Reforming the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote sensing (ISPRS)

 "The grave yard is full of indispensable Men" - General Charles de Gaulle.

Shunji Murai, former ISPRS President, jocularly dubbed it "The International Sumo Player with Round Stomach". The ISPRS symposium season is now over and focus is now moving to the Amsterdam 2000 Congress.

Several old questions continue to linger about the ISPRS. For many indeed the ISPRS is almost an Albatros - ponderous, powerful, hallowed, yet exciting. Many have embraced her and ‘prospered’, yet many insist it is an exclusive club run by a few for the benefit of a small circle of friends. This is not correct but appearances may give a different impression.

For starters, the leadership has not changed much at any congress. The legislative documents allow a maximum of three out-going Council members to be retained. To ensure continuity, the first Vice-President’s position is offered to an out-going member of council staring from the President downwards. To the best of my knowledge the out-going President has always exercised this option. Out-going Council members can only be re-elected as Secretary-General or President and the newly elected President tends to emerge from the out-going Council. Only delegates of various Nations who are Ordinary members make up the General Assembly and vote at elections. Therefore, the impression to the casual Congress participant is that this is an exclusive club.

There is then the question of who gets invited to make presentations. There were complaints that speakers are people "close" to the leadership of Commissions and working-groups. My thinking is that making a compressive evaluation of papers offered to the congress is difficult. Only abstracts are available for this and many of these proposals are unrealistic and are never completed resulting in "no shows". There seems little choice but to muzzle the ‘distinguished academics’ to fill half of the speaking slots. The remaining slots are then distributed based on information available from abstracts, taking care that demographic distribution is equitable, with unforeseeable consequences. I recollect querying the standing ovation given to a speaker whose English I could not understand only to be told that people were clapping out of relief that the presentation was over!

The ISPRS Congress is a tiring two-week academic jamboree, but people love it. Europe dominates most of the ISPRS research areas, and also the weighted votes in the General assembly. It is, therefore, not irregular that they dominate the leadership of the ISPRS. Council members, sometimes with the help of their supporting organisation, make substantial sacrifices to serve creditably. More grants are being secured to enable people from poorer countries to attend the Congress.

My first congress was the well-organised 1992 Washington DC Congress. But DC was such an alluring location that many spent their time visiting museums and galleries, sometimes resulting in near-empty lecture rooms. Vienna 1996 took the precaution of using smaller rooms and a more elaborate assessment of papers - so the ISPRS is responsive.