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ASL Executive Teleconference - 8 Novemeber 2002

1.      The newly elected  president, Andrew Boulton, thanked Jane Chambers, the immediate past president, for all her efforts over the past two years in leading and promoting the society.

2.      Post-conference comments: 

(a) The student mixer went well but more students should be encouraged to attend. Perhaps invitations could be sent directly to all students who register for a congress.

(b) The Early Career Excellence Award was well received by Justin Brookes and his colleagues and by members. It was decided that a certificate should be presented to him at the next conference and that his expenses in attending this congress should be reimbursed (up to a total of $1500).

(c) Megan McGuire has assembled a list of issues related to conference organisation that should be added to the current list of guidelines. Margaret Hart will liaise with Megan to produce an updated list of conference guidelines. Margaret reminded the executive that it was important that the executive had a chance to scrutinise proposed conference budgets. 

3.      Matters arising from the AGM at Margaret River:

(a)    An electronic newsletter: at the AGM the treasurer noted that the adoption of electronic transmission of the newsletter (via the ASL web site) would save the society money. After some discussion it was decided that members would receive the newsletter electronically unless they requested a hard copy. This would be phased in over the next two issues. Those who wanted hard copies would have to pay an extra $10 per annum to receive these.

(b)    Honoraria for the newsletter editor (Rhonda Sinclair) and the webmaster (Simon Josey): the executive agreed that a more appropriate way to thank them was by waiving their membership fees than by giving them cash.

(c)    Nomination of Cooper Creek for World Heritage listing: at the AGM Kerry Muller offered to follow up this issue with the Minister for Water Resources in SA. No further details have been forthcoming and decisions will be left until the next meeting when more information may be available. Sabine Schreiber will try to find out what environmental details are required to support a nomination.

4.      Joint ASL/NZ Limnological Society Congress in December 2003: advertisements about this joint meeting will be taken to the forthcoming NZ Limnological Society meeting by Andrew Boulton.

5.      Recent events:

(a)    Australian Water Partnership: Sabine Schreiber attended a meeting in Melbourne at which the Global Water Partnership (based in Stockholm) explained that it was interested in setting up an Australian chapter. The main aim of this organisation is to facilitate networking for managers of freshwater resources. They welcomed the ASL’s expertise and credibility and invited ASL members to join a steering committee. Sabine Schreiber will provide some background about GWP in the newsletter and will ask via the ASL list server for anyone who wishes to join this committee.

(b)   Science Meets Parliament: no ASL members are attending on behalf of the society but there may well be members attending on behalf of other organisations, e.g. from the CRC for Freshwater Ecology. Richard Marchant will try to obtain a list of such members who might be able to provide Fred Bouckaert with feedback and issues that he could take to the FASTS annual meeting.

6.      Electronic version of brochures: Paul McEvoy suggested that pdf versions of the brochure could be circulated to the executive. Megan McGuire will send out more paper copies of brochures to the executive. 

7.      Executive roles: Jane Chambers suggested that specific jobs should be allotted to members of the executive (and other ASL members). The following roles were agreed on: special publications - R.Marchant with B. Knott, the current editor; co-ordinator of policy documents -S.Schreiber; submissions co-ordinator – F.Bouckaert; media liaison – A. Boulton will ask Tim Doeg if he is willing to do this; awards – A. Boulton and J.Chambers will coordinate the ASL Medal and Early Career Awards, R. Marchant will co-ordinate the Student Travel Awards; promotional co-ordinator – M.McGuire.