EAG Council meeting. 14 th -15 th February, 2008 Hotel Colon, Caldes D Estrach, Barcelona. Minutes

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1 EAG Council meeting 14 th -15 th February, 2008 Hotel Colon, Caldes D Estrach, Barcelona Minutes Unless otherwise recorded, all decisions were made by consensus. abbreviations: EAG European Association for Geochemistry GS Geochemical Society Attending: Chris Ballentine, Steven Banwart, Bernard Bourdon, Christa Gopel, Lara Duro, Eric Oelkers, Bernhard Wehrli, Andrew Putnis, Brucey Yardley Guest: Paul Beattie (Cambridge Publications) Apologies: Alex Halliday, Susan Stipp, Philippe Van Cappellen, Mike Walter AGENDA ITEMS with ACTIONS AND DECISIONS EAG Council approved EO as acting president for the meeting EAG Council approved SB as acting secretary for the meeting 1. Minutes and matters arising Matters arising are included in the meeting agenda 2. Treasurer s report: Current financial and membership position appended with meeting notes 3. Cologne Goldschmidt 2007 Summary of final financial position from Cologne Goldschmidt 2007 will be provided by Cambridge Publications by end of March Vancouver Goldschmidt 2008 EAG COUNCIL APPROVES $10,000 be provided to the Vancouver 2008 Goldschmidt conference to support travel grants for young European scientists to attend the Vancouver meeting, to be repaid only if a significant surplus remains from the meeting. ACTION: EO to draft a letter to GS offering this support by end of February, and circulation to council prior to sending to GS.

2 5. Davos Goldschmidt 2009 The Council received the report of the Goldschmidt Committee that plans for Davos Goldschmidt 2009 are progressing effectively. EAG council is prepared to approve the Goldschmidt Committee plan for 2009, but require the status of the venue for poster sessions to be resolved by the end of March The Committee and Council are concerned that given the large number of delegates predicted following the success of the 2007 and 2008 meetings, there are likely to be over 2500 delegates in 2009, and that the meeting will not be able to be organised effectively unless there is an appropriate venue for poster sessions outside the Congress Center. EAG COUNCIL APPROVES, conditional on the provision of the Ice Stadium or equivalent option being confirmed, that the Goldschmidt Committee enter into a contractual arrangement with Davos Tourismus on behalf of the EAG. EAG COUNCIL APPROVES the current financial model and the role of Cambridge publications for Goldschmidt 2009, submitted by the Goldschmidt Committee, and require a further report at the next meeting addressing potential changes in costs based on confirmation of Vancouver abstract submissions and registration. EAG COUNCIL APPROVES the following societies be granted preferential membership rates for conference registration for Goldschmidt 2009; Geochemical Society, Geochemical Society of Japan, Geochemical Society of China, and approve discretion for Goldschmidt 2009 Committee to offer additional preferential registration rates to societies that offer the potential for participation from new communities. 6. Goldschmidt 2010 AGENDA ITEM: The next EAG council meeting will discuss ways to pro-actively support the Tennessee Goldschmidt 2010 meeting and support GS strongly in its successful organisation. 7. Goldschmidt 2011 ACTION: EO will provide by end of February information to proposed Prague organiser on structure of Goldschmidt Committee and their role to appoint the scientific committee which includes the local organiser. Council will also provide information of the support available through past Science Committees and theme leaders (Davos and earlier). EAG COUNCIL AGREE Cambridge Publications will be retained as Conference Organisers for the Prague Goldschmidt Conference 2011.

3 8. EAG Science and Innovation Award Shackleton Medal EAG COUNCIL AUTHORISE the president to approve or disapprove the recommendation of the Science and Innovation Shackleton Award nominating committee 9. EAG Science and Innovation Award next award subject area EAG COUNCIL AGGREE Isotope Geochemistry as the subject area for award of the next EAG Science and Innovation Award 10. Urey Medal EAG COUNCIL AGGREE the Urey medal will be awarded to Pascal Richet in Houtermans Medal EAG COUNCIL APPROVE the recommendation of the Houtermans committee that Nicolas Dauphas receive the medal in Programme Committee Written report appended ACTION: Programme Committee to liaise with Davos Goldschmidt 2009 Science Committee on activities and science sessions ACTION: Davos Goldschmidt 2009 Committee to propose activities to raise the profile of EAG at the conference 18. Nominations Committee: ACTION: Nominating Committee will prepare a list of nominees for Council membership starting in 2009 to be elected at the 2008 EAG General Assembly at the Vancouver Goldschmidt Conference. The Nominating Committee will draft a call for nominations for members and officers to be submitted for publication in Elements by the end of March The list of nominees and instructions for the General Assembly will be circulated to members by prior to Vancouver meeting. 19. Communications Committee Written report appended

4 20. Revising EAG financial/membership model EAG COUNCIL AGREES that attendees of all Goldschmidt Conferences will constitute a geochemical community mailing list that will receive regular EAG communications and Attendees who attend European Goldschmidt Conferences as non-members are required to pay non-member registration fees that include EAG dues for that year and thereby remain EAG members to the end of the calendar year and EAG will continue efforts to increase membership numbers through reminders to renew membership offering Elements and reduced registration fees for Goldschmidt Conferences and EAG will explore allowing members to pay for multiple years and EAG will explore offering the option of direct debit payments. 21. Establishing an EAG office EAG COUNCIL AGREE to establish an administrative officer as a 50% post for 1 year and authorise a budget of 24,000 Euros. ACTION: EO and CG Append a draft job description to minutes Subject to no major objections received from council members, proceed with interview and appointment if a good candidate is available to take up the post. 22. EAG Elsevier Relationship A draft report is in preparation (BB) with suggestions that Elsevier might be persuaded to sponsor an award or student travel grants. Discussion that special issues from EAG sessions could be better targeted by the Publications Committee rather than approaches being made to all and sundry. ACTIONS: AH to report on the status of discussions with Elsevier/Friso to date. Publications Committee (PvC) to meet with Elsevier and clarify payments for publication of EAG sessions/special issues and report on Elsevier links.

5 24. Engaging with Young Scientists Proposed activities were discussed Office (once established) to maintain a jobs section on the web site (EO with input from LD and AP). Consider a questionnaire asking students what they want from EAG (LD) Offer student prizes (EO) Provide support for career development (BW) Circulate a leaflet about careers as a geochemist through organisations with links into Schools and Colleges etc. (BY) Set up a section on the web site from informal communications such as blogs (EO) Provide Corporate Memberships to help generate employment links for young scientists (LD) 25. Officers EAG COUNCIL ACCEPTED the resignation of Susan Stipp as Secretary. Susan will continue as a Councillor. EAG COUNCIL APPOINTED Steve Banwart as Secretary for the remainder of the current term. Council discussed the next Vice President. ACTIONS: President to write to SS thanking her for her service as Secretary. Councilors to submit suggestions for next Vice President to EO and AH in advance of the Vancouver meeting. EO to discuss informally with individuals if they would be prepared to commit. Next Meeting At Vancouver on the Sunday before the start of the Goldschmidt Conference. ACTIONS: Secretary to arrange a room and refreshments with the meeting organisers and circulate to Council accordingly. Also liaise with GS for joint session to hear Goldschmidt organisers reports.

6 APPENDIX: REPORTS 1. Treasurer s Report Current assets: euros Expecting about euros from Cambridge Publications when the final calculations for the Goldschmidt conference in Cologne are presented by end of march Major expenses before the Vancouver meeting: Preparation of new "Shakleton" medal : 5000 euros Travel funds for medal winners: 2250 euros Travel grants for young European Scientists*: $ *( to be repaid only if a significant surplus remains from meeting) Current membership rate regular member : 25 euro student membership: 15 euros December members 40 students, 157 regular members February members 11 students, 58 regular members 2. Report of Programme Committee Programme Committee: Bernard Bourdon (chair), Martin Frank, Nicolas Gruber, Michael Walter. The main activity has been to organize the co-sponsoring of sessions by EAG at the upcoming EGU meeting. BB has met with President of EGU Gerald Ganssen in Amsterdam to set up an agreement on this. There are now 18 co-sponsored sessions, including 3-4 newly proposed sessions from the programme Committee (list given on EAG website). For some of these sessions, we have suggested invited speakers. The plan is to get involved earlier for the 2009 meetings and to continue the involvement of EAG with the EGU meeting. More publicity should be made around the EAG-sponsored sessions. Of particular interest could be the multidisciplinary sessions involving geochemistry that do not exist at the Goldschmidt meeting. We would like to show a presence of EAG at the Vienna meeting but the form of this event is not determined. The board decide that the EAG show have some posters to show its activities.

7 3. Report of the Communications Committee 1. The EAG page in the latest addition of Elements was pulled at the last minute. There were several cited several reasons, the main being that they ran out of space. We agreed with the Geochemical Society to sacrifice some of our space so that they could have a 2-page spread advertising the Vancouver Goldschmidt Then the edition pub. date was getting so late that they thought it would barely make it out in time for our medal nomination announcements (in the future we need to get such announcements out 6 months ahead of time we have learnt that lesson). 2. The next Elements page will include the EAG announcements for our new treasurer (which was supposed to go in last time) as well as the the new councilor bio's. The Geochemical News Brief from the last submission will also go into this issue. So that is a page-worth already, and a Vancouver Goldschmidt blurb will be added. It is too late to say anything about the Vienna meeting as the next addition won't come out until April I reckon. 3. A new NERC Fellow in Bristol, Wren Montgomery, has some considerable communications/editing talents and would make a good Communications committee member. She has agreed to do this, and will join the EAG. There is no intent to centralize all this in Bristol, but on the other hand it would be handy for MW to have someone in Bristol to help with things. 4. It would be good to have something in Elements that really engages students and young scientists, that is, something they go and look for every time it comes out. For example, Advertise PhD projects or post-doc opportunities, A contest (e.g. essay), the prize being something like a free pass to the Goldschmidt, or Perhaps (like AGU) a Best Student Paper at Goldschmidt If we want to up membership in EAG, it is the young crowd we need to engage.

8 4. Responsibilities of the EAG Administrative Assistant/Office: EAG CALANDER Create and update regularly the EAG calendar of deadlines and obligations. Circulate this calendar to the council regularly to keep everyone aware of their obligations. WEBSITE: Regularly update EAG website with information about current events, membership issues, awards, new journals, etc. Archive old information on the website to keep pages current, concise and easy to read Send Committee and Council Members information about website use: monthly viewing statistics, visitors log, etc. MEMBERSHIP AND MAILINGS Compile a list of all EAG members and ensure regular mailings to the members to keep them abreast of events and encourage them to consult the website Coordinate and maintain records of past and present membership numbers Gather and create regular electronic newsletters and distribute these to the EAG Geochemistry community Solicit the European Geochemical community to become members through e- mailing. COUNCIL MEETINGS Attend Council Meetings: take notes on actions to be taken and suggestions for improvement and follow up on these actions between meetings to ensure that they are being pursued. COMMITTEE LIAISON Work with the five EAG committees: Nominations Committee: add new councilors to website, contact new individuals to get biographical and contact information, remove councilors after their term has finished Program Committee: contact committee members for information about special sessions for the annual EGU meeting. Provide a regularly updated list of all future meetings of potential interest to European geochemists for inclusion in the EAG web page. Communications Committee: regularly contact members to request information about EAG contributions to Elements and Geochemical News. Publicize this information on the website. Publications Committee: Contact this committee for information about the EAG and Elsevier, the publisher of Chemical Geology. Provide links on the website to current publications.

9 Goldschmidt Committee: Assist with organization of the Goldschmidt Conference: keep track of expected numbers of participants, abstracts, help research accommodation possibilities, etc. Medals committees: Gather biographical information for all medal for posting on web and in newsletters. WEBMAIL Check all sent directly to the EAG webmail address. Respond to requests for information or transfer requests to appropriate councilors or committee members. OFFICER LIAISON Work with the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer: post council meeting minutes, presidential letters, announcements, etc to website. Work with Treasurer to compile annual financial statement for EAG.