Minutes for the International Paleolimnology Association (IPA) Business Meeting Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), Glasgow, UK August 24, 2012
Rick Battarbee (RWB), Chair of the IPA, called the meeting to order at 5:20 PM (UK Time).
Chair’s Report
RWB provided the Chair’s Report, summarizing the history of the IPA and the IPA’s role in fostering the paleolimnology meetings, and other activities. Included in the report was recognition of our 5 new IPA Outstanding Service Award winners. These included Bill Last, Tom Whitmore, John Glew, Eric Grimm, Tamara Welschot and Judith Terpos. In addition, congratulations were also extended to our new 4 Lifetime Achievement Award winners (Françoise Gasse, Peter Appleby, John Birks, and Ingemar Renberg), who were awarded their medals on Aug 22, 2012.
RWB provided a summary of IPA’s funding incoming, and reported that IPA now has a bank account with NatWest in London. Money currently held by IPA is from a surplus from the Guadalajara meeting in 2009, approximately £8000 from the fees collected for the Glasgow conference, and about £360 from the book raffle. It was anticipated the Glasgow meeting would also have a small surplus that would be added to the account.
RWB reminded members that the funds are primarily for running the IPA activities (such as the IPA web site, paying for the Life Time Achievement Award medals and helping with Award winners’ expenses. He stated that the hope in future was to use funding to help pay for defraying some of the costs of IPA invited plenary speakers (not normal plenary speakers, which would be the responsibility of the local organisers) and for assisting students from developing countries to attend the symposia.
There were no further discussion or comments from the audience and so it was agreed to leave it to the IPA board to determine how best to use our finances.
RWB then asked the membership to ratify an executive decision taken by the IPA Board early this year to award Outstanding Service Awards at the Glasgow and subsequent IPA Symposia. Agreement was confirmed by a show of hands from the audience.
RWB then asked the membership to agree that organisers of future symposia should make clear that symposia are organised ‘under the auspices of the IPA’.
Agreement was confirmed by a show of hands from the audience.
RWB asked the membership to agree that, should the IPA Board deem it necessary, the post of Treasurer will be created and the position will be filled by executive action. Agreement was confirmed by a show of hands from the audience.
Note added after the meeting: The subsequent meeting of the IPA Executive, held immediately after the IPA Business Meeting appointed Helen Bennion as Honorary Treasurer and Rick Battarbee as ‘Honorary Keeper of the Die’, in charge of our IPA medals and with joint responsibility to manage the IPA Bank Account in London.
Springer Student Book Prizes
RWB then invited Dr. Carl Sayer (UCL), to announce the winners of the Springer Book Prize for the best oral paper and best poster presentation.
Dr. Sayer reported that the 70 student posters and 30 student talks were excellent and the committee had a very difficult time determining winners. After much deliberation, the committee came to the final conclusions:
Oral winner: Mark Stevenson (S06-04) ‘Impact of forestry on net ecosystem production in upland lakes of north-west Ireland’ School of Geography, University of Nottingham, UK.
Oral runners up: Jonathan Dean (S01-03), School of Geography, University of Nottingham, UK. Jennifer Korosi (S14-06), PEARL, Dept. of Biology, Queen’s University, Canada. Bronwen Konecky (S10-06), Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Poster winner: Linda Randsalu-Wendrup (S04-P13) ‘Ecological regime shifts in Lake Kalksjön, Sweden, in response to abrupt climate change around the 8.2 ka cooling event’ Department of Geology, Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, Sweden.
Poster runners up: Alexandra Rouillard (S01-P01), School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia. Rong Wang (S06-P05), Palaeoecology Laboratory, University of Southampton, UK Shyrete Shala (S09-P13), Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm, Sweden Samantha Lee Allcock (S10-P09), Plymouth University, UK Isabel Bishop (S14-P09), Environmental Change Research Centre, Department of Geography, University College London, UK
Paleolimnology Listserver Report
RWB invited Dr. Tom Whitmore to report on our Paleolimnology Forum list service system. Dr Whitmore encouraged the community to use the listservice more including its use as a forum for questions and discussion. Dr Whitmore was thanked for his important service to our community with his work on the listservice.
Journal of Paleolimnology Report
RWB invited Dr. Mark Brenner (co-editor-in-chief of the J. Paleolimnology, with Tom Whitmore) to provide a report on the journal. Dr. Brenner summarized the solid progress made with the journal, thanked the editorial board and their publishing colleagues with Springer, and then provided a useful 15 minute talk on advice to contributors for the journal.
IPA Elections
The IPA elections for the Executive Committee were conducted at 6PM local time for the new officers.
For the young scientist (under 35 years old) position, 2 candidates were proposed:
Ginnie Panizzo (proposer: Sarah Metcalfe; seconder Sarah Davies)
Keeley Mills (proposer: Peter Gell; seconder: David Ryves)
For the new position of Vice-chair, 3 candidates were proposed:
Margarita Caballero (proposer: Dan Engstrom; seconder: Svante Björk)
Jonathan Holmes (proposer: Steffan Mischke; seconder: Fahu Chen)
Catherine Dalton (proposer: Helen Bennion; seconder: John Tibby)
And for the new Chair, one candidate was proposed:
John Smol (proposer: Anson Mackay; seconder: Tom Whitmore)
Following a close election, Ginnie Panizzo and Catherine Dalton were elected to the positions of young scientists and vice chair, respectively. As J. Smol was unopposed, RB asked for a show of hands from the audience for support for the new chair and received a unanimous response. The membership approved the new slate of executive officers.
Venue for the 2015 International Paleolimnology Symposium
The venue for the next IPA Symposium 13 (in 2015) was discussed. The proposal prepared by Drs. Fahu Chen, Ji Shen, Jule Xiao and Liping Zhou and presented by Fahu Chen to hold the 2015 symposium in mid-August 2015 in Lanzhou, China was unanimously approved.
RWB thanked Fahu Chen and his colleagues for their invitation.
Other Business
RWB reported that, on behalf of the IPA, the SECC (The Conference Centre) have funded the planting of one acre of native pine forest on the Dundreggan Estate in Glen Morriston as part of a ‘Trees for Life’ scheme to plant 1000 square miles of Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands.
RWB then invited the two local co-chairs (Andy Henderson and Helen Bennion) to come to the stage to thank the student helpers. The audience expressed their appreciation for an excellent meeting with extended applause.
Margarita Caballero and Dan Engstrom then thanked the local organizers on behalf of the attendees, followed again by extended applause.
The meeting adjourned at 6:30 PM
Minutes recorded by John P. Smol (Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario)