ASL Minutes (2nd Oct 2002)

41st AGM of the Australian Society for Limnology, 2nd  Oct 2002, Margaret River WA.
(p = proposed, s = seconded)

  1. Adoption of agenda: carried (p = R.Marchant, s = J.Chamber) 
  2. Apologies: P.McEvoy, D.Nias, A.Boulton, R.Sinclair 
  3. Acceptance of last minutes: carried (p = A.Pinder, s = G.Dunkerley); no matters arising. 
  4. President's report: 
  5. Secretary's report: one teleconference was held during the year (14 March 2002); the minutes were published in the newsletter. Much of the executive's business was conducted by email and did not require teleconferences or face to face meetings to complete. The donation last year from the SIL 2001 congress has been placed on term deposit and the intention is to use this money to support students giving papers at international limnological conferences. The new executive will draw up rules for the award of this support. 
  6. Treasurer's report: M. Hart reported that current membership (at 30 Sept 2002) was 587 made up of : 419 ordinary, 95 student, 19 institutional, 24 life, 28 10 year, and 2 life members. She also presented the balance sheet and profit and loss statement (both attached). The main item to note was the net surplus which, when the SIL donation was removed, was only $5768. Thus the society is spending essentially all its income and M.Hart proposed (R.Marchant seconded) that fees should increase to give more flexibility. She proposed that the new fees (from 1 July 2003) should be: $50 for ordinary members, $25 for student members, $55 for institutional members and $450 for life members. This motion was passed unanimously. M.Hart also noted that most members (505) took the newsletter in hard copy and only 82 took it electronically. She suggested that more members should be encouraged to subscribe to the electronic version as this would save on postage. It was proposed (p = B.Hart, s = J.Davis) that the new executive should investigate this matter. The treasurer's report was accepted (p = J.Chambers, s = R.Marchant). 
  7. Honorarium for Treasurer: R.Marchant proposed (s = J.Davis) a $2000 honorarium be paid to the Treasurer. This was passed and it was suggested that the new executive should also consider honoraria for the newsletter editor and web master.
  8. Auditor's report: this is attached. 
  9. Newsletter editor's report: Four editions of the ASL Newsletter have been compiled and edited since the last AGM (30 September 2001): 
    Volume 39 # 4 (December 2001)
    Volume 40 # 1 (March 2002)
    Volume 40 # 2 (June 2002), and
    Volume 40 # 3 (September 2002)
    The number of members requesting the newsletter to be sent to them electronically in either Rich Text Format or Portable Document Format continues to grow, however, members should be aware of their systems capability to receive the newsletter, far too often the recipients don't receive their newsletters because it has bounced back to me, due to the 'size exceeding the fixed limit or the storage allocation'.
    The "Scuttlebutt, Rumour and Prattle" section of the newsletter has declined considerably over the past 12 months - I believe this is an important component of our newsletter, and implore the new Regional Executive Members to try to get some articles from institutions in their states to submit articles. I send out a "gentle" reminder email on the ASL list-server about 2 ½ weeks prior to copy deadline, but the response has been slow. So members, send in a few paragraphs, people are interested in what you're doing, and yes, we're all busy!!
  10. Early Career Excellence Award report: this is the first such award and is designed to encourage young limnologists. 
  11. ASL Medal Committee: the medal was awarded in 2002 to Dr Brian Timms. 
  12. Student Travel Award Committee: four students were each awarded $400 to enable them to attend the congress in Margaret River and present their research. The students were: A. Danger, T.Paradise, H.Robertson and C.Kellar.
  13. Door Prize Committee report: T. Doeg, Convenor of the Door Prize Collective, noted that this was the 18th anniversary of the Door Prize award. While there were numerous worthy nominations, the Door Prize was eventually awarded to the out-going ASL President Jane Chambers for her contribution to trans-gender carp research, and her vain attempt to restore the balance to the daughterless carp program by re-assigning Patrick Driver as a Patricia during the Student Award presentations at the Annual Dinner. A full text of the Door Prize report is printed elsewhere in the Newsletter.
  14. 42nd Congress: B.Robson spoke briefly about this meeting to be held in Warrnambool, VIC, on 1-5 Dec 2003. Some details are already on the ASL web site and more will be forthcoming. This congress will be held jointly with the NZ Limnological Society. 
  15. Future congresses: both South Australia and Tasmania were suggested as possible venues. 
  16. Election of Executive: 
    Andrew Boulton - President (p = R.Marchant, s = J.Chambers)
    Sabine Schreiber - Vice President (p = T.Doeg, s = K.Trayler)
    Richard Marchant - Secretary (p = J.Chambers, s = M.Hart) 
    Margaret Hart - Treasurer/Membership officer (p = R.Marchant, s = J.Chambers)
    Rhonda Sinclair - Newsletter Editor
    Simon Josey - Webmaster 
    Regions: SA - Paul McEvoy (p = R.Marchant, s = J.Chambers)
    Vic - Simon Treadwell (p = M.Shirley, s = G.Gawne)
    NSW - Ivor Growns (p = R.Marchant, s = G.Dunkerley)
    ACT - Fred Bouckaert (p = M.McGuire, s = M.Hart)
    Qld - Jon Marshall (p = R.Marchant, s = J.Chambers)
    WA - Megan McGuire (p = J.Davis, s = J.Chambers)
    NT - Naomi Rea (p = S.Townsend, s = T.Rose)
    Tas - John Gooderham ( p = R,Marchant, s = J.Chambers) 
    All nominees were elected unopposed. 
  17. Student Award committee report: the following prizes were awarded: best oral presentation by a PhD /MSc student - Ayesha Burdett (honourable mentions to Patrick Driver and Lisa Evans); best oral presentation by an Honours student - Leanne Hartley; best Poster - John Bunn (honourable mentions to Liz Fields and Juan Chen); best MWWG Poster -Stephen Beatty (honourable mention to Juan Chen). 
  18. Election of the auditor: Coster Galgut Pty Ltd was re-elected (p = M.Hart, s = R.Marchant). 
  19. General Business: 
    1. Change to dates of financial year - R.Marchant foreshadowed in the September newsletter that the dates of the society's financial year needed to change from (currently) 1 January - 31 December to 1 July - 30 June. This would enable the society to comply with the requirement of Consumer and Business Affairs, Vic, that an AGM be held within 5 months of the end of the financial year of an incorporated association. At present congresses are held in the second half of the year and thus the ASL cannot comply with this requirement. The motion was put to the AGM by R.Marchant (s = J.Chambers) that "the financial year of the society shall cover the period 1 July in any year to 30 June of the following year". This was carried unanimously. 
    2. It was suggested that the ASL nominate Cooper Creek for World Heritage Listing. After some discussion it was decided to let the new executive deal with this. 
    3. Jenny Davis proposed on behalf of A.Boulton, the new President (s = R.Marchant), a vote of thanks to Jane Chambers for her work as President. This was passed by acclamation. 
    4. J.Chambers thanked Mark Lund, Megan McGuire, Kerry Trayler, Adrian Pinder, Carolyn Oldham and Brad Pusey for organising a splendid congress.