Summary of the motions and key items discussed at the
THIRD 2001 COUNCIL MEETING
MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
for posting on the MSA Website
Attending:
Cornelis (Kase) Klein, President
William Carlson, Past President
Rodney Ewing, Vice-president
James Blencoe, Treasurer
David M. Jenkins, Secretary
Sorena S. Sorensen, Councillor
Michael Carpenter, Councillor
David L. Bish, Councillor
Jeffrey E. Post, Councillor
Craig Manning, Councillor
Kathryn Nagy, Councillor - absent
J. Alex Speer, MSA Executive Director
Visitors:
Douglas Rumble, III, Vice-president elect
Nancy Ross, Councillor elect
Peter Heaney, Councillor elect
Robert Dymek, Co-Editor, American Mineralogist
Lee Groat, Co-Editor, American Mineralogist
Gordon Nord, MSA Webmaster
Note: Motions and council action items are presented in italics; SoC = Sense of Council, S = Second
The Third meeting of the 2001 Council of the Mineralogical Society of America was held in the Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, November 4, 2001.
ITEMS
1. Call to Order
C. Klein called the meeting to order at 8:05 AM, Sunday, November 4, 2001, and invited everyone in attendance to introduce themselves.
2. Reports with no action items or questions
S. Sorensen moved to accept the reports of the Editors of the American Mineralogist, Editor of the Reviews in Mineralogy & Geochemistry series, the Editor of the Lattice, Short Course Committee, MSA Lecturer Committee, Reports from the Representatives of the following societies: Gemological Institute of America, International Mineralogical Association, International Centre for Diffraction Data, and the American group of abstractors for Mineralogical Abstracts, and the reports from the following interest groups: Industrial Mineralogy, Planetary Materials, Teaching Mineralogy, and the Mineral Structures interest group, all of which contain no actions or questions. S = W. Carlson. Motion passed unanimously.
3. Secretary’s report
D. Bish moved to accept the minutes of the 2nd 2001 Council meeting. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously.
4. Awards and Medal Recommendations for 2002 forwarded to council:
(a) Roebling Medal
J. Post moved to accept the Roebling Medal committee’s recommendation that Werner Schreyer be the next recipient of the Roebling Medal. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously
(b) Distinguished Public Service Award
S. Sorensen moved to accept the Public Service Award committee’s recommendation that Daivd P. Hill be the next recipient of the Public Service Award. S = M. Carpenter. Motion passed unanimously.
(c) Dana Medal (for 2003)
J. Post moved to accept the recommendation of the Dana Medal committee that Mark Ghiorso be the next recipient of the Dana Medal. S = D. Bish. Motion passed unanimously.
(d) MSA Award
S. Sorensen moved to accept the recommendation of the MSA Award Committee that John M. Eiler be the next recipient of the MSA Award. S = R. Ewing. Motion passed unanimously.
5. Revisions to award nomination packets recommended by the MSA Award Committee
It is the SoC that the MSA award nomination instructions should remain as they currently stand, which requires a nomination letter and 3-5 supporting letters.
W. Carlson moved to strike the phrase "one or more" from the description, so that the revised wording is "... intended to recognize one or more outstanding published contributions to the science of mineralogy." S = S. Sorensen. The motion passed unanimously.
6. Fellows
C. Klein requested that D. Jenkins be excused from the following deliberations (minutes recorded by S. Sorensen).
W. Carlson moved to accept the recommendation of the Nominating Committee for Fellows that the following individuals be made fellows of the society: Dennis Bird, Benedetto DeVivo, Hermann Gies, Bradley Hacker, David M. Jenkins, Ole Johnsen, André Lalonde, Roberta L. Rudnick, Robert B. Von Dreele, and Hexiong Yang. S = M. Carpenter. Motion passed unanimously.
D. Jenkins was invited to re-join the council meeting and resumed recording the minutes.
7. Kraus Crystallographic Research Grant
J. Post moved to accept the recommendation of the committee that Jeffrey R. S. Brownson receive the Kraus Crystalloraphic Research grant award for his study of the "Effect of organopolymers on kaolinite crystal habit modification". S = R. Ewing. Motion passed unanimously.
8. Mineralogy/Petrology Research Award
J. Post moved to accept the recommendation of the Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grant Committee that Kevin J. Davis, for the study "Resolving the intertwined roles of temperature, growth rate, and growth mechanism in determining Mg-calcite compositions: Towards a physical baseline for the Mg/Ca paleothermometer" and Robert L. King, for the study of "B systematics during progressive Si metasomatism of the mantle wedge" receive Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grants. S = J. Blencoe. Motion passed unanimously.
9. Committee on Committees
Discussion ensued on the list of committee member nominations for next year.
10. MSA Representation at the 2003 Clay Minerals Society (CMS) meeting
D. Bish commented on the joint MSA-CMS meeting in the spring of 2003 and urged MSA to have a technical program that includes a broad range of MSA topics.
11. Report from the Meetings Coordinator — Peter Heaney
J. Post moved to establish the policy that MSA Representatives to other societies should be appointed to 3-year terms and that the terms may be renewed if it is mutually agreeable to the representative and to the MSA council. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously.
It is the SoC that P. Heaney should proceed to find replacements for both of the representatives to the GSA JTPC and to find a replacement for the MSA representative to the IMA.
It is the SoC that the Committee on Committees would suggest a possible representative to the 2004 Goldschmidt conference.
12. K-12 Educational component of the Outreach Committee
It is the SoC that the Outreach Committee should be split into two sub-committees consisting of the Database and K-12 Educational components, and that council will communicate with each co-chair separately.
13. Request from the MSA Representative to the American Geological Institute (AGI)
J. Speer solicited suggestions for an author for the 2002 annual Geotimes Highlights issue.
W. Carlson moved to have the in-coming Vice President (D. Rumble) head the AGI annual Geotimes Highlights review project. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously.
There was a coffee break from 10:00 - 10:10 AM
14. Request to destroy ballots
J. Speer requested that the results from the spring election ballots be accepted and that the ballots be destroyed.
W. Carlson moved to accept the election results and allow the ballots to be destroyed. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously.
15. Treasurer’s report
J. Blencoe reviewed the treasurer’s report submitted to council. He re-iterated that the costs are uncertain from year to year primarily because of the number of RiMG volumes printed each year. The cost of printing a RiMG volume is about $30,000. He noted that the Fund Transfer Allocations each year have been very reasonable.
D. Bish moved to accept the Treasurer’s report. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously.
16. Report from the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC)
(a) J. Stephen Huebner proposed in the FAC report to council a revised set of guidelines for the FAC. He requested council approval of these revised guidelines.
J. Blencoe moved to accept the revised guidelines for the Financial Advisory Committee as detailed in Appendix A of the FAC’s report to the 3rd 2001 council meeting. S = M. Carpenter. Motion passed unanimously.
(b) J. Speer commented on the second action item requested by the FAC, which concerned the date at which the Temporary Restrictions applied to various funds would expire.
It is the SoC that the issue of setting or removing the dates on the various funds be returned to the FAC for clarification, particularly addressing the question as to whether removing the dates on the temporary restrictions would be any different than current operating procedure.
17. Recommendations from the Executive Director
(a) J. Speer proposed that MSA replace its current Roebling Fund First Union money market account with a First Union Asset Management Account (CAP).
W. Carlson moved to allow the Executive Director to replace its current Roebling Fund First Union money market account with a First Union CAP account. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously.
(b) J. Speer discussed a proposed change in the MSA employee retirement plan.
J. Post moved to accept the revisions to the retirement and tax-deferred annuities as described in detail in the Resolution of the Council of the Mineralogical Society of America (Section 3, p. 14 of the 3rd 2001 Council agenda Bluebook). S = D. Bish. Motion passed unanimously.
18. Report of the Management Committee:
C. Klein reviewed the job performances and recommended salary adjustments of the MSA staff and recommend a revision to the job-evaluation procedure for the Production Editor. Council accepted the recommendations of the Management Committee
19. Report of the Nominating Committee for Officers:
The report of the Nominating Committee for Officers for the 2002 ballot was discussed and a ranking of the individual nominees to be contacted for the positions of Vice President and Council members was established.
20. Time and place of the 2nd and 3rd 2002 council meetings:
It is the SoC that the 2nd 2002 Council meeting be held at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, May 29, of the spring AGU meeting in Washington, DC.
It is the SoC that the 3rd 2002 and 1st 2003 Council meeting be held on the Saturday before the annual GSA meeting in Denver, Colorado. The Management Committee will meet via e-mail or conference call before the council meeting.
21. Benefactors Committee report
J. Speer noted that the in-coming chair of the Benefactors Committee, Barb Dutrow, is putting together a prospectus brochure for large contributors to MSA.
22. MSA Lecture Program
Discussion ensued on several issues raised by the Lecture Program Administrator (Helen Lang), namely that council should (i) evaluate the effects of expanding the lecture program into Europe, (ii) consider the difficulty of focusing on "undergraduate institutions" in Europe where the institutional structure is not the same as in North America, and (iii) consider how to keep the Lecture Program Administrator and lecturers better informed on the goals and priorities of council for the lecture program.
23. Executive Director’s comments on the status of the MSA business office
J. Speer provided an update on the status of the business office following the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001.
There was a lunch break from 11:48 AM - 12:55 PM.
24. Report from the Amer. Mineralogist editors -- Allen Track manuscript submittal system
L. Groat discussed the status of the Amer. Mineralogist and commented on a proposal about adopting a web-based manuscript submittal and review process.
J. Blencoe moved that MSA fund the setup and subscription to the web-based peer review service provided by Allen Press, Inc., known as the Allen Track system, for handling manuscripts. S = S. Sorensen. Motion passed unanimously.
25. Report from the Publications Director
(a) Task Force: R. Ewing affirmed that the issue of publishing in an electronic medium required a small group to discuss the various issues involved. Therefore, he formulated an ad hoc committee consisting of D. Rumble (chair), J. Speer, G. Nord, and Brooks Hanson as members of a committee to deliberate these issues.
(b) GMR: R. Ewing reviewed discussions with the editors of Geological Materials Research (GMR) concerning the idea of publishing these manuscripts in the Amer. Mineralogist and having links to the electronic aspects of these publications.
It is the SoC that council heartily thanks the editors of GMR for pioneering the electronic publishing; however, council has serious reservations about the future of GMR. To help council make an informed decision, we welcome the editors of GMR to present to council at the spring (2nd 2002) meeting arguments concerning the future of GMR as a separate entity versus incorporation into the Amer. Mineralogist.
(c) Enviromental Mineralogy: R. Ewing reviewed the status of discussions with the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland about publishing a new journal on Environmental Mineralogy.
(d) Multi-society publication: R. Ewing presented arguments in favor of creating a new general-interest and multi-society publication.
It is the SoC that the subject of producing a joint (multi-society) publication of general interest to the scientific community should be pursued.
26. Gift of the Handbook of Mineralogy
No discussion on this topic transpired.
27. Report from Gordon Nord, MSA webmaster
G. Nord distributed a report on the MSA website to council members and proposed that council should make all articles of Amer. Mineralogist from 2000 and before (back to 1997, for which PDF files of manuscripts exist) available free to the general public.
W. Carlson moved to support G. Nord’s proposal, namely to make all articles of Amer. Mineralogist from 2000 and prior (back to 1997) available free to the general public by January, 2002. Similarly, articles from 2001 and prior would be made available free to the public on January, 2003, etc.. S = C. Manning. Motion passed unanimously.
28. President’s concluding remarks
C. Klein extended thanks to S. Sorensen and M. Carpenter for their service to the society these past three years as councillors.
29. Adjournment
S. Sorensen moved that the 3rd 2001 Council meeting be adjourned. S = M. Carpenter. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting was adjourned at 2:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
David M. Jenkins, MSA Secretary