Minutes Vienna 2005

International Association of Bryologists

Minutes – Vienna, Austria – 20 July, 2005

 

Present: Executive Committee: S.R. Gradstein, J. Glime, C. Delgadillo, M., B. Tan, D. Vitt & S. Vitt, B. Shaw, G. Raeymaekers.

Councillors: D. Long, B. Crandall-Stotler, E. de Luna, U. Drehwald, M. Ignatov, R. Longton, T. Hedderson, H. Deguchi

Apologised for being absent: M. Crosby, C. La Farge, C. Cargill, C. Sergio, J. Enroth, Z. Iwatsuki, T. Hallingback. 

[Italic=outgoing members]

Rob Gradstein welcomed the new council members. The Agenda was distributed and approved with the addition of the topic ‘Awards’ under Committee reports. As both outgoing and new council members attended this meeting, part of the meeting concerned “old business”. This part of the meeting was presided by Rob Gradstein. The other part of the meeting concerned "new business” and this part of the meeting was presided by Janice M. Glime.

 

Minutes of 2003 (2004) Merida Council Meeting (SRG)

The Minutes from the 2003 meeting held January 2004 in Merida were distributed and approved.
 

Council Reports

  1. Secretary-Treasurer (DHV): Report available from D. Vitt – current funds for the Association total $32,058.12. Motion to accept (BCS/BT) Approved. Membership (DHV): Report available from D. Vitt– current membership 573, up 2% from January 2004. Africa and S-America still lags behind.
     
  2. 2. Editor of the Bryological Times (GR): Report available from G. Raeymaekers– Five issues distributed since January 2004. Editor seeks approval to begin distribution of the Times only via the IAB-website. Approved. No decision was made on creation of a website for conservation.
     
  3. 3. Webmaster (Uwe Drewald). The IAB-website is since ca one year on-line. Until now only circa 10% of its space is used, so there is sufficient space available for more information. Running and maintenance of the website costs about 4-5 € per month. The member directory is in preparation and will be password protected.
     
  4. 4. Bryonet (JMG): Bryonet report available from J. Glime. There are 754 current members from 46 countries. Messages are archived in monthly files and most are archived under one or more topics and files are offered to persons inquiring about related topics. JMG discourages attached files as many members have only very small mailbox limits.
     

Committee Reports

  1. Endangered Species Committee (TH): Report available from T. Hallingback. Following a 2003 questionnaire, information was gathered on the current situation of the bryoflora and conservation in various geographical regions worldwide. A copy of the full report can be obtained from TH on request. A significant meeting held in China in 2004. (See also the report of this meeting in BT Feb n° 115). An ethical code on bryophyte collecting was prepared under the leadership of Lars Söderstrom (will be printed in BT 116).
     
  2. Creation of an IAB conservation web site: no decision was made. [IAB is currently linked to the IUCN website for bryophytes so a new one seemed unnecessary.]

“Old business” (Dale Vitt recording)

  1. Future meetings (SRG): 
    The next IAB meeting will take place in Kuala Lumpur between 20 and 28 July and will be organized by Prof. Dr. M. Haji (Dean of the Faculty of Sciences). Benito Tan will liaise between the IAB and Dr. Haji. The registration fee will be maximum 100 USD. Key-note speakers have to be selected; JMG asked the organising committee to appoint people to summarise the presentation after each session and lead a general discussion.

    Proposals for the 2009 biennial meeting were discussed. Two proposals were considered – South Africa hosted by Terry Hedderson and Kenya hosted by Min Chuah-Petiot (proposal distributed at the meeting). Motion (DHV/JMG) carried unanimously to ‘Hold the 2009 meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, pending submission of a written proposal by August 15, 2005’ (    Terry Hedderson presented a written proposal to the IAB-council in August 2005. This proposal was accepted.). The President will appoint a Programme Committee to assist with the meeting in 2007 (BT to serve) and 2009.

    The 2011 meeting will take place during IBC 2011 in Melbourne, Australia (24-30 July)
     
  2. Editing and distributing the Bryological Times and technical support distribution of the Bryological Times.  Geert Raeymaekers will continue to edit the Times until the 2007 meeting and Michelle Price has agreed to edit the Times from 2007 onwards. It was decided that from now paper copies will no longer be sent out by regular post as this costs too much for the society. IAB-members will have to download (with password and user ID) the Bryological Times from the IAB-website. This amount for receiving the BT by regular mail is to be determined by the Editor/Treasurer as the amount actually spent in the reproduction/mailing of the Times.
     
  3. IAB-Website / Webmaster (UD): The web site for the Association has been completely updated and revised. The Website started to support the presentation of The Bryological Times beginning with the fall, 2004 issue. The Council agreed that the website should be the primary means by which IAB communicates with its members and should include new aspects (ideas to be developed) of bryology. The Council felt it was especially important that the membership be aware of the benefits of membership. The Council provided some input and decided that the President should see that the web site and the web master have support for further website development. Rob Gradstein agreed to continue to donate funds for hosting the website. JMG was asked to set up a committee to add relevant information to the website and to come up with a budget proposal.
     
  4. Clarification of the Hattori and Hedwig Awards (RG): Hattori Prize (400 USD) was awarded to Jon Shaw for his series of papers on Sphagnum. The Hedwig Medal was awarded to Lewis Anderson. Discussion of the Hattori Award revealed that the award should be given to the outstanding paper or series of papers appearing the previous two years by an IAB member. Further discussion of additional awards concluded that a committee should be appointed by the president to examine creation of additional awards, including one for a published paper or series of papers resulting from a Ph.D. dissertation by an IAB member. COMMITTEE: C. Delgadillo M. (chair), B. Tan, D. Long [this committee will also serve for the next Spruce Award]).

The out-going President, Rob Gradstein, thanked the retiring Council members and in particular expressed his appreciation to Sandi Vitt for her efforts within the Secretariat. 

 

“New business” (Geert Raeymaekers recording)

  1. Recreation of a series of reviews in Bryology (DHV): Review Series in Bryology: The IAB in the past published the "Ádvances in Bryology", which provided bryologists articles with the state of the art on bryological research;  DHV proposed the recreation of a series of reviews in Bryology and to target this to the non-bryologist, so that this publication be used to support bryological education and increases the possibility to have this series published by a respected scientific publishing house. This proposal was unanimously accepted. D. Vitt was asked to examine possibilities and report back to the Council.
     
  2.  IAB-Membership Drive. Revision of the Association Dues: Council decided to leave dues at $11.00 (US) for the next two years and to revisit dues structure in 2007. Members wishing to receive the Times via hard copy and regular mail will pay an additional amount of money annually. This amount is to be determined by the Editor/Treasurer as the amount actually spent in the reproduction/mailing of the Times. DHV proposes to provide students the first year a free membership (see membership fees) and to focus on awards for students. This was accepted by the council. DHV proposed to ask the participants of the MOSS 2005 to become IAB-members. Contact via Ralf Resky and Eric Cove.
     
  3. Ways of better promotion of Association. Although the membership level is good (ca 600 members), the need was expressed to increase the membership and to pay particular attention to young bryologists.  The IAB had a flyer in the past and it was proposed to prepare a new flyer to rally for members (e.g. pdf-file be put on the web for dissemination – sending out the flyer to country contacts was not favored as more should be done through the web).  The Council recommended that a person be appointed to complete this revision. Blanka Shaw volunteered to carry this out and to prepare a flyer before the next IAB-conference. RSG offered the University of Göttingen to support the printing costs of the flyer.
     
  4. Association with other bryological societies: item not discussed.
     
  5. Items arisen from previous discussion: The ethical code will be posted on the IAB-website and published in the next BT.

 

The following committee reports were distributed:

  • Financial report (DHV)
  • Membership status (DHV)
  • Report IAB Standing Committee for Endangered Species (TH)
  • Report on Bryonet (JMG)
  • Report on Bryological Times (GR)

 

Report by Dale Vitt and Geert Raeymaekers.