Annual General Meeting 2006

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Held at the University of Wollongong
Thursday, 17th August, 2006, commencing at 4.30pm

1. Present

Margaret Sheil, Stephen Blanksby, Jennifer Beck, Larry Hick, Todd Mitchell, David Harman, Thitima Urathamakul, Michael Thomas, Michael Friedrich, Benjamin Kirk, Samantha Nelis.


2. Apologies

Bruce Tattam, John Traeger, Murray McEwan, Andrew Aquilina.


3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The minutes of the 2005 Annual General Meeting held at the University of Melbourne, Thursday, 24th August, 2005 and previously circulated, were accepted as a true and correct record of the meeting. (moved Sheil)


4. Society Reports
1. President's Report
   
   The President's Report was tabled and presented by Stephen Blanksby on behalf of John Traeger.

2. Treasurer's Report
   
   Stephen Blanksby presented the annual financial statement. He explained that the auditor required 2 further documents relating to payments made by the ANZSMS20 committee in late 2005. The auditor indicated he will be prepared to sign the statement when this documentation is provided (when Kerryn Mason returns from IMSC). Hick/Beck moved that the 2005-2006 financial statement be accepted, subject to the approval of the auditor. There were no objections. The report was signed by Blanksby and Sheil.

3. ANZSMS21 Report
   
   Blanksby noted he had received email advice from Murray McEwan that all is well. He wishes to remind members that substantial savings can be made by early booking of flights to NZ. Sheil suggested that the committee contact the plenary lecturers to see if they are keen to visit Australian/NZ labs before or after the conference as a part of their visit 'downunder'. Sheil also raised concerns that no conference costing has been received. It was suggested that the executive committee contact McEwan to check on this.


5. Election of Office Bearers

The following members were elected to the committee:

Richard O'Hair	President	(S. Blanksby/M. Sheil)
Margaret Sheil	Vice-President	(S. Blanksby/L. Hick)
Simin Maleknia	Secretary	(S. Blanksby/J. Beck)
Stephen Blanksby	Treasurer	(M. Sheil/T. Mitchell)
Carolyn McKinlay	Committee Member	(S. Blanksby/T. Mitchell)
John Traeger	Committee Member	(M. Sheil/D. Harman)
Samantha Nelis	Committee Member	(S. Blanksby/M. Friedrich)


As there were no further nominations, all of the above were elected unopposed.

Carolyn McKinlay was reappointed as the Public Officer.

Blanksby also noted that Traeger had raised the idea that one of the committee member positions become an ex officio position for the Past President. There were no objections to this idea and it was suggested by Blanksby that it be brought to the next general meeting of the Society at ANZSMS21 for the necessary change to the ANZSMS Constitution to be voted upon.


6. Society Medals

The draft terms for the awards were discussed with the following contributions considered:

i) Hick suggested that a clause be added for each award providing the selection committee discretion to consider cases outside of the selection criteria. e.g., whether awards could be presented posthumously or candidates for the Bowie medal who may have experienced career interruptions and/or non-linear careers in research.

ii) Sheil suggested that for the Bowie medal the eligibility should be broadened to include "an employee of an Australian of NZ research institution" to allow for early career, foreign trained researchers working in ANZ.

iii) via email to Blanksby, Maleknia raised concerns about (a) whether the awards were to be awarded posthumously and (b) whether the Bowie medal age should be raised to 45 years so as not to "disadvantage females who take time off for childbearing years." Hick suggested that such concerns could be handled at the discretion of the committee as per (i)

iv) via email to Blanksby, John Bowie indicated he would be pleased to have his name associated with the award for early career researchers. He wrote "The ANZSMS medals -  I really am greatly honoured that my name will appear on the 'young researcher award'. Normally such an honour is only bestowed when the person is deceased!  I am also pleased that at last the committee will be able to honour Jim Morrison for his work over the years."


7. Any Other Business

i) Sheil raised the issue of the forthcoming vote in Prague for an IMSC host nation for 2012. The meeting agreed that ANZSMS should support the bid of Japan (Kyoto) in an effort to wrest the conference away from old Europe.

ii) via email to Blanksby,  Maleknia asked about efforts to raise membership. "Has there been any effort to raise membership?  I suggest arranging local seminars presented by the committee members to introduce the society to postgraduates and researchers/academics of relevant departments/schools.  We could offer an ANZSMS T-shirt with membership during these events!"

• Blanksby reminded the meeting of the recent success of the Halpern symposium held at UoW in 2005 in collaboration with ANZSMS and RACI Organic NSW as an example of such an event.
• Nelis suggested that there was a big need for MS training courses run by independent groups (as opposed to those offered by instrument vendors)
• via email to Blanksby, Hocart asked if the ANZSMS would be interested to co-host a training event in Canberra on 16 and 17 November 2006. He asked for $500 and the opportunity to use the meeting to promote the society and recruit new members. This was generally supported by the meeting and it was decided to take this back to the executive for further discussion.
• The idea of a society T-Shirt was discussed further and Blanksby offered to check with McEwan to see if there were any plans to inporporate this into ANZSMS21. If not Nelis offered to pursue this independently including contacting vendors for possible sponsorship arrangements. It was thought that T-Shirts could be offered to new members of the society and attendees at society events.



There being no further business, Stephen Blanksby declared meeting closed with thanks to all who attended, particularly Samantha Nelis for traveling from Brisbane and to Yoke Berry who organized the dinner.


Stephen Blanksby
Treasurer


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