CIRCULAR 3 July 1995

1. Training Survey
   
   The APLMF Secretariat has prepared a training survey questionnaire for enquiry among APLMF economies (see Attachment 1).
   Training has been identified as an important Forum program element, and has been recognised as an important pre-requisite for developing regional confidence in measurement and testing.
   This survey aims to identify both the need for training in Forum economies and the facilities and resources available to support training programs.
   Forum members are requested to complete the questionnaire and return it to the Secretariat by 31 August 1995.
   
2. Meeting of Specialist Regional Bodies
   
   A further meeting of Specialist Regional Bodies will be held on 29 July in association with the meeting of the Pacific Accreditation Co-operation (PAC).
   The main item on the agenda will be the outcomes of the APEC Standards and Conformance Subcommittee meeting in Sapporo, Japan from 29 June - 1 July. This will include discussion of a draft proposal on medium to long term action plans, extracts from which are enclosed with this circular (see Attachment 2).
   
3. Intercomparisons
   
   The Secretariat is finalising a proposal for funding intercomparisons on non-automatic weighing instruments, mass standards and load cells. Those Forum members who have not replied yet should indicate as soon as possible if they wish to participate in these intercomparisons.
   
4. APEC Leaders Meeting
   
   The meeting of the APEC leaders to be held in Osaka in mid-November will be preceded by officer's meetings including the Standards and Conformance Subcommittee in Tokyo in early October. Unfortunately, these latter meetings will be held prior to the next Forum meeting in Beijing, so the Forum Report will be based primarily on the responses received to the surveys on legislative legislation, prepacked articles and training.
   
5. Amalgamation of OIML with the Treaty of the Metre.
   
   Forum members may be aware of discussions that have recently commenced to establish a single international metrology organisation by amalgamating OIML with the Treaty of the Metre.
   Such an amalgamation would improve the international profile of metrology as well as clarifying the relationship between scientific and legal and practical metrology.
   A prime requirement for such an amalgamation must be the formation of an organisation with the commitment structure and scope to address the full range of metrology issues. The amalgamation proposal will be discussed at the CGPM meeting in Paris on 9 - 13 October and at the CIML meeting in Beijing on 25 - 27 October.
   
   I believe that this is an issue which affects all legal metrology organisations which are members of OIML and a paper which examines this in greater perspective has been prepared and included in this circular (see Attachment 3).