Minutes
of the Board Meeting held at the 7th International Wetlands
Conference in
Present:
John Grace, John Lee (chair), Eun-Shik Kim, Azim Mallik, Rebecca Sharitz, and Gene
Turner. Byung-Sun
Ihm attended by invitation for item 2.
Apologies were received from: Valerie Brown, Alan
Covich, Sun-Kee Hong and Bernd Markert.
1.
The
forthcoming
Although
some symposia were known to be being planned, there was an urgent need for more
suggestions to be prepared and submitted.
Although some of these symposia may not be selected by the programme
committee, there is a strong likelihood that these could become so called
organised oral sessions, so any effort now is unlikely to be wasted.
The
overall programme design was reviewed, and it was agreed that there was the
need to incorporate an INTECOL General Assembly. This would be held on Wednesday 10th
August, 2005. Members thanked
Rebecca Sharitz for her tireless efforts in ensuring the success of this
congress.
2.
Review of the Web Site
Eun-Shik
Kim showed members the intricacies of the new web site. The strong consensus was that it was
working very well and Eun-Shik was warmly congratulated on his efforts which
had made it such a success. The new
web site had arisen out of an agreement between the Board and the President of
the Ecological Society of
Discussions
centred on how the web site could be made more useful to, and used by,
members. One suggestion that it
could be a repository of teaching materials (e.g. power point presentations)
for use by members only, and that material deposited should be time dated to
last perhaps 5 years. It was
suggested that the Bulletin Board could be used to replace the Newsletter, but
someone, who should be asked to be a member of the Board if he or she wasn¡¯t
already, should take responsibility for ensuring a good flow of interesting
information.
It
was decided that there would be only one directory of ecological societies to
encompass both national and international societies. Another directory might be produced for
NGOs. It was important that many
more ecological societies are listed than at present.
Ideally
future membership dues would be collected via the web site. Further discussion was required to see
how this could be achieved.
3.
Promoting INTECOL
Discussions
centred on ways of increasing benefits to members such as by the continued
development of the web site as detailed in 2 above. Other discussions focused on the
possibility of providing a publication or publications (see 4 below). It was agreed that Board Members could
play a more active role in the Society, and this would be very much to our
advantage. One way to encourage
this might be to produce new roles, perhaps associated with our web-based
activities.
No
consensus was reached as to how a greater involvement of national and regional
ecological societies could be achieved, but the Ecological Society of
4.
Publications
An
approach had been received from a publisher to produce an on-line version of
Ecology International. Discussions
centred on whether an appropriate niche in the market could be identified. There was enthusiasm that this could
represent a real benefit to members, and that a niche could perhaps be found. If so, the approach would be to have
discussions with several potential publishers before coming to any decision.
5.
Succession Planning
Both
the President and the Treasurer will have completed two terms of office by the
6.
Finances
The
Board had agreed previously that, during the transition to the web-based
operation, no fees would be charged to encourage members to register their
membership through the web site.
This arrangement would run from 2004 until after the
It
was agreed that the following membership rates would operate from 1st
September 2005: Annual Membership
$US 30 ($20 for students and members from developing countries).
For
those members who might be encouraged to pay for 4 years in advance, it was
agreed that the following rates should apply: $100 ($60 for members from
developing countries).
7.
Future Congresses
It
was agreed that the next congress after
Two
informal approaches had been received as possible venues. It was agreed that an open competition
would be held. Outline bids would
be sought via the web site and by the help of Board Members. These bids should include the following
information:
(a) the
location and infrastructure required to host a conference of 1000-2000
participants;
(b) the
experience of the potential organisers;
(c) the
backing of the national ecological society or other relevant scientific body;
(d) the
potential for obtaining sponsorship;
(e) the
structure and potential membership of the planning committee; and
(f) the
potential theme(s) of the congress.
Bidders
should be made aware that the congress should aim to make a modest profit and
that only very limited start up funds would be available from INTECOL. Bids should be received by 14th
December 2004, and should not exceed the equivalent of two pages of A4.
8.
Revision of the Statutes
Potential
changes to the Statutes had previously been circulated to all Board
Members. These had received the
support of Board Members, but after discussion it was agreed to make the
following additional changes:
(a)
That the Executive Board should consist of the President,
Vice-President, Secretary General, Treasurer and two Board Members. The Executive Board should also have the
power to co-opt up to two other Board members to help it discharge its business
as and when appropriate.
(b)
The Executive Board would decide the fate of the Society¡¯s resources
in the event of its dissolution, but these must be used for the advancement of
ecology or its application.
(c)
The INTECOL Board should consist of a minimum of nine and a maximum
of 20 members.
The
first of these is designed to increase the involvement of Board Members in
INTECOL¡¯s affairs, and to improve the operation of the Executive Board
business. The second replaces the
previous amendment that the resources should go to the treasurer¡¯s national
ecological society because it is conceivable that there may not be a national
ecological society in the Treasurer¡¯s country. The third is to allow flexibility, but
not to allow the Board to become too large to inhibit discussion or too small
to severely limit the range of expertise available.
9.
Honorary Members
It
was agreed that c.4 new honorary members should be elected in
10. Any Other Business
(i)
It was agreed that to explore the establishment of a new mid-career
prize in ecology (normally for ecologists up to 40 years old). Possible sponsorship for the award would
also be sought.
(ii)
John Lee warmly thanked Board Members for the most fruitful and
constructive meeting.
(Summarised by John Lee and Approved by the Board)