Minutes of the ION Washington Section
August 24, 2004 – Evening Meeting

The August Institute of Navigation Washington Section meeting was held at the The Department of Transportation Headquarters in downtown Washington. The meeting had 17 attendees, and guest speaker. 11 attendees were ION members. The section officers, Jim Doherty (Section Chair), Chuck Schue (Treasurer), Jim Simpson (Program Chair), Terry McGurn and Dave Winfield (Student Stipend Committee Co-Chairs), and Chris Varner (Secretary) all attended. The agenda of events was the following:

AGENDA:
6:00 pm - 6:30 pm Happy Hour
6:30 pm - 7:00 pm Business meeting
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Speaker: Ralph Braibanti

BUSINESS MEETING:

Our Section has been given approval by the ION Council at the June 2003 meeting to sponsor a high school navigation club under the Institute’s recently created scholarship program. Several other Sections were authorized to award scholarships of $2500. Our Section’s program is a bit different. Based on our Stipend Committee’s research and Section members votes, we have been authorized to set up a program this coming school year to pursue an initiative that the Section decided would best accomplish the goal of encouraging young students to enter the field of navigation. Specifically, this is a broad plan to interest high school level students in the art and science of navigation through the formation of navigation clubs.

The Council approved up to $2500 for this effort and requested that we report on its progress at future Council meetings. We need to develop and implement a specific plan of action to select one or more high schools or other student groups, to support criteria for evaluating progress toward achieving the ION’s goal of fostering the art and science of navigation, develop a budget, and submit it to the ION National Office. To that end, our proposal recommends the formation of a Steering Committee.

We must now form a Steering Committee to develop the specifics of the plan, to implement it, and to oversee its execution. We plan to have a Committee of five to seven members, including a Chairperson. We also request that those Section members, who feel they cannot devote the time to serve on the Committee, but would like to contribute, identify themselves as points-of-contact to help implement this project.

If you would like to be involved in the Stipend Steering Committee, please communicate to Terry (tjmgps@msn.com) or Dave (davidwinf@comcast.net) the role that you wish to play: (a) member of the Committee; (b) Chairperson; (c) point-of-contact to help implement. Terry and Dave will identify to me the interested persons and I shall appoint the Chairperson.

LECTURE ON THE GPS-GALILEO COOPERATION AGREEMENT

The GPS-GALILEO Cooperation Agreement was recently approved between the US and EUROCAE. It sets the foundation using the two systems in cooperation and without nterference. The briefing given by the Director of the Department of State's Office of Advanced Technology, Ralph Braibanti, can be viewed by through the following link:

Briefing on the GPS-GALILEO Cooperation Agreement [PPT File, 157kB]

Mr. Ralph Braibanti is the Head of the US delegation in the negotiations with the European Commission (EC) on the interoperability of the GPS and Galileo Satellite Navigation System. Recently, at the June 26th US-European Union Summit in Ireland, Secretary of State Colin Powell and the EC Vice-President Loyola de Palacio signed an agreement on GPS and Galileo cooperation. Mr. Braibanti will discuss the latest events in the negotiation process and challenges that lie ahead by operating the new military GPS signals with the Galileo system.