APLMF President's Newsletter - July 2017

Dear APLMF Members and colleagues

It is hard to believe we are past the mid-point of the year.  The Secretariat and I have been working hard on our 2017 work programme including our agreed actions following the 23rd APLMF meeting.  We have been communicating with you quite a bit; requesting feedback on various documents, surveys for completion and our first online voting.  Thank you for your efforts to date and we encourage all member economies to engage with these activities to ensure all your voices are heard. 

Current deadlines:

• Voting – 2016 Financial Report –  extended to 31 July 2017
• Complete Survey – Test procedure NAWI – extended to 31 July 2017
• Feedback – Draft 23rd APLMF Meeting  Minutes – 31 July 2017
• Complete Survey – Legal Measures Mechanism on Medical Devices – 31 July 2017
• Voting – Strategic Plan – 18 August 2017

24th Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum and Working Group Meetings

The meeting webpage is now open and invitations have been sent out to members.  I warmly invite delegates to attend these events which will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Wednesday 25 to Friday 27 October 2017. The meetings will be hosted by the National Metrology Center (NMC) of Cambodia at the Apsara Angkor Resort and Conference Hotel.  Please see our website for information about the programme, venue, visa requirements and online registration.  To assist with arrangements we would ask that you register before 20 September 2017. 

See: www.aplmf.org/cambodia-2017

Workshop on ‘Modernising National Metrological Infrastructures – key issues – approaches – lessons learned’ 

I was lucky enough to attend this successful event held in Malacca, Malaysia from 22-23 May 2017 in addition to participation in a MEDEA project evaluation workshop and attendance at an APMP Developing Economy Committee meeting. Marian Haire and I represented APLMF at these events hosted by the National Metrology Institute of Malaysia (NMIM) and attended by approximately 60 delegates representing 20 economies.

See: www.nmim.gov.my

The Joint APMP/APLMF Workshop on Modernising National Metrological Infrastructure was part of the Metrology Enabling Developing Economies in Asia (MEDEA) project and held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Metrology Program (APMP) mid-year meetings.

The workshop launched the revised APLMF/APMP Joint Guide 1 on National Metrological Infrastructure as well as introduced participants to the Asia-Pacific Metrology portal that is under development.  It also provided participants guidance on best practice in respect to raising awareness of the importance of metrology and case study development.

World Café: Group Workshop sessions held during the event clustered participants into small groups and enabled economy representatives to share their knowledge, experience and what they have learnt from the issues they have faced with their peers and other experts present.  These Café style discussions were very interesting and productive.  They enabled participants to effectively share ideas and consider new approaches to address the challenges they face.  Participants started to develop work programmes for implementation on their return to their respective economies and I will be very interested to follow up and hear about the tangible results of this work.  

Following on from the workshop we will be contacting those who suggested ideas for case studies and helping to shape their draft case studies for publication on our website. The template we have developed and the examples of case studies we eventually publish will be valuable resources for use by economies as we try to tackle issues to do with a lack of metrology awareness.
 
2016 Financial Report 

The 2016 Annual Financial Report has been signed off by the Executive Committee and full member economies have been invited to vote to adopt the 2016 Financial Report.  Full members received an email on 23 May with a link to the member only pages of the APLMF website where they could view the document and cast their vote. 

Please note, minor updates have been made to the financial report as a result of member feedback and an updated version was posted to the website on 1 June.  The changes were a result of a rounding error found in the original report and were not material. 

To date we have just 7 votes.  As this is the first time we have used online voting we have extended to 31 July 2017 and we would encourage all member economies to participate.

APLMF Strategic Plan 

A draft strategic plan was introduced at the 23rd APLMF meeting.  Feedback from that meeting was included in a second draft which was circulated to the Executive Committee.  Version 3 of the APLMF Strategic Plan 2017-2021 has now been completed and a link for voting will be sent to member economies to vote to adopt the Strategic Plan and voting will close 18 August 2017.

Survey on Legal Measures mechanism on Medical Devices 

Member Economies where emailed the invitation to participate in this survey on 22 May 2017.  The survey was developed by the Working Group on Medical Measurement.  We would ask you to complete the survey by 31 July 2017 and send it directly to the Chair as noted in the information.

23rd Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum and Working Group Meetings – Highlights

We hope you received our May update and have had a chance to check out the highlights from the 2016 meeting provided in video format.  The first video summarises the Working Group day and guest presentations, the second video summarises the Economy Reports.

The draft meeting minutes for this meeting have also been sent to all registered delegates for their feedback.  We would encourage those who attended to please read the draft minutes and provide any comments to secretariat@aplmf.org by 31 July 2017.

25th Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum and Working Group Meetings 

In 2018 APLMF will celebrate 25 years which is an exciting milestone.  I am actively looking for an economy who would like to host this auspicious event.  Please contact the Secretariat if you are interested in hosting and would like some more information about what hosting a forum event involves.

‘Full Member Only’ area of the website 

A reminder that the primary contact for each full member economy was sent login and password details for the ‘full member only’ area of the website on 28 March 2017.  It will be up to the primary contact to provide these details to staff within their economy.  If your economy hasn’t received this information, please contact secretariat@aplmf.org so we can check we have the correct details for the primary contact for your economy.

Consultation/feedback on draft APLMF Guide 7 – Verification of Fuel Dispensers 

Thank you to Australia, Papua New Guinea Thailand and Vietnam for your feedback.  An updated document will be circulated to members for voting to adopt, in due course.

Test Procedure Survey – Non-Automatic Weighing Instruments (NAWI) – extended to 31 July 2017

Thank you to Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam for your responses to this survey.   We would really like more responses to include in the final analysis so have extended the deadline to 31 July 2017 and encourage you to participate.

New APLMF Membership 

The Secretariat is currently drafting a Membership discussion paper which will outline the options and impact of changing our current membership criteria. This paper will be available in July for your review and input. The intention is to have the paper finalised for final voting before our 24th APLMF meeting in Cambodia later in the year.

Invoices for APLMF Membership Fees 

For 2017 were sent to the primary contact for each member economy in December 2016. Invoices are due for payment by 30 September 2017. Please contact secretariat@aplmf.org if you have not received an invoice for your economy.

Training for 2017 

Please refer to our website which is updated as new information comes to hand.

Economy Directories

In early June, we followed up with the 12 economies who are still to update their Directories for the website.  We look forward to receiving those over the coming months.

Other Events of note

Australian Measurement Conference 'Realising the value of metrology' Brisbane 12-14 Sep 2017

Stephen O’Brien

APLMF President