At the 1998 AGM in Perth, the Society resolved to establish, on a state basis, registers of people who could be mobilised for post-earthquake activities. This had been discussed previously but no action had been taken.

The executive discussed the matter at length during 1999 and raised some concerns, such as:

• privacy considerations
• the difficulty of maintaining the list
• our inability to verify competency of persons on the list
• potential liability issues

It is interesting to note that the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering has been considering this issue for some years and published a paper in their December 1998 issue of their Bulletin; "Post Earthquake Response : Issues associated with compiling a register of engineers", by D.R. Brunsdon & R.B. Shephard.It was agreed at the 1999 AGM in Sydney that we would publish an invitation for members to express their interest. If it is likely you would be available to carry out post-earthquake activities after a damaging earthquake in Australia, and you would wish to appear on a list of such persons which would be forwarded to the relevant State Emergency Services authority, please contact the Society.

Note that this is different from being on a reconnaissance team.