Minutes of Commission A Business Meetings
Meeting of August 19, 2002
Chairman Prof. Bava called the meeting to order at 6 PM. He circulated an attendance sheet, requesting the name, the country, the address and the voting status of those present.
A total of 16 voting Members were present.
Prof. Bava proposed an agenda for the business meeting. After a short discussion the agenda was unanimously approved.
Prof. Bava reminded the audience that the curricula of the candidates had been mailed to the voters. He then briefly summarized the candidates’ scientific activities; all have experience in organizing meetings and symposia. The names of the candidates are:
Chairman Bava informed those present that they had the opportunity to change their vote.
No representative elected to do so. There was the tallying of the votes by mail plus those of the attending voting members Leschiutta (IT) and de Vreede (ND). The candidates collected the following preferences:
There was a brief procedural discussion and a new round of votes was collected to establish a possible new level of preference between the two candidates Boisrobert and Pollit. The outcome of the second round of voting was: Pollitt (26), Boisrobert (22)
Chairman Bava invited the audience to discuss the proposal to eliminate the Review of Radio Science and publish instead its articles on the Radio Science Bulletin. There is also a proposal to post the R. S. Bulletin on the Web. If the proposal is accepted then an editor for Commission A must be selected and charged with the article editing process.
There was a discussion following these proposals. The final unanimous sense of the members was to accept the transition provided that the content and the acceptance criteria of the articles are maintained. The Web posting of the R.S. Bulletin met unanimous acceptance. At this time no editor for Commission A has been nominated.
The current terms of reference of Commission A were presented by Chairman Bava. The discussion of possible changes was remanded to future meetings of the Commission.
Chairman Bava stated that the link between URSI and ITUR is in the charge of the S.C. of this GA, Mr. Martin P. Hall. If members of Commission A want to participate in the link activities, they can contact Chairman Bava during the next Commission A business meeting on Wednesday for the transmittal of their name. There will be a meeting chaired by Mr. Hall on Thursday, August 22nd, at lunch time. Interested parties can prepare written contributions and place them in Mr. Hall’s pigeonhole.
Prof. Leschiutta (IT) will make a short presentation at the next Commission A meeting on the issues between Commission A and ITUR, in particular on the leap second problem.
Chairman Bava stated that the Philips Co. will present "una tantum" a Y. S. award of 500 Euros for the best written paper. Commission A has three candidates that can compete for the prize. The commission Chair, supported by few advisors, will propose the best Y. S. contribution of Commission A for the final selection which will occur next Friday at lunch time after a short interview between the selected Y.S. (one per Commission) and an ad hoc committee.
The procedure for abstract acceptance was discussed. Some members prefer the short 1 page abstract submission, while others wish to maintain the current four-page limit.
No resolution was found and the discussion will be continued at the next business meeting.
There was a short discussion on how to control absenteeism. The current policy of not refunding the registration fee is good, but additional measure could be added.
Prof. Leschiutta proposed a reduced URSI registration fee for retired members of the Union.
Mr. Martin Hall circulated a document with the requirements for organization of the URSI scientific sessions. Suggestions for amendments to the procedures were requested by chairman Bava.
Business Meeting of August 21, 2002
Chairman Prof. Bava called the meeting to order promptly at 18:00 and passed an attendance sheet for those present. Chairman Bava proposed an agenda (see attachment B) for meeting, which was unanimously approved by the attending members.
Chairman Bava informed the audience of the outcome of the election of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the URSI Commissions. The Vice-Chair election process was completed except for Commissions D and E, whose decisions will be firmed at the council meeting of August 22, 2002.
Commissions’ Propositions
Chairman Bava informed the members that there are three (3) contending sites for the 2005 URSI GA : Beijing DRC, New Delhi (India) and Denver, CO (USA). Site selection will be decided at the Council meeting of August 22, 2002.
Member for Solar Power Satellite IWG. Prof. Andrew Marvin is interested in participation.
Prof. Bava presented the list of the scientific meetings sponsored by Commission A (see attachment C). Type B support entails funding; type A only a statement of support.
The reports available from URSI representatives nominated by Commission A in International Bodies can be found in the web site www.ursi.org (reports from the commissions)
The URSI Commission A representatives concerned with the following Bodies:
CPEM Executive Committee (the Chair), CIPM-CCTF(Mc Steele or Leschiutta),
CIPM-CCL (Helmcke), CIPM-CCEM (Erard), CIPM-RF-WG of CCEM (Stumper), Luden(IEC and ISO). Except for the Chai, Mc Steele and Leschiutta, the other representatives were not present; the incoming Chair will check the availability of those absent or will nominate other representatives.
Prof Bava showed a viewgraph with the list of duties for the Chair and V.C. Commission A needs to set up its own Web site and name an editor for Review of Radio Science.
Prof. Bava invited those present to suggest changes for the duty lists, none was offered.
Chairman Bava solicited the view of the audience. There was a lively discussion, as opinions were divided on this issue. The final, unanimous sense of the group was as follows: Authors must provide a short summary (one hundred words) for the program and one page abstract of the presentation. This is the only prerequisite for possible acceptance of the work. An author at his/her discretion can supplement the abstract with additional pages (e.g. figures and equations) up to a total of four (4) pages.
Commission A has to provide a contact name to Mr. Martin Hall. Prof.. Leschiutta offered his services until a suitable member is identified. The incoming Chairman was charged with the task.
Prof. Bava presented a viewgraph with the current Commission A terms. He solicited comments and suggestions for change from the audience. There was no discussion because the meeting had to come to an end so members could participate at the banquet dinner.
He invited comments from the audience. Given the length of the SP’s comments are expected at a later date.
Chairman Bava closed the meeting at 18:50.
Business Meeting of August 23, 2002
Chairman Bava called the meeting promptly at 6 PM. He circulated an attendance sheet and proposed an agenda (see attachment A). The agenda was approved with no modification. This was the least attended business meeting with only 8 members present.
Chairman Bava showed viewgraphs with the titles of the general lecture, the tutorial lecture, the 5 sessions (A1-A5) and the 6 joint sessions headed by Commission A. In total there were 78 platform papers and 31 posters, with a few withdrawals. In addition there were 6 joint sections with participation from Commission A. Chairman Bava commented that a session on fundamental constants has been discouraged; he also noted that DC and low frequency standards had no session in this GA. Both topics are in the terms of reference of Commission A.
Prof. Bava informed the audience of the outcome of the elections held at the Council meeting during the evening of August 22, 2002. Results were as follows: President K. Schlegel (D); Vice Presidents: CM Butler (USA), F. Lefeuvre (F), A. Wernick (Poland), P. Wittke (Canada). The Commission D and E Vice-Chair were announced: Commission D, F.de Fornel (F); Commission E: F. Canavero (I). The next GA will be held in New Delhi, India during the second half of October 2005. The scientific coordinator for the XXVIII GA is Prof. G Brussard and the associated coordinator from India will be appointed in the near future.
Prof. Bava introduced the incoming Chair, Dr. Balzano who, after a short introduction, continued with agenda items.
Dr Balzano solicited the audience for topics for the next GA in addition to or in the place of the traditional ones that can be found in the Toronto and Maastricht list of Commission A sessions.. There were several suggestions:
1) Numerical Techniques in Metrology (Marvin); 2) 50 years of atomic time keeping (McSteel); 3) Links between electric metrology and fundamental constants. Stability of fundamental constants. Time stability influenceon fundamental constants (Leschiutta) 4) Intercomparison between Cs fountain clocks and limits of performance(Leschiutta). 5) Characterization of receivers for radio astronomy (joint session with Commission J); Characterization of photonic and electronic devices (joint with Com. D) (Bava). 6) Dielectric and electromagnetic field measurements in materials and living tissues; Measurements in non-linear devices RF- submillimiter frequencies; Optical frequencies measurements and standards; Antenna and Radome measurements; Time domain measurements. (Balzano)
There were two suggestions: 1) Drop term (e) Measurements using lasers;2) Reincorporate in Commission A the EM measurements in the bioeffects domain. The reinstatement of the bioeffect measurements in Commission A must be approached softly to avoid a turf collision with Commission K. There were too few members present to vote on this suggestions. Chair Balzano was charged with circulating the suggestions and poll the membership of Commission A.
Commission A needs to supply 6 review papers for the Radio Science Bulletin, which now will publish the papers that used to appear on Radio Science Review.
Dr. Stone needs the titles or at least the topics by the end of 2002 or very beginning of 2003. Publication will start in Dec. 2003. Members of Commission A are invited to submitted titles and authors for these papers, which are expected to be about 12 pages long. Papers must be submitted and completed 6 weeks before the publication of RSB. Dr. Balzano will serve as Commission A editor
Dr. Balzano invited the audience to communicate to him the names of members who sit in other scientific societies.
Dr. Balzano invited comments from the audience on any topic. There was a complaint on a 10 minute time intrusion in the general lecture of Commission A by the convener of tutorial lecture of Commission G. Dr. Balzano was requested to convey a complaint to the Council (it was done during the New Coordinating Committee meeting of August 24).
Since there were no additional topics from the audience Dr. Balzano thanks those present and closed the meeting at 19:15.