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Annual General Meeting 2019 Date: 4 th February 2019 Venue: Seethawaka Regency, Awissawella. Time: 11:00 a.m. Attendance : Prof. M. A. R. M. Fernando Dr. P. J. Binduhewa Dr. S. Kumara Dr. M.A.U.S. Navaratne Prof. K.T.M.U. Hemapala Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo Dr. L. N. Widanagama Arachchige Dr. Saranga Abeygunwardane Ms. Akila Wijethunge Mr. Ashan Imantha Mr. Anjana Wjesekara Mr. Nishan Samarasinghe The meeting was chaired by Dr. P. J. Binduhewa. Dr. P. J. Binduhewa welcomed the gathering and invited the secretory to present the minutes of 2018 Annual General Meeting. The Secretary, Dr. L. N. Widanagama Arachchige read the minutes of the previous AGM, which was held on 04 th February 2018. Dr. P.J. Binduhewa proposed the minutes were in order and Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo seconded that the minutes were in order. The minutes were unanimously confirmed. Then the matters arising from the minutes were discussed and it was decided to appoint the Chair Elect /Vice chair officer position in the executive committee other than having two different positions. As the next agenda item, Dr. P. J. Binduhewa presented a summary of the activities conducted from February 2018 to date. A symposium, two seminars , five invited talks, two technical sponsorships for conferences, a design project competition, IEEE PES awareness session, participation to chapter chair meeting, annual get together and holding five ExCom meetings were reported as activities of the year 2018. Dr. P.J. Binduhewa mentioned that another guest lecture was organized in January 2019 and that should be recorded in the activity list of year 2019. Next, the Treasurer Dr. M.A.U.S. Navaratne presented the treasurer report for the year 2018. Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo proposed that the treasurer report was in order It was seconded by Dr. Saranga Abeygunwardane. The chair announced that Prof K.M. Liyanage was selected for the “Outstanding Engineer Award, 2018” by the independent judicator, Prof. M. A. R. M. Fernando. Chair mentioned that Prof. K.M. Liyanage is away from country and the plaque will be handed over upon his arrival. It is decided that Prof. M. A. R. M. Fernando will continue as the independent judicator for selecting “Outstanding Engineer Award” for 2019 too. Then, Dr. P. J. Binduhewa thanked committee members of 2018 and invited Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo (chair elect) to take over the meeting as the new chairperson. Nominations for the office bearers for the year 2019 were called by Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo. The following office bearers were elected unanimously. Office Office Bearer Proposed By /Seconded By Chairperson Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo Secretary Ms. Akila Wijethunge Proposed by : Dr. L. N. Widanagama Arachchige Seconded by: Dr Saranga Abeygunawardane Chair-elect/Vice chair Dr. S. Kumara Proposed by : Dr. P. J. Binduhewa Seconded by: Dr. M.A.U.S. Navaratne Treasurer Dr. M.A.U.S. Navaratne Continuing Committee Member Prof. J. B. Ekanayake Continuing Committee Member Prof. M. A. R. M. Fernando Continuing Committee Member Dr. P. J. Binduhewa Proposed by : Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo Seconded by: Dr. M.A.U.S. Navaratne Committee Member Dr Saranga Abeygunawardane Proposed by : Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo Seconded by: Dr. L. N. Widanagama Arachchige Committee Member/ Webmaster Mr. Ashan Imantha Proposed by : Dr. M.A.U.S. Navaratne Seconded by: Ms Akila Wijethunge Committee Member Mr. Anjana Wijesekara Proposed by : Dr. S. Kumara Seconded by: Ms Akila Wijethunge Chairman’s Address: The new Chairman, Dr. W.D.A.S. Rodrigo addressed the gathering. First he congratulated the newly appointed committee. Then he mentioned that it is necessary to strengthen the IEEE PES Sri Lanka section membership by conducting awareness sessions, activating IEEE PES university chapters such as University of Sri Jayawardhanapura, University of Ruhuna, University of Jaffna and other higher educational institutes. He also mentioned that the visibility for IEEE PES Sri Lanka chapter events is less in digital media. He suggested that the activities should be updated frequently in web site and other media for publicity which will be helpful to gain visibility among members and industry. As other matters Dr. P.J. Binduhewa suggested to call activity proposals from IEEE PES student chapters for year 2019. It was also suggested to organize a common event for all IEEE PES student chapters of different universities. It was suggested to appoint one committee member as Web master to update the website and Mr. Ashan Imantha volunteered for the position. It is decided to open social media pages for PES and link it to the web page. Vote of Thanks and the End of the AGM: Since there were no other issues to be discussed, the Secretory, Ms. Akila Wijethunge gave the vote of thanks and adjourned the meeting at 12:30 pm.