- How often would the team be launched?

 The region under investigation, that is Europe and the Mediterranean area, experiences on average one damaging earthquake per year. Of course, there are years without such events, and there are years with more such earthquakes, as was the case in 1999. The criteria for launching the team on a mission cannot be completely rigid, and should be flexible, depending on each separate case. However, for the planning purposes we take one event per year as a good estimate of future activity.

 A study made in 2000 by eight experts with experience in data collecting in the field brought up the average amount of approx. 16,000 Euros per year. Once again it should be pointed out that the price can be significantly lower or higher, depending on unpredictable factors, such as accessibility, the length of the sequence or the size of the stricken area. Nevertheless, we are still talking about small, not to say negligible, amounts of money for European countries. 

- How is the money going to be managed?

 ESC has kindly offered FITESC to act as a banker for the time being. To enable the fastest possible action, a certain sum will be always accessible by the person in charge of the team organisation; this is important to avoid delays in money transfers, as speed in launching of the team in the case of a major earthquake is a paramount consideration.

 During the past few years many actions were taken and contacts established by the members of the Preliminary Committee, in order to obtain permanent or temporary funding for the team activities. Up to now the collection of funds has not begun, due to legal matters that are still being settled. However, we have exploited the possibilities of having permanent sponsorship (from the insurance and re-insurance communities, for example, as well from seismological institutions, governments etc), as well as temporary sponsorship (that is connected mainly to the local communities directly involved with the specific earthquake). Presenting FITESC in the form of a project (e.g. for the European Community's scientific Frameworks) does not seem appropriate, as our model for activity is unlike those of typical short-term research projects. We can not guarantee that we can produce an activity report each year, and we can not predict when and how much money we would need to engage after an earthquake happens. Some options with organisations like UNESCO, ESF etc, are still being explored

- How many people would be involved in this activity?

 The structure of the FITESC is pyramidal: at present (20 August 2003) there are 66 team members, from 25 countries.

 Team members from each country select among them one national representative. The FITESC Core Group consists of three members of the Preliminary Committee, the Bureaus of ESC Sub-Cmmissions F "Engineering Seismology" and G “Rapid Intervention Field Investigation Teams” and some active team members. The decisions are taken by the three FITESC Office members, who are also meant to be "on-duty" as regards the launching procedures, anytime as needed.

 When collecting information about the team members, the application form was sent to dozens of addresses. There were replies from some countries that indicated, for various reasons, that they would not wish to be included in this activity at this time. This is a present status for Austria, Czech Republic, Finland and the Netherlands. 

 Among the team members, there are 50% seismologists, 25% civil engineers and 25% of those who need some training before they can work in the field.

 We find this score encouraging, as well as the fact that 94% of the team members want to be included in the data evaluation. 

 Each team would be consisting of approximately 10 people, both seismologists and engineers. Every earthquake is also a precious opportunity for training, so two to three team members without previous experience in the field would be taken along and trained. Also, team would offer training to the personnel of the host institution, if needed, as well as training of the students from the host country, who would be included as interpreters, drivers etc.

 The team would collect the macroseismic data in a way that would enable the evaluation using the EMS-98 as a main tool. It important to stress out that this can be achieved only as a multidisciplinary approach, with seismologists and civil engineers working together. The necessary questionnaires, forms etc. are under preparation. Following the same pre-defined methodology would also enable the creation of a homogenouous data set

 After an earthquake that would satisfy certain criteria, the team Office establishes the immediate contact with the team members, checking the availability and eventual needs before the mission is launched. The »host« country is contacted as well, either through the team national representative, or directly the seismological officer in charge, and the permission is asked for the team to come. It is understandable that the team goes to a certain country ONLY in case that the host seismological institution agrees with that. On the other hand, if the personal security of the team members is questionable, the team might decline the invitation to go to a certain region. It is foreseen that the team members start arriving 24 hours after the earthquake.

- What about the data availability?

 All the collected data will be public and presented via Internet. A web page will be hosted by EMSC, and edited by the team members. The data could not be used in the commercial purposes without the agreement of FITESC.

- Other tasks or  macroseismology only?

- Last Developments: Questionnaire Forms for Field Use