Dear IFAC Friends and Colleagues,
Change. Some find it scary. Others necessary.
And in IFAC we obviously believe that a rapidly
changing environment is reason enough to also
adjust how our old friend IFAC should operate.
The Federation is over 60 years old and was
founded in times when the Iron Curtain was di-
viding the world into two parts. All? Well not
entirely! One small community of indomitable
control engineers held out, decided to stand
together founding the Federation of Automatic
Control. But let me not lecture you about IFAC
history (even by using Asterix quotes). The point
is that while some grown traditions, operations
and values are most essential to IFAC, other
structural circumstances need to be updated
from time to time. Just imagine that the original
constitution was written in a time where every
correspondence had to be written by letter, of-
ficially translated and sent around the globe by
horse (ok, the last one is an exaggeration).
These days, the changes have accelerated, not
only concerning the structural environment,
but also with respect to our field. Systems
engineering, automation and control are more
timely, more relevant and more needed than
ever. For IFAC, this means change. IFAC needs
to once more rethink its executive structure, its
meeting cycle and agility to adapt to the chal-
lenges and possibilities of the future. This was
one important theme during the Council and
Related Meetings in Florianópolis, Brazil, early
September 2018.
One outcome of the discussions in Council, as
already hinted towards, is the executive struc-
ture. After long time planning, discussion and
revisions, we presented a new executive struc-
ture for IFAC to Council, which is designed to
be better suited to IFACs needs and goals and
to make IFAC more efficient. The key elements
of the new structure are a flat hierarchy, more
flexibility with an additional Vice-President and
Board, and an emphasis on the most important
topics within IFAC. Furthermore, to increase
the agility of IFAC, an accelerated meetings cy-
cle was implemented in the last year, where an
additional Fall Officers Meeting complements
the Spring Officers Meeting and the annual
Council and Related Meetings.
Other most timely discussions included meas-
ures to decrease registration fees for IFAC
events, an IFAC Conference App to improve the
experience of our conference participants, but
also to introduce a more sustainable solution
with respect to natural resources, the initiation
of an inclusion and diversity strategy for IFAC
and many more ideas. The discussions in the
IFAC Council were very forward and goal ori-
ented and I want to compliment and thank the
Council Members very much.
For many of the above-mentioned items that
were initiated in Florianópolis, the hard work
has just started. There are a lot of issues and
yet open questions that need careful consid-
eration, but I will keep you posted!
Wishing you all a merry holiday season and all
the best for a healthy, happy and successful
year 2019.
With warm regards from cold Stuttgart,
Frank Allgöwer
December 2018 From the IFAC President
Proposed upcoming changes in IFAC!