Summary of the motions and key items discussed at the
MINUTES OF THE SECOND 2002 COUNCIL MEETING
MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
for posting on the MSA Website
Attending:
Rodney C. Ewing, President
Cornelis (Kase) Klein, past-President
Douglas Rumble, III, Vice-president
James G. Blencoe, Treasurer
David M. Jenkins, Secretary
David L. Bish, Councillor
Jeffrey E. Post, Councillor
Craig E. Manning, Councillor, absent
Kathryn L. Nagy, Councillor
Peter J. Heaney, Councillor
Nancy L. Ross, Councillor
J. Alex Speer, MSA Executive Director
visitors:
Rachel Russell, Managing Editor, American Mineralogist
Richard Bideaux, publisher of the Handbook of Mineralogy
Helen Lang, MSA Lecturer Administrator
John Brady, co-Editor of GMR
Frank Spear, co-Editor of GMR
J. Stephen Huebner, Chair of Financial Advisory Committee
Note: Motions and council action items are presented in italics; SoC = Sense of Council, S = Second
The Second meeting of the 2002 Council of the Mineralogical Society of America was held in the Renaissance Hotel, Washington, DC, May 29, 2002.
ITEMS
1. Call to Order
President Ewing called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM, Wednesday, May 29, 2002.
2. Secretary’s report
D. Rumble moved to accept the minutes of the Third 2001 Council Meeting. S = C. Klein. Motion passed unanimously.
D. Bish moved to accept the minutes of the First 2002 Council meeting. S = P. Heaney. Motion passed unanimously.
D. Rumble moved to accept the minutes of the 2001 Annual Business Meeting. S = C. Klein. Motion passed unanimously.
3. Reports with no action items or questions were accepted.
4. Review of Executive Committee Actions
R. Ewing briefly reviewed some of the issues considered by the Executive Committee, including a special issue on Environmental Mineralogy in 2003 in the American Mineralogist, a proposal from Mickey Gunter and Scott Wood to hold the 2005 Goldschmidt conference in Moscow, Idaho, and progress on developing a multi-society magazine on Mineralogy and Geochemistry.
5. Treasurer’s Report.
C. Klein moved to adopt the membership and subscription rates for 2003 as proposed by the Treasurer, which sets the 2003 membership dues at $50/yr for regular members $5/yr for students, and the membership subscription rate for the paper version of the American Mineralogist at $35/yr (which includes on-line access to Amer. Mineral.). Institutional subscription rates are set at $580/yr for domestic and $600/yr for foreign subscribers . Both professional and student members can gain electronic access (only) to the journal for $10/yr. S = D. Rumble. Motion passed unanimously.
6. Report on Membership and Subscription Rates and Financial Affairs
A. Speer reviewed the membership statistics for the society, reported on the conversion of all MSA investments to CAP accounts, and requested a corporate resolution to open a new credit card account.
J. Post moved to authorize a corporate resolution allowing the Executive Director (J. Alex Speer) and the Treasurer (Jim Blencoe) to open a merchant credit card account and that the Treasurer and Secretary (David Jenkins) have the authority to complete the corporate resolution. S = D. Rumble. Motion passed unanimously.
7. Report of the Committee on Committees
D. Rumble commented on the procedure by which the list of nominees for various committee membership and chairs was established.
It was the SoC that the proposed list of committee nominees was acceptable and that the Secretary may proceed to contact individual nominees to serve on the committees.
8. Report from the Meetings Coordinator
P. Heaney reviewed the activities of the meetings coordinator and asked council’s permission to ask some of the MSA Representatives to other societies to renew their term of appointment. He also noted C. Burnham’s many years of service to the society as MSA Representative to the IMA and asked permission to initiate discussions with some society members to relieve C. Burnham of this duty.
9. Request from the Chair of the Benefactors Committee
J. Blencoe moved to permit the Chair of the Benefactor’s Committee to solicit electronic logos from companies that are MSA Benefactors and post these logos on MSA’s website. S = D. Bish. Motion passed unanimously.
10. Clay Minerals Society-Mineralogical Society of America (CMS-MSA) Joint meeting, 2003
D. Bish confirmed that R. Jim Kirkpatrick is the MSA representative to the CMS-MSA joint meeting in Athens, Georgia, in June, 2003. Discussion ensued on various issues related to the joint CMS-MSA meeting in 2003.
11. MSA Delegates to the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) meeting, 2002
In the report from the MSA representative to the IMA, C. Burnham requested advice on how to select delegates from MSA, which is allowed 5 voting delegates and 2 non-voting alternate delegates, to attend the IMA Business meetings.
It is the SoC that the MSA Representative to the IMA, C. Burnham, select MSA delegates to the IMA business meetings in the order of officers first, councillors second, general society members third, and to cast the votes himself for any unfilled delegate positions.
12. Report from the Lecture Program Administrator - Helen Lang
H. Lang attended the council meeting to provide Council with information about the Lecture Program and to solicit comments from Council on the issues of obtaining more meaningful or quantitative feedback about the Lecture program, making the speaker nomination process more efficient, and responding to institutions who are not granted a lecturer visit. As an outcome of the discussion, it was decided that making the term of the Chair of the Lecture Program Committee two years instead of one year may improve the efficiency of selecting potential speakers.
R. Ewing moved to change the term of appointment for the Chair of the MSA Lecture Program Committee from one to two years. S = C. Klein. Motion passed unanimously.
13. Report from the Chair of the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) - J. Stephen Huebner
S. Huebner provided a brief review of the investment strategies that MSA has followed and specifically asked Council’s advice on how MSA’s investments should be managed in the future. Discussion ensued on three options proposed by the Financial Advisory Committe.
It is the SoC that continuing to rely on membership expertise [option (a)] is the least desirable option. Council charges the Financial Advisory Committee to identify a financial advisor who would supply advice once or twice a year on investment strategies, and that the Financial Advisory Committee retains the authority to make advice on mutual fund investments.
14. Short Course Committee
(a) R. Ewing asked for discussion from council on a set of recommendations from the Short Course Committee.
D. Bish moved that council approve the Zircon Short Course and RiMG volume proposed by John Hanchar and Paul Hoskins and as recommended by the Short Course Committee. S = K. Nagy. Motion passed unanimously.
(b) The Short Course Committee recommended provisional approval of a RiMG volume dedicated to the Epidote Group minerals.
It is the SoC that Axel Liebscher should proceed with the Epidote Group Minerals volume and that he should continue to explore the issue of convening a short course associated with this volume.
(c) The Short Course Committee recommended provisional approval of a short course dedicated to intermediate-mass stable isotopes, to be organized by Clark Johnson.
D. Rumble moved that council strongly support the development of a short course on Intermediate-Mass Stable Isotopes. S = K.Nagy. Motion passed unanimously.
15. Third 2002 Council Meeting
C. Klein moved that the Third 2002 MSA Council meeting be held on Saturday, October 26, 2002, in Denver, CO, and that the MSA Management Committee meet Friday afternoon or evening on October 25, 2002. S = D. Rumble. Motion passed unanimously.
Council took a brief break from 8:03 to 8:10 PM.
16. Management Agreement with the Clay Minerals Society (CMS)
A. Speer reviewed the rationale for entering into a management agreement with CMS. He noted that there may be some mutual benefits or synergies that develop having CMS management done by the MSA and he stressed that MSA is seeking a partnership with CMS more than simply providing a service for them.
It is the SoC that the Executive Director should pursue establishing the Letter of Agreement for Management Services between the Clay Minerals Society and the Mineralogical Society of America, and that the Executive Committee provide approval for the final version of the Letter of Agreement.
17. Handbook of Mineralogy
A. Speer presented to council a review of MSA’s relations with the Mineral Data Publishing Co. (MDP) and the Handbook of Mineralogy (HM). R. Bideaux was also present at the meeting and presented additional comments about the writing and publishing of the Handbook of Mineralogy (HM). R. Bideaux pointed out that the HM is the only "living" mineralogy book, meaning that it was conceived from the beginning to be perpetual and not simply a one-time publication with the source files discarded after publication.
It is the SoC that the Publications Director should be charged with the responsibility of assembling a committee specifically for the purpose of presenting a method for maintaining and updating the Handbook of Mineralogy to the Third 2002 Council meeting.
18. Geological Materials Research (GMR) Electronic Journal
R. Ewing invited J. Brady and F. Spear to present arguments for the future of GMR as a separate entity. J. Brady reviewed the history of the formation of the electronic journal GMR. He noted that it would be possible to publish things on the web that could not be done on the printed page. Discussion ensued on various issues relating to electronic publishing and the relationship of GMR to the American Mineralogist.
It is the SoC that President Ewing should conduct discussions with the editors of GMR and the Amer. Mineral. to investigate the first option (a) presented by the editors of GMR, which is to develop a plan for publishing articles as P and E versions in the American Mineralogist, possibly including a one-page abstract in the American Mineralogist that references on-line versions of GMR or E-papers. The results of these discussions will be presented to the Third 2002 Council meeting in the fall.
19. MSA’s Invitation to be a Founding Member of an Electronic Publishing Aggregate
A. Speer presented background information and clarification of what is meant by MSA’s invitation to become a founding member of the geoscience electronic journal aggregate that is being proposed by the AAPG, GSA, and SEG.
D. Rumble moved that MSA should become a founding member of the electronic journal aggregate proposed by the American Association of Petrologeum Geologists (AAPG), the Geological Society of America (GSA), and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), and that the MSA Executive Director, J. Alex Speer, should serve as the representative for MSA. S = D. Bish. Motion passed unanimously.
20. Concluding remarks by President Ewing
R. Ewing concluded that he was impressed by the number of major issues that the society is currently dealing with, such as electronic publishing and the handling of the society’s finances. He was, however, concerned over the lack of a strategic plan for the society and that we need to give thought to our longer term goals. He solicited suggestions from council on how to generate long-term goals for the society.
21. Adjournment
D. Rumble moved that the 2nd 2002 Council meeting be adjourned. S = D. Bish. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting was adjourned at 10:25 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
David M. Jenkins, MSA Secretary