General Meeting 2009

1. Present
   
   Jennifer Beck, Stephen Blanksby, John Bowie, Mark Buntine, Noel Davies, Jane Deeley, Kevin Downard, Keith Fisher, Dave Greenwood, Charles Hocart, Peter Hoffmann, Thu Huong Pham, Daniel Jardine, Ben Kirk, Adrian Lam, Simin Maleknia, Andrew McAnoy, Carolyn McKinlay, Jessica Nealon, Sam Nelis, Richard O'Hair, Martin Paine, Nick Proschogo, Simone Rochfort, Jennifer Saville, Michael Thomas, John Traeger, Adam Trevitt, Thitima Urathamakul
   
   
2. Apologies
   
   Michael Guilhaus
   
   
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting (2008 AGM)
   
   The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Friday 29th August, 2008 at the University of Melbourne had previously been circulated on the ANZSMS web site.
   
   Approved (Moved S. Blanksby, Seconded R. O'Hair).
   
   
4. Business Arising from the Minutes
   
   Auditor's Financial Report to be presented at this meeting. See Item 6.
   
   
5. President's Report - Stephen Blanksby
   
   
   • Vote of thanks to the ANZSMS22 organising committee for an excellent conference.
   • Vote of thanks to Richard O'Hair for his commitment and hard work as Past President. Also special thanks to Richard for his enormous efforts and drive in organising the design and manufacture of the ANZSMS medals.
   • John Traeger has retired but has agreed to stay on as a member of the executive committee until the AGM in August. John was thanked for his commitment to mass spectrometry and ANZSMS and his valuable contributions as a member of the ANZSMS executive committee over many years. John was presented with a commemorative trophy which was made from a MS lens stack.
   • Noel Davies has been asked by the executive committee to join the ANZSMS executive committee until the AGM in August.
   • ANZSMS has nominated Mark Buntine for the International Curt Brunee Medal. Thanks to John Bowie and Richard O'Hair for preparing the nomination documents.
   • The ANZSMS has lodged a vote for five named nominees of the 2009 IMSF Thomson Medals.
   • Call for nominations for the ANZSMS medals to be awarded at ANZSMS23. All members are asked to consider the medal descriptions and think about persons worthy to be nominated. All nominations to be forwarded to the Secretary for collation.
   • Richard Simpson from the Lorne Conference Group has requested that we establish collaboration between the Lorne Group and ANZSMS. This would enable sharing international speakers for both conferences thus minimising costs and maximising exposure of international speakers. There are potential benefits to ANZSMS. This will need further consideration and discussion. All ideas and comments from members will be welcome. Please direct them to the Secretary for collation and distribution.
   • Students are reminded that ANZSMS does have travel awards for national and international travel to conferences. Please look at the ANZSMS website for guidelines.
   
   
6. Treasurer's Report - Simin Maleknia
   
   
   • The minutes of AGM 2008 reported that the Treasurer's Report was tabled on 29/08/08.
   • The Auditor's Report tabled at this meeting confirmed the Treasurer's Report with only a few minor alterations. The alterations were as follows:
     1. Sponsorships, audit fees and lodgement fees are to be listed individually.
     2. Bank fees ($30) for the IMSF dues payment included with general Bank fees.
     3. Student travel subsidies & award was $1000 since $1500 was previously reported in 2007 (although the checks cleared the bank after 31/03/08).
     4. Sponsorship check for ACT symposium $500 was processed in May 2008 and should have been included with the 2008 report (check written on 13/11/07)
   • Recent Major Expenses: ANZSMS Medals.

     Deposit (14.5%)	$2,500.00
     (included in 2008 Financial Report)
     Part Payments	$11,731.50
     (to be included in 2009 Financial Report	$137.50
     due at AGM August 2009)	$5,215.00
     	$329.80
     Total Cost	$17,276.30

     
     Number of Medals: ANZSMS (10), Morrison (20) and Bowie (10).
   
   The President, on behalf of the Society, thanked Simin for her presentation and management of the financial interests of the Society.
   
   
7. ANZSMS22 Convenor's Report (Simin Maleknia on behalf of the ANZSMS22 Organising Committee)
   
   
   • Approximately 170 attendees.
   • Sessions were dedicated to photoionisation, inorganic, geological and accelerator mass spectrometry, areas that had not been well represented in the past.
   • Speakers were from all corners of the world, most first-time invited speakers with a significant female proportion of keynote and oral speakers.
   • There were 112 presentations of which there were 10 keynotes, 29 orals, 7 technology sessions and 73 posters. Student presentations were integrated into the sessions to maximise exposure.
   • Budget was yet to be finalised.
   John Bowie made a formal vote of thanks to the organising committee for an excellent conference.
   
   There were several questions from the floor:
   
   
   Mark Buntine asked Simin for an estimate of overall profit from the conference. Simin replied that there was no definite information available at that time.
   
   Jennifer Beck asked for a comparison of ANZSMS22 sponsors' support to that for ANZSMS21. Kevin and Simin replied that a similar level of support was expected, although no details were provided to the meeting.
   
   A vigorous discussion followed.
   
   Simin stated that she thought a small profit was possible but that she did not have enough information to give a definitive answer.
   
   John Bowie put forward a motion that this matter should be deferred to the executive committee and not discussed further at this meeting. There was a vote from the present members with 11 for and 18 against.
   
   Final outcomes of the discussion were:
   • A preliminary budget report showing general income and outgoings is to be presented to the Executive Committee within 2 weeks after the end of the ANZSMS22 conference.
   • A full audited budget report was to be prepared and submitted to the society at the AGM in August 2009.
   • These activities were agreed to by Simin who was representing the ANZSMS22 organising committee.
8. Future Conferences
   
   ANZSMS23:
   • There was a nomination for the 2011 conference to be held in Perth as it has never been held in Western Australia. Mark Buntine from Curtin University of Technology was proposed as convenor.
   • Attendees enthusiastically voted in favour of this nomination.
   • Mark Buntine agreed to be the convenor of ANZSMS23.
   ANZSMS24:
   • There was a nomination from Sam Nelis to hold ANZSMS24 in Queensland.
   • It was generally agreed that the conference was due to travel to Queensland in 2013 but that a final decision would not be made until ANZSMS23.
9. Constitutional Change (John Traeger and Sam Nelis)
   
   
   • It was explained that the Society's Constitution needed to be updated to meet specifications outlined in the updated Federal Government Associations Incorporated Act.
   • Carolyn McKinlay agreed to take the final draft to Canberra to check if it is now satisfactory.
   • Once a final draft is available it will be posted on the Society's website for 3 months for comments prior to its formal adoption by the Society.
10. ANZSMS Web Site (Stephen Blanksby)
    
    
    • The Society gave a special thank-you to John Traeger for his operation and support of the website.
    • For many years John has looked after the website from the La Trobe University server. Now that John has retired we need to find a new home and a new webmaster for the website.
    • It was suggested that a "Webmaster" position be created on the executive committee.
    • Andrew McAnoy agreed to look into finding a new home for the website.
    • Mark Buntine agreed to help as he is heading a project to create a new RACI website.
    • Any other interest, information, suggestions and help was sought from members.
11. Any Other Business (Stephen Blanksby)
    
    
    • John Traeger asked for the Society Membership Fees be re-examined. The 2 yearly membership fees did not include students or corporate memberships. It is time to re-examine the progress of the initiative of decoupling the membership fees with the conference fees. It was agreed that this topic would be discussed and examined at the next AGM.
    • Carolyn McKinlay informed the attendees that the national Academy of Science has a medal display and would be glad to have copies of the ANZSMS medals added to the display. It was agreed that this was a good idea but it needed to be evaluated in terms of cost and remaining medals. It will be discussed at the AGM.