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AMQUA Council Meeting Minutes Monday, October 20, 1997 Little America Hotel, Sun Valley Room Salt Lake City, Utah Attendance:
1. President's Welcome 2. Secretary's Report Nominations for the 1998 Distinguished Career Award need to be solicited from the membership via the next newsletter. An e mail from Bill Farrand reminded us to allow 3-4 months for the production of the statues for the 1997 and 1998 awards. The council discussed having a nomination form in the newsletter. All nominations should be sent to Vance Holliday. Brigham-Grette also discussed the outcome of the AMQUA Exhibit which made its first show at the Salt Lake GSA. The entire booth with hardware, computer graphics, and shipping containers cost $8703 from Sacks and Co., Inc. in Hartford, CT. At the GSA meeting the booth gathered a great deal of attention especially from old members who needed to update dues and students who were interested in joining. The exhibit is easy to set up and available for any venue where members see fit to use it. Members or councilors should contact Brigham-Grette (brigham-grette@geo.umass.edu) to schedule use of the exhibit at any time in the future. 3. Treasurer's Report Unfortunately we are seeing a slight increase in the number of members forgetting to pay dues. Guccione asked that the Council consider several measures to prevent the decline in our budget. These involved
Guccione also asked if we should consider placing a proportion of the investment income directly into the Gaudreau fund. The Council discussed each of these issues. Kaufman pointed out that 50% of the newsletter mailing costs covers only 10% of the membership that live outside the country. It was agreed that we should not single out foreign members for higher dues but that we might encourage others to pay dues for more than 3 years at a time. We discussed the prospect of a one-time fee for lifetime memberships and Holliday agreed to ask Guccione to look into the practical aspects of this, as well as the impact it might have on our future accounts. Following up on two of Guccione's suggestions, Bonnie Blackwell moved that we raise dues to $10/year for all professional members, but that dues remain at $8/year for those who chose to pay ahead for 3 years or more. Dues of $4/year for students will remain unchanged. The motion was seconded by Ken Pierce and passed unanimously. Blackwell then moved that we add a 5% surcharge to the dues of all members paying any amount by credit card. This surcharge would affect both professional and student members. The motion was seconded by Graham and passed, 12 in favor, 0 against, and 1 abstention. The growth of the Gaudreau Fund was discussed. Donations to the fund this year totaled $150. Holliday suggested that we add a special line to the dues form to remind members about this fund. The council agreed this would be a reasonable thing to do without a formal vote. Russ Graham moved that we accept the Treasurer's report. This was seconded by Ken Pierce and passed unanimously. 4. Puerto Vallarta Biennial Meeting Preparations In September, local organizer Soccoro Lozano Garcia requested funds from AMQUA to pay a deposit to guarantee use of a Puerto Vallarta Hotel facility and the booking for a minimum of 100 hotel rooms. The amount requested by the hotel was $6500 ($65/room x 100 rooms). The issue was discussed among the officers via e-mail but the decision was made that we pay the deposit in this case. Holliday reminded the council that this type of deposit is rather routine if one is holding a meeting at a hotel, something we have not done at previous meetings. It has always been our tradition to make use of University campus facilities but this will not be an option for the Mexican venue. 5. Update on 1999 Inqua in Durban, South Africa Russ Graham suggested that the U.S. sponsor the next INQUA in 2003. The last U.S.-based INQUA congress was in 1965. We agreed that this was an issue we would support and the council discussed possible venues for an August meeting. By letter, Bill Farrand, President of the U.S. National INQUA Committee, proposed that AMQUA contribute $15,000 to the USNC for travel grants to the 1999 INQUA congress. This would amount to $1000 for 15 participants. While Holliday felt we should be involved in this, Grimm pointed out that $15,000, or 1/3 of our assets, was a great deal of money to benefit only 15 people. Blackwell suggested that we earmark the money for young investigators less than 5 years since Ph.D. Graham then suggested that we lower the offer to $10,000. As well, Blackwell suggested that awarded individuals be told that funds came from AMQUA. Following further debates, we agreed to endorse this concept in principle but would follow up this debate with more input from the full council. 6. Easterbrook Fund 7. AMQUA Video on Quaternary Science Meeting adjourned at 1:25 PM |