Nightshift

According to the study done 12-5 was the best option especially regarding concentration. The EB is supporting this and promoting to allow 5 consecutive hours during night. However there seem to be further projects running behind our back. We have to find out more about this MUAC night licence and single man operation rumors to be able to react. Again the board is very disappointed that there seem to be such important professional matters discussed without involving EGATS.

EUROSS

We will ask Christiane to write a report about the results, which seem to be very interesting, for our next OUTPUT.

New licence

The board noticed that on our new licence all the issue dates for the ratings, that were issued before 20/08/2004 are incorrect. We will react on this and ask to correct this immediately.

For those who're planning to attend the EGATS Annual General Meeting, please find the draft agenda and the tradional booklet.

RRT

Three instead of only one programmer are working on finishing the tools from now on. All tools will be done in house. The tool managing the fair share and the point system is the most difficult to develop and it will take a while to get it done. For the moment the focus is on a roster tool, that will optimise the roster and make more preferences possible.

EGATS Internal

To save costs we decided to close an old mailbox, it wasn‘t used anymore and we are reachable with our address at MUAC.

New Roster

There was no RRT meeting since our last board meeting.

Medical checks if staff is AM

There were no checks recently. EGATS is monitoring the situation very closely.

CSS (Central Supervisory Suite)

EGATS was not involved again in the development, we were presented some ideas, which we didn‘t like very much: There is less supervisory staff needed in the future, so it will limit your career prospects. The board doubts a CSS can manage at sector level as efficiently as the sector supervisor now.

EGATS Internal

We are still busy with cleaning up our new office and decided to give a lot of stuff, like Polo-shirts with the old logo to Ilia‘s charity.

New Roster

The minutes for the last RRT meeting should be published very shortly. In the meantime the study to find the best split for the N-duty has started. It is on us (you!) to give our input and try to find an optimum solution. However it will still be a night shift and it will be tougher than day shifts.

BOSS

On the 9th of May, the Executive Board held a meeting where the following topics were discussed:

1. Composition of board, integration of new EB members:

Unfortunately nobody volunteers to become vice-president; therefore we will continue another year without. SJ will take over the membership secretary from ZH. When KC comes back we will discuss who will continue. We will need new membership cards for all members with the new logo.

The draft minutes of the 2009 Annual General Meeting can be downloaded here. If you'd like to see the minutes or reports from this or previous AGM's, check this page.

The world's GPS systems could start to fail next year, according to a report presented to US Congress. This could cause serious problems for aviation, emergency services and ordinary drivers, as well as the military.

The US Government Accountability Office (GOA) blames mismanagement and lack of investment and predicts a one in five chance that the number of satellites will drop below the required 24 for global coverage before 2012.

Read the full report here.

UPDATE: here's the booklet with the agenda, reports and minutes of the last AGM. Proxy forms can be found on the last page of the pdf file or as a word document here.

The 2009 Annual General Meeting of EGATS, will be held in the Maastricht UAC Canteen on Tuesday 31st of March. The meeting kicks off at 19.30h.

The latest findings on the impact on night shifts (the duty, not the 1984 album by the Commodores) on people's metabolism, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It shows a clear link between work-sleep cycles, metabolic disregulation and disease.

People who participated in the test produced less leptin, a hormone that signals a body to stop eating by triggering feelings of satiety. Blood glucose and insulin levels rose, both of which are linked to diabetes. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol also shot up, as did the blood pressure of the test subjects. 

Even a brief misalignment caused quite impressive changes, the research shows.

You can read more on the study here.