Dear Presidents of EAA Member Societies,

I take advantage of this end of the year holidays  to report you on EAA Board and Executive Council activities during last semester and on plans for year 2009.

We  met  last September in Ravello (Italy) and several action were discussed and taken. I will try to  summarize main topics.

Paris ’08.

Manell Zakharia reported on the final numbers and results  of the Conference. Considering full paying registration participants, students, exhibitors, accompanying persons and staff ,  5018 people  were present in Paris confirming the vast technical and scientific success of the event. But not only. According to the MoU between SFA, EAA and ASA and in spite of the large costs for the organization of this event,  the income of EAA has been quantified in 54.000 Euro which is a great result and will reinforce the economic stability of our association.   A special thank to SFA and to all organizers of Paris ’08.

Young Researchers program

The participation of almost  1000 students  to Paris ’08 confirmed us that young researchers are  lymph for our association and any investment  in their activities is fair and it will be advantageous. EAA will invest 20.000 Euro in the Young Researcher  Program in the next two years supporting  grants for the participation to the EAA events, best paper awards, student meetings, special lectures on highlight topics.

For Euronoise 2009  in Edinburgh, EAA announced 10 grants for students of East European Countries, 10 grants for students of non East European Countries and 3 best paper awards. The full announcement is available on  FENESTRA. For the NAG-DAGA Conference  (EAA symposium) next March in Rotterdam EAA will support a meeting of the EAA Student Council . More  activities are planned for the EAA Regional Conference in Ljubljana in year 2010.

Next EAA events

Year 2009 will be full of EAA events. We will start very soon with the EAA TC Noise Interdisciplinary Symposium on SOUNDSCAPE (Berlin, 29-31 January 2009). In March (23-26) in Rotterdam it will be held the joint meeting NAG/DAGA 2009 which is also a EAA Symposium and in June (15-17) the EAA Symposium on AURALIZATION will be at the Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Espoo, Finland.  EURONOISE 2009 will be in Edinburgh (26-28 October).  For Members of EAA member Societies reduced registration fees have been implemented for all these events.  We expect a large participation of European acousticians.

EAA Products

For year 2009 we can confirm the number of subscriptions (on CD or on-line) to Acta Acustica united with Acustica  and we will try to conclude the archiving process of old issues. The Journal is increasing its international appealing and  almost 50% of members of EAA Societies receive the Journal at very low cost, but it is our wish that ALL will receive AAA in future.  For this we are investigating different solutions that will be presented to the next General Assembly in Edinburgh on Sunday 25^th October 2009.

During year 2009 we expect also that more EAA member Societies will use NUNTIUS as a tool to spread in Europe their activities publishing newsletters, journal, information.

DOCUMENTA has an absolute new structure. It is possible now to read details and purchase directly on-line old proceedings and books still available. For year 2009 we intend to upgrade DOCUMENTA to a sort of electronic  library dedicated to “acoustics” including in the catalogue  new books, PhD thesis and reports. Our product manager has contacted  international publishers that seem very interested in the initiative and we expect your collaboration in indicating national publications that can be included in the Documenta catalogue.

FENESTRA has a new stable server and has a daily hit of over 800 confirming itself as a extraordinary tool for the acousticians’ community. For year 2009 we expect to involve a new product manager and more young people in the management of the tool.

SCHOLA, the Online Study Guide of Acoustics in Europe, contains information on 200 university courses on acoustics, but so far only 11 European Countries are present and some of them with a short list.  Considering that the product  has been largely appreciated by students and academic community, during year 2009 we will consider different actions to involve more universities and colleagues. 

EAA INDEX is a product appreciated by a lot of members and it is a important tool to establish contacts among European acousticians. The new EAA INDEX should be published with issue 5/09 of AAA, before the next General Assembly in Edinburgh. So far 20 EAA National Societies have responded to our product manager sending all data of their members, but we still lack 10 National Societies! If you are among them please consider that the collection of data must be completed at the end of January 2009.  

Periodically you will receive in year 2009 from the EAA Secretary an e-mail with “EAA NEWS”.  To keep high the interest towards EAA, it is important that these information will be forwarded to all your members . We are confident that you will help us.

The next EAA Board and Executive Council is scheduled in March 2009 , please contact me if you have any idea or suggestion for EAA next actions.

Around the world year 2008 will be probably considered  a “bad” year. In spite of all, this is not true for “acoustics” and for EAA and, with an optimistic spirit, year 2009 will be even better for all of us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND TO ALL YOUR MEMBERS!

Hoping to meet your soon,

Luigi Maffei

President of  EAA

European Acoustics Association