Importance of the National Committees
CIGRE is a unique organisation with a small Central Office and over 60 National Committees. This structure is very efficient and ensures support for members irrespective of where they reside. It is important to understand the need and importance of the National Committees in the CIGRE context.
By Rob Stephen, Editor-in-Chief of the CIGRE Science & Engineering Journal and former CIGRE President (2016 - 2020)
The National Committees (NC) are arranged based on country or group of countries where members per country are limited. A National Committee can be set up if there are 40 equivalent members or more. The formation of a NC is approved by the Administrative Council. The Administrative Council forms the “Board” of CIGRE and consists of the chairpersons or designated representatives of the various NC’s.
The NC’s are the representatives of the CIGRE organisation at the local level. As such they are in direct contact with the members in their area or country. This provides the ability for members to be served directly at a local level rather than having to revert to the Central Office.
National Committees Forum - CIGRE Paris Session 2024
The role of the NC’s is to disseminate technical information to members, arrange conferences inviting Study Committees (SC) or international Working Groups to their country to expose local engineers to international experts. The NC should also set up a structure similar to the CIGRE structure in their area covering all the SC’s. The NC Study Committee member should chair this sub group (termed a Regional Activity group or panel) and invite members from academia, industry and utilities to take part. The purpose of the panel is to obtain information from the members to understand their issues and questions, as well as to provide feedback to the panel on the latest work being conducted by the SC. The SC member should take the questions and issues to the SC to see if there are other countries with the same issue. Should there not be a solution a proposal for a Working Group can be formulated.
It has often been asked as to why have many NC’s when larger countries can support the smaller countries that may not have their own NC. The issue relates to support of members. If the country has a NC they have the ability to arrange events on their own as well as propose members to SC’s which would otherwise not have been possible. They also have a seat on the Administrative Council and can raise their particular concerns and issues. The formation of NC’s are therefore encouraged irrespective of whether they are in a Region or are at present being supported by another larger NC.
I hope to see you at a CIGRE event soon.
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