The Role of the International Association of Geodesy in Establishing User Services

The role of a presentation either at the opening or closing sessions of scientific meetings usually is a dubious one. Its subject is trivial but at the same time it should call attention to the not-so-obvious, especially for the non initiated and for the younger generation of scientists. Presumably this was on the mind of the Organizers of this symposium when they asked me to talk on the above topic.