The JCSS consists of a Board, chaired by the President, and a number of Working Parties , chaired by Reporters. The initiation of a new Working Party is proposed by the Board and needs endorsement by the Liaison Committee.

The Board

The Board consists of the President, the former President, the Reporter(s) and one Member-Specialist per Association. All members are designated for a 5 year's period but they may be reappointed. The President of the JCSS issues invitations for and chairs the meeting of the Plenum, and secures the co-ordination within JCSS and between the JCSS and the Liaison Committee. The Board meets at intervals of one year. It discusses, approves and submits to the Liaison Committee results obtained within the Working Parties.

President   Vice President	John D. Sørensen     Michael H. Faber
Previous President	T. Vrouwenvelder
Reporter WP1	I. Kron, T. Vrouwenvelder
Reporter WP2	M.A. Maes
IABSE	N.P. Høj
CIB	G. Canisius
fib	L. Taerwe
ECCS	J.B. Schleich
RILEM	P. Tanner

Working parties or Task Groups

The Working Parties consists of about 10 active members. They are selected by the Board, in consultation with the Working Party. Working Parties meet twice a year on the average, set up and carry through their working programme in collaboration with the Board. The Reporter organises the work of the Working Party, issues invitations for and chairs the Working Party meetings, and maintains close contacts with the Board. The Reporter on behalf of the Working Party informs the Board of work both executed and planned.

Selection Procedures

The President is nominated by the Board and needs endorsement by the Liaison Committee at least half a year before expiring the current presidents term. The Reporters are nominated by the relevant Working Party and needs endorsement by the Board. Each association is responsible for the nomination of its own Board member. Members of a Working Party are nominated by the Working Party and need endorsement of the Board.

History

In 1971 the Liaison Committee which co-ordinates the activities of six international associations in civil engineering, composed of CEB, CIB, fib, IABSE and RILEM, created a Joint Committee on Structural Safety, JCSS, with the aim of improving the general knowledge in structural safety. The JCSS under the chairmanships of the late Prof. J. Ferry-Borges, Portugal, followed by Prof. J. Schneider, Prof. R. Rackwitz, Prof. T. Vrouwenvelder and now Prof. M.H. Faber has had over 40 meetings. During these meetings more than 200 papers on structural safety and related matters have been discussed. Several documents of general character and interest have been prepared and published. These documents supplied the background for the preparation of guidance documents concerning the design and construction of different types of structures and materials, among others several ISO documents, Eurocodes and the CEB and ECCS Model Codes.

Terms of Reference

• To improve the general knowledge and understanding within the fields of safety, risk, reliability and quality assurance, for all types of civil engineering and building structures, on the basis of sound scientific principles and with an open eye for the applications in practice.
  
• To take care that inter-associational pre-normative research in the field of Risk and Reliability is performed in an effective and adequate way
  
• To strive for coordination between the interassociational prenormative research and normalization activities in ISO, Eurocode etc.
  
• To provide appropriate support and technical co-ordination for the work of the Member Associations

Objective

The JCSS is a committee in the field of Structural related Risk and Reliability, acting on behalf of the Liaison Committee of the following five international professional associations:

		CIB		International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction
		ECCS		European Convention for Constructional Steelwork
		fib		International Federation for Structural Concrete
		IABSE		International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering
		RILEM		Reunion internationale des Laboratoires et Experts des Materiaux