URSI 26th General Assembly, 13-21 August 1999, Toronto
Chair: Dr. V. Fiala (Czech Republic)
Vice-Chair: Dr. H.G. James (Canada)
The Chairman proposed a first meeting agenda which corresponds to the main numbered headings below.
In 1999, there were six nominations. Since the URSI Secretariat wants final elections with two or three candidates, there were preliminary and final votes, both by mail-in ballot before the General Assembly (GA). After the addition of one national vote (France) from the floor, the Chairman declared Dr. U.S. Inan (USA) to be the Vice-Chair designate for the new triennium. The vote tallies are available upon request from the outgoing Chairman.
Five working groups involving Commission H will continue to operate:
A report is available from the Secretariat listing the meetings and other activities that were supported by H in 1996-1999. Five meetings of various sorts were sponsored under mode B at a total cost of $US 5100. Four other meetings were endorsed under mode A (no financial support). Another $US 4025 went to supporting individuals' costs associated with the Toronto GA. For more details, the 1996-1999 H Triennial Report also can be examined.
The meeting was reminded that URSI has established guidelines for meetings that it sponsors. These guidelines include application, approval and preparation cycles before the meeting and reporting afterward. A communication from the Secretary General indicated that the Commission budget sum in the new triennium will be about 9,000 Euro.
It was reported that RRS Editor Ross Stone will plan to allocate about the same space for each commission in the next RRS. It will distributed largely on CD-ROM, with hard copies going to institutional libraries.
The URSI publications committee reportedly will recommend cessation of the Disk to Council. The meeting agreed with this recommendation.
Upon invitation from the Chair, various delegates contributed verbal descriptions of proposed sessions for the next General Assembly. Some speakers urged more joint sessions than in GA99. The final GA business meeting report below gives the list of session titles.
It was proposed by J.F. Lemaire that Commission H submit a Recommendation for URSI approval, entitled "Survey of the spatial distributions of VLF and ELF waves in the magnetosphere". The Commission supported the action after it was confirmed that it represented similar interests of the VERSIM (A.J. Smith) and NASA/GSFC (S. Boardsen) groups.
A joint G-H business meeting was planned for 18 August, subject to G interest therein.
R. Horne and R. Anderson took an action to draft, for the Chairman's signature, a letter of tribute to the late Alan Johnstone.
It was reported that Commission G did not require a joint meeting with H. No G representatives were present. Nevertheless the interests of Commission G in joint sessions were clarified. Since URSI leaders encouraged greater interdisciplinary contact, more joint Commissions were discussed. H decided to plan one Union session.
A list of 11 H-only sessions and H-led joint sessions and convenors was approved, as follows:
H-only:
H-led joint sessions:
In addition other joint sessions led by other Commissions were submitted:
It was agreed to support the five following meetings:
It was noted that formal applications for support have been received so far only for the first two of the above five events.
Some delegates reported that the H Workshop at GA99, organized by J. Lemaire and O. Storey, was a very successful event, and said that another workshop should be considered for GA02. A suggestion from the first business meeting for a workshop celebrating the work of an esteemed colleague had to be withdrawn. Given the uncertainty about the length of GA02, a tentative theme for an H workshop was subsumed under the proposed regular session on the plasmasphere.
A number of topics and author names were suggested to incoming Vice Chair Inan:
F. Lefeuvre agreed to serve as H-Commission Associate Editor in 1999-2002.
The names of a number of well known scientists and proposed topics were given to the incoming Chair James, who will enter into contact with prospective speakers.
The meeting was apprised of a proposal from the Secretariat that each commission set up a nominating committee. The delegates were of the opinion that the present system, wherein the Chairman gathers nominations from national committees, has worked satisfactorily in the past and should be retained in Commission H. Hope was expressed for a higher percentage of national votes in the next triennium.
Abstract Length and Oral Sessions:
The meeting was informed that URSI leaders are considering extending abstract length to four pages for the next GA. The meeting voted to inform the URSI Board that H wishes to retain the present one-page abstract.
The abstract form should ask the submitter to indicate whether special audio-visual facilities will be used or needed. It should ask the submitter to say whether only oral or only poster presentation is acceptable.
The discussion of abstract length per se also evoked concern about the quality of communications in the GA sessions. The problems encountered in oral papers at GA99 were usually in the area of presentation, not in content. The call for papers should urge presenters to practice their presentations in front of colleagues prior to the GA and to limit their visual displays to several, clear examples.
Participants asked the URSI GA organizers to print the starting time (hr:min) with each paper title entry in the Program book. Also, session chairs should be equipped with timing devices to help them better enforce presentation time lengths.
Facilities at GA99:
Participants found insufficient time to visit all posters of interest to them at GA99. It would be more desirable to have all GA posters in one large hall and to budget more time for poster sessions.
The H-session meeting room was uncomfortably cold, and there was no way to correct this. Participants found the computer access good.
Combined G-H business meeting
The delegates felt that the combined meeting should be retained at the next GA.
F. Lefeuvre expressed thanks to V. Fiala for his leadership and for the profitable technical sessions that were enjoyed at GA99; this was unanimously approved by the meeting.
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