Yasuo Okuda, 24th President of the Japan Association for Wind Engineering

okuda

     At the Board of Directors meeting held on May 25, 2022 after the General Meeting of Members, I was elected President for the 24th term, following the 23rd term. The lineup of officers for the 23rd term is exactly the same as for the 23rd term, but since the members entrusted me with the management of the Society during the Corona disaster, I am determined to make a concerted effort to adapt to the changes in society caused by the Corona disaster.

     Two years ago, upon assuming the presidency, I submitted my article "The Japan Society of Wind Engineering after the Corona" to the July 2020 issue of the Journal of the Japan Society of Wind Engineering. At the time, I was hopeful that the coronary crisis would not last long and would soon subside, and that we would be able to hold our annual research presentations and general meetings in person one year later. As of July 2022, the number of newly infected persons has been over 200,000/day on consecutive days compared to the peak of the Omicron strain around February (over 100,000 newly infected persons/day). In Japan, although the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) issued a guideline in May 2022 on the "wearing of masks outdoors and indoors," the reality is that many people still wear masks even outdoors. Although the wearing of masks indoors and outdoors will gradually be eased in the future, it may still take some time for Japan to become almost mask-free, as it is in other countries.

     Looking back over the past two years, the Annual Research Presentation (Organized Session) and the General Meeting of Members in May 2020 were suddenly cancelled due to the unavailability of the University of Tokyo's Yamagami Hall due to the Corona disaster, and the General Meeting of Members was held both onsite (Tsukuba Research Support Center) and online. The Annual Research Presentations in 2021 and 2022 (general and organized sessions in both years) and the General Meeting of Members were prepared for the online conference format from the beginning and could be held without any major problems. During the two years of the 23rd period, not only the annual research presentations and the general meeting of members, but also almost all meetings of the JFEMA, including the board of directors, representative committee meetings, committee meetings, and study groups, were held online, and the online holding of meetings progressed at a rapid pace. This may be due to the fact that face-to-face meetings can no longer be held due to the Corona disaster, the rapid spread of web conferencing tools such as skype, zoom, and teams, as well as the widely recognized advantages of holding meetings online (participation of members from distant locations, saving travel time to attend meetings, reducing meeting expenses, etc.). This is thought to be due to the rapid dissemination of web conferencing tools such as web conferencing tools. Even after the Corona disaster, meetings that can be held online, such as board and committee meetings, are likely to continue to be held online. In addition, the paperless format of meetings was promoted by distributing materials used at meetings in digital files.

     On the other hand, the conferences of various associations, such as the Annual Meeting of the Architectural Institute of Japan (September 5-8, 2022, Hokkaido University of Science), the National Convention of JSCE (September 12-16, 2022, Kyoto University, Kyoto International Conference Hall), the Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics (September 27-29, 2022, Kyoto University), the Autumn Meeting of the Meteorological Society of Japan (October 24-27, 2022, Hokkaido University), the Symposium on Wind Engineering Symposium (December 5-7, 2012, JSCE Auditorium), etc., which used to be mainly held online, are now rapidly considering and preparing to move away from online conferences, such as holding them both face-to-face and online, starting this fall. It is believed that they are trying to incorporate face-to-face meetings in anticipation of direct interaction among members, which is not possible with online meetings alone. In order to hold a face-to-face meeting, we anticipate some troublesome preparatory procedures, such as holding both a face-to-face meeting and an online meeting, or switching from a face-to-face meeting to an online meeting, in order to deal with the re-spread of coronary infections, etc. The JFIA is also considering holding a face-to-face meeting at the Annual Research Meeting in May 2023. The Japan Society of Wind Engineering is also considering the possibility of holding the annual conference in May 2023 in a face-to-face meeting.

     During the 23rd term, in addition to holding meetings online and going paperless, we have also promoted the financial soundness of the association and established the Future Vision Working Group. During the two years of the 23rd term, there was an increase in the net assets of the JSCPA as a result of the promotion of financial soundness. This was due to the aforementioned savings in expenses for holding meetings by holding meetings online and going paperless, as well as savings in printing expenses for the JSCE journal and administrative expenses for the JSCE. Despite the decrease in membership fee income due to the decline in the number of members and other factors, the Society was able to save even more money by reviewing and reducing its expenses significantly. We will continue our efforts to reduce expenses in the 24th fiscal year.

     With regard to the number of members of the Society, the introduction of the senior membership system seems to have halted the long-term downward trend of regular members to some extent, but the number of members has yet to increase. The number of student members, which had been on the decrease for a long time, has remained almost the same, the number of supporting members has remained almost the same, and the number of honorary members is on the increase. In terms of the age structure, the largest number of members are in their 50s, and the number of members in their 20s and 30s is decreasing. In order to increase the number of regular members in the future, we believe that increasing the number of student members is an urgent issue. The reason why we have changed the general session of the annual meeting from every two years to every year is that we expect more student members to join and present their research.

     In the 23rd term, the Future Vision Working Group was established for the purpose of discussing the long-term activity policy of the Japan Wind Engineering Association. As announced in the activity report at the recent general meeting of members, we held a total of 10 meetings during the 23rd term to discuss the mission and vision of the JFW. In the 24th term, the Future Vision Working Group will continue to discuss and implement concrete measures to realize the vision.

     In my preface two years ago, I concluded, "Next year, I hope to see you all at the annual meeting, not online, but in person. Unfortunately, this was not possible. Next year, I hope to see all the members at the annual meeting in person.

 

This article was originally published in the Journal of the Japan Society of Wind Engineering, Vol. 47, No. 3 (No. 172), July 2022, and has been partially revised.