of membership fees. A Task Group Fees (TG- FEES) was therefore set up under the chairmanship of Dr Daniel Almeida (Brazil). Almeida was to progress this project quite diligently until exceptional circumstances prevailed that prevented his attendance at meetings in 2012. During a burglary attempt on his home in 2011 he was shot in the spine. As Almeida explained, ‘It was really a miracle, in truth, two miracles – one that I am here and two that I can walk. I could only stand up 30 days after surgery. In the beginning I was totally paralysed, even my fingers would not move. After therapy I started to use a pencil but my signature had changed and I had problems with my bank and notary’. 26 TG-FEES proposal was initially put to the Board of Directors

LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS which resulted in a request to all Member Societies to submit their proposals for the calculation of fees with only three Member Societies responding. Almeida expressed disappointment at this and developed a real urge to complete unfinished business through the assistance of Mayer, CEO of IIW, ‘…Cécile and I worked a great deal to create a new calculation for the IIW annual fee. We had a chance to get via the President at its meeting on 8 July 2012 at the Denver, USA Annual Assembly. The proposal was based on a formula that included both steel consumption averaged over three years, capped, plus a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), also capped. 27 The proposal was accepted by the Board but was subsequently rejected by the members at the General Assembly,

Daniel Almeida