Chair: Professor Jacqueline N. Hewitt (United States)

Vice-Chair: Professor INOUE Makoto (Japan)

1. Election of Vice-Chair

Three candidates were nominated for the position of vice-chair, and Richard Schilizzi was elected by votes of Commission J national delegates.

2. Discussion of Commission J budget

A motion was made and seconded to allocate half of the next triennium’s budget to travel support for the General Assembly, encouraging participation from many countries.

Professor Hewitt reviewed the activities and budget expenditures of the previous triennium.

3. Nomination of a candidate for the Philips Prize

Professor Hewitt announced the existence of the Philips Prize for the best Young Scientist paper in this triennium. A committee consisting of Makoto Inoue, Roy Booth, and Peter Napier was appointed to review the papers and to put forward to the Board Commission J’s candidate.

4. Commission J resolutions

Resolutions on radio quiet zones and the redefinition of UTC eliminating the leap second were discussed. Concerning the former, an amendment was approved and a drafting group was appointed. The second resolution was unanimously approved with eight delegates present to vote.

5. Submission of abstracts and papers, and merging of RRS and RSB

The submission procedure of abstracts and papers was discussed. Submission procedures involving fewer actions on the part of the author were supported.

It was voted that the two publications (Review of Radio Science and Radio Science Bulletin) should be combined. A suggestion was made that the review articles should be indexed in the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS).

1. Report on Tuesday Council Meeting

Ii was reported by the Chair that in the Council Meeting on 20 August , R. Schilizzi had been approved as the Vice Chair. The resolution on the leap second was approved with the provision that "committee" be replaced by "working group," and a discussion of radio quiet zones was postponed until 22 August.

2. Reports of working groups and IUCAF

Activity reports of the Global VLBI Working Group (GVWG) and Leap Second were presented. A new Chair of the GVWG (J. Romney, NRAO) was proposed by R. Schilizzi (current GVWG Chair) and approved. The IUCAF Chair (D. Emerson) reported on the status of IUCAF membership from URSI: five URSI members - W.A. Baan, P.P. Baptista, M. Davis, K. Ruf, and A. van Eyken - have completed their terms, and W.A. Baan and K. Ruf, both former chairs, were co-opted. A new member, Professor Yashwant Gupta (India), was proposed and approved.

3. Resolutions

A proposal for the inter-commission resolution on the Solar Power Satellite (SPS) from the host Commission H was supported, with amendments. The inter-commission working group on RFI was proposed by A. van Ardenne, and approved. Participants were skeptical about the effectiveness of the inter-commission working group, Scientific Committee for Telecommunications (SCT).

1. Report on Thursday Council Meeting

The resolution on Radio Quiet Reserves had been approved, and New Delhi will be the site for the next GA in 2005.

2. Scientific program for GA 2005

Some proposals were given for the scientific sessions for GA 2005. However, it was argued that we should circulate proposals for the sessions more widely after this GA, as the number of participants in the last business meeting was limited. This was agreed.