July 2008
Louisa Swaden
IMSF Secretary
c/o Lloyd's Register - Fairplay
3 Lombard House, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1UP, UK

Dear Member

MINUTES OF IMSF ANNUAL MEETING 2008

Please find below the minutes of the Steering Group meeting held on 27th April2008 in Gdansk. The Forum wishes to thank Maritime Institute Gdansk and Urszula Kowalczyk for their support and assistance in making the event a success

Attended by approx 50 people at its height, the conference was a success, bringing together a mixture of governments, classification societies, brokers, EU representatives, ports and academic institutions with a common interest in improving the quality and scope of use of maritime statistics.

The Steering Group are now able to confirm that the 2009 meeting will be held in New Orleans and sponsored by the US Army Corp of Engineers. Exact dates have yet to be finalised and further information will be presented on this website when it becomes available.

Yours faithfully
Louisa Swaden
Secretary, International Maritime Statistics Forum

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE IMSF STEERING GROUP - GDANSK 27TH APRIL 2008

1. Program prep
Joint co-ordination of programme successful. A strong need to follow up on programme successes in order to plan for future events. Can all Steering Group members feedback feelings from the conference event success.

2. Regional Reps
Reps to assist in finding contributions from regions that fit in with programme. CP to set up lines of communication & pass on our requirements to regional reps.ACTION:CP

3. 2009 Stockholm
Suggestion that we do a module in IAME of limited IMSF attendance, without charge and no subscriptions.Possibility of Beijing/Shanghai in 2010?  If so then we'd have our conference then but IAME would merge and do a joint conference.  It would be a regional meeting for IAME.

4. Conference numbers
This is largest number of persons that have arrived at conference. Should we cap it? Decided the core group is only growing slowly so we don't anticipate a problem at this point.

5. Meetings
Doug said all set for New Orleans next year. Final date to be announced. 2011 - Provisional offer from EMSA Lisbon.

Louisa Swaden
IMSF Secretary May 2008