D. Rumble called the meeting to order at 8:10 AM, Saturday, November 1, 2003, and invited everyone in attendance to introduce themselves. D. Rumble began the meeting by noting his concerns about the performance of the society's investment funds, particularly the Roebling fund, this spring and urged council to adopt a theme of austerity during their deliberations at this meeting.

P. Heaney moved to accept the reports of the Benefactors Committee, American Mineralogist Editorial Office, Editor of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry and Monograph Series, Editor of the Lattice, Editor of the Handbook of Mineralogy, Publications Director, Meetings Coordinator, North American organizer for Mineralogical Abstracts, Representatives to the Clay Minerals Society, European Mineralogical Union (EMU), International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD), and the Pegmatite, Planetary, Teaching Mineralogy, and Mineral Structures Interest Groups. S = N. Ross. Motion passed unanimously.

D. Rumble asked council if there were any revisions to be made to the minutes of the 2nd 2003 Council meeting. There were none. B. Dutrow moved to accept the minutes of the 2nd 2003 Council meeting. S = K. Nagy. Motion passed unanimously.

D. Rumble asked council if there were any questions or concerns regarding the award nominees, fellows, and research grant recipient recommendations forwarded by the various MSA committees. Hearing none, he proposed that a blanket motion be made to accept the recommendations from each of the respective committees.

J. Blencoe moved to accept the Roebling Medal committee's recommendation that Francis R. (Joe) Boyd be the next recipient of the Roebling Medal, to accept the recommendation of the Distinguished Public Service Award Committee that Robert F. Martin receive the next Distinguished Public Service Award, to accept the recommendation of the Dana Medal Committee that William D. Carlson receive the next Dana Medal, to accept the recommendation of the MSA Award Committee that Kevin M. Rosso receive the next MSA Award, to accept the recommendation of the Nominating Committee for Fellows that Craig R. Bina, Moonsup Cho, Lee Groat, Eiji Ito, Bor-ming Jahn, Akira Kato, Gregory R. Lumpkin, Craig Manning, Satoshi Matsubara, Kazuhiro Ozawa, and Elena Sokolova be Fellows, to accept the recommendation of the Kraus Crystallographic Research Grant Committee that Yongjae Lee receive the Kraus Crystallographic Research Grant for 2003-2004, and to accept the recommendation of the Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grant Committee that Kurt James Steffen and Jennifer Mae Jackson each receive a Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grant. S = N. Ross. Motion passed unanimously.

D. Rumble invited comments from council concerning the continuation of the Best Paper Award in view of the recommendation from the Best Paper Award Committee that council consider discontinuing this award, as recommended previously by the Editors of the American Mineralogist.

R. Ewing moved to accept the recommendation of the Best Paper Award committee for 2000 that the 2000 Best Paper Award be given to Yujiro Nishimura, Douglas S. Coombs, Charles. A. Landis, and Tetsumaru Itaya for the article "Continuous metamorphic gradient documented by graphitization and K-Ar age, southeast Otago, New Zealand, which appeared in the American Mineralogist, Volume 85, pages 1625-1636, and that the 2002 Best Paper Award go to John Lusk, Brian O. E. Calder, and Terence E. Freeman for the article "Temperatures from triple-junction angles in sulfides" which appeared in the American Mineralogist, Volume 87, pages 1390-1400. S = P. Heaney. Motion passed unanimously.

D. Rumble requested a motion concerning the discontinuation of the Best Paper Award.

D. Jenkins moved to discontinue the Best Paper Award. S = B. Dutrow. The motion passed.

Council discussed a special situation that arose this year in the Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grant Committee regarding a strong proposal received from a student at the same institution as two of the committee members.

J. Blencoe moved that a letter indicating Honorable Mention from the Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grant Committee be sent to Ms. Francis Skomurski for her research grant proposal. S = B. Dutrow. The motion passed.

Council discussed how many grant proposals were submitted by undergraduates and the difficulties that undergraduates have submitting competitive proposals, the number of proposals received this year, the manner in which the research grants are advertised, and the importance of recognizing the award winners and their host institutions.

It is the SoC that future chairs of the Kraus Crystallographic and Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grant Committees consider various ways to improve advertisement of the Research Grants and to consider ways to improve the recognition of the recipients of the research grants. It is also suggested that a subtitle be added to the announcement for the Kraus Crystallographic award that research in the areas of Mineral Physics, Mineralogy, and Crystallography are appropriate subjects for the Kraus research grant.

Council discussed the issue of the continued small number of applications submitted for the Kraus Research grants compared to the Mineralogy/Petrology Research grants, and noted that it was acceptable for applicants to apply to both.

M. Carpenter briefly reviewed the procedure followed by the Committee on Committees in establishing the list of committee member nominees reported in the council Bluebook.

In view of the motion just adopted by council to discontinue the Best Paper Award (item 5 above), M. Carpenter asked if there should be a motion to abolish the Best Paper Award committee.

D. Jenkins moved to abolish the Best Paper Award Committee. S = B. Dutrow. Motion passed unanimously.

Council discussed the status of the MSA representatives to other societies, particularly noting societies for whom there were no representatives designated and considering the need for a coordinator for these representatives. It is the SoC that J. Alex Speer, as Executive Director, should serve as coordinator of the MSA Representatives to other societies, that the Committee on Committees should examine the role of each MSA representative to other societies, that the Secretary should encourage each representative to respond to the call for reports for the council Blue Book that the Executive Director sends out before each council meeting to report to council on what other societies are doing, and that the Secretary should ask if the representative is willing to continue serving. It was also proposed that R. Lange serve as the MSA Representative to the Geochemical Society.

D. Rumble reviewed the proposal from the chair of the Committee on Committees to establish a Long Term Planning Committee (LTPC) composed of the President, Vice President, Past President, Secretary, and Treasurer, with the Executive Director and other Past Presidents possibly participating. Discussed ensued in council on this topic.

R. Lange moved to establish the Long Term Planning Committee as proposed by vice-President M. Carpenter, with the committee consisting of the President, Vice-President, Past President, Secretary, and Treasurer, ex officio. The Executive Director and other past officers may be invited to its meetings and the committee should meet at least once per year at appropriate national and international meetings. S = R. Ewing. Motion passed unanimously.

(a) Officer nominees

D. Rumble opened council discussion on the list of officer nominees forwarded by the Nominating Committee for Officers..

J. Blencoe moved to accept the list of officer nominees for Vice-President and Treasurer as well as councilor nominees, and the proposed rankings, as listed in the report of the Nominating Committee for Officers to the 3rd 2003 Council meeting. S = N. Ross. Motion passed unanimously.

(b) MSA representative to the AGI International Affairs Advisory Committee. P. Heaney moved to adopt the recommendation of A. Speer, acting in the role of MSA's representative to the American Geological Institute (AGI), that MSA only appoint a representative to the newly-formed International Affairs Advisory Committee of AGI contingent upon the elimination of duplicate responsibilities of this committee with the Associated Societies Global Working Group that has already been established by the Geological Society of America (GSA),in which MSA already participates. S = R. Ewing. Motion passed unanimously.

(a) Ballots

A. Speer requested that the ballot results from the 2003 election be accepted and the ballots be destroyed

N. Ross moved to accept the results from the 2003 election and permit the Executive Director to destroy the ballots. S = P. Heaney. Motion passed unanimously.

(b) Revisions to the MSA retirement plans

A. Speer directed council's attention to the Executive Director's report concerning the need to update and revise the two retirement plans that MSA currently has, the Group Retirement Annuity and the Group Supplemental Retirement Annuity, both managed by TIAA-CREF, to permit employees to make loans against their retirement accounts.

B. Dutrow moved to adopt the recommendation of the Executive Director that both of the MSA retirement plans be revised to include loan provisions for the MSA employees, but that the retirement plans should still retain a prohibition against financial hardship distribution provisions. S = N. Ross. Motion passed unanimously.

(c) Conflict of Interest Policy

J. Blencoe moved to accept the draft MSA Conflict of Interest Policy and Disclosure Form proposed by the Executive Director in Appendix D of his report to the 3rd 2003 MSA Council meeting and that the policy be included in handbooks for new councilors, officers, committee chairs, or staff who might meet the definition of a "Responsible Person". S = P. Heaney. Motion passed unanimously.

(d) Relocation of the MSA Business Office

Council discussed the issue of relocating the MSA Business Office when its lease expires in 2005, with discussion centering on the role that the Long-Term Planning Committee should play.

It is the SoC that the Long-Term Planning Committee present a plan to council concerning the future location of the Business Office by December 1. The Long-Term Planning Committee is encouraged to seek input from the Clay Minerals Society that now shares the same facilities for its membership and subscription fulfillment.

J. Blencoe reviewed the financial status of the society for council.

(a) Wachovia Securities

D. Rumble directed council's attention to the request from the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) that Wachovia Securities continue to manage the society's investment funds.

J. Blencoe moved to have Wachovia Securities continue to manage MSA's investment funds. S = R. Lange. Motion passed unanimously.

(b) Accounting practices for inventory books

Council discussed the manner in which MSA handles its book inventory, whether or not the book inventory should be brought onto its audited Financial Statements, and the work that this would entail in accounting and auditing this inventory.

It is the SoC that the Executive Director should be charged with handling the accounting practices for book publications as needed, and that council approves the current accounting practices.

R. Ewing moved to hold the 2nd 2004 council meeting in conjunction with the Goldschmidt Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, but that the exact date is still subject to resolving scheduling conflicts with the Geochemical Society. S = J. Blencoe. Motion passed unanimously.

P. Heaney noted that he would like to duplicate the successful honorary sessions being held at the 2003 GSA meeting for an honorary session for Paul Ribbe at the 2004 GSA meeting. R. Dymek suggested that there should be a special issue in the American Mineralogist dedicating to reviewing the RiMG series of publications in a single issue.

(a) Molecular Geomicrobiology: from Genes to Geochemical Cycles

Council discussed the proposal for a short course on Molecular Geomicrobiology, including the merging of this short course with another biochemistry-related short course proposal and the timing of this short course.

D. Rumble moved that the proposal for the Molecular Geomicrobiology short course be returned and fully reviewed by the Short Course Committee and that this short course can not be held in 2004. A tentative date of Fall, 2005, prior to the Fall AGU meeting would be more appropriate. Also, the organizers will need to provide an outline of chapters reflecting the newly merged short courses and a revised budget. S = C. Manning. Motion passed unanimously.

(b) Low-Temperature Thermochronometry: Techniques, Interpretations, and Applications

A. Speer noted for council that a revised budget had been submitted for this proposed course..

R. Lange moved to support the recommendation of the Short Course Committee that the outline for the short course Low-Temperature Thermochronometry: Techniques, Interpretations, and Applications proposed by Peter Reiners and Todd Ehlers be approved along with the revised budget submitted to the Executive Director. S = B. Dutrow. Motion passed unanimously.

D. Rumble commented on the numerous hits that the K-12 Educational Outreach portion of the website receives and invited council to discuss the report submitted by the Chair of the K-12 Education sub-committee of the Outreach Committee.

It is the SoC that Nancy McMillan is encouraged to continue as chair of the K-12 Education Sub-committee of the Outreach Committee. Council also requests that she provide council or the Executive Committee with a more detailed proposal of MSA's involvement with any Scientific Education proposal that she plans to submit. Council supports her efforts in submitting this proposal and the Executive Committee is empowered to act on this proposal if received in a timely fashion.

Council discussed the suggestion made by Thomas Armbruster (MSA Lecturer for 2002-2003) that MSA involve the European Mineralogical Union (EMU) in co-sponsoring the Distinguished Lecturer Program by advertising intensively in Eastern Europe.

It was the SoC that the European Mineralogical Union should be contacted and encouraged to help advertise the MSA Distinguished Lectureship program in Eastern Europe.

There was a lunch break from 12:05 Ñ 1:10 PM

D. Rumble introduced Jodi Rosso to council. Jodi is now serving as the new Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry and Monograph Series editor. D. Rumble noted that she had just finished editing the Uranium Series Geochemistry volume and is currently working on the Biomineralization volume.

D. Rumble briefly reviewed the concept of GeoScienceWorld as an electronic publishing consortium involving several societies that would, among other things, permit electronic publishing of the American Mineralogist and the RiMG volumes as well as allow full-text searching on any given topic. D. Rumble reported to council that the Geochemical Society, as co-publishers of the Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, had agreed earlier to include the RiMG series in GeoScienceWorld. D. Rumble opened the topic of whether or not MSA should enter into a non-exclusive publishing agreement with GSW for discussion by council.

R. Lange moved that MSA should become a member of GeoScienceWorld and that MSA should enter into a non-exclusive publishing agreement with GSW to make possible electronic publishing of the American Mineralogist and Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry. S = K. Nagy. Motion passed unanimously. D. Rumble then proposed that the MSA representative to GSW be A. Speer, in view of his central role in the development of GSW.

B. Dutrow moved to appoint J. Alex Speer as the representative for MSA to the Board of Directors of the GeoScienceWorld. S = R. Lange. Motion passed unanimously.

R. Ewing briefly reviewed the concept of creating a multi-society monthly magazine, starting from May of 2001, presented mock-up versions of the magazine, and presented a tentative publication schedule with the approximate costs involved in printing and mailing the magazine. Discussion ensued in council on the topic of pursuing the publication of the multi-society magazine, who would be the editors, where would the editorial office reside, and what level of interest did other societies show in joining in this venture.

C. Manning moved that only three (3) printings of the Lattice be made in 2004 and that the funds for the fourth printing be re-directed towards printing an inaugural issue of the multi-society magazine at the end of 2004. In 2005, MSA will re-direct the printing funds used for the Lattice and advertising revenue towards publication of the multi-society magazine. This will be contingent upon MSA entering into an agreement with another society(ies) for the publication of the magazine and the approval by the Executive Committee of the magazine title, editorial board, and business plan agreement with the other society(ies). S = N. Ross. Motion passed unanimously.

B. Dutrow moved that the 3rd 2003 Council meeting be adjourned. S = R. Lange. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting was adjourned at 3:35 PM.