ICSTI

Executive Board Minutes

2004 General Assembly, London

14 May 2004, 9.00 – 10.30

Present:Kurt Molholm, President (KM)

Bernard DUMOUCHEL, Treasurer (BD)

Elliot SIEGEL, TACC Chairman (ES)

Gerard GIROUD, IPC Chairman(GG)

Shantha Kumar ARJUN (SA)

Yuri ARSKIY (YA)

Ian BUTTERWORTH (IB)

Bonnie CARROLL (BC)

Hsiao-Yi CHEN (HC)

Shu-Li CHIOU (SC)

Eva DIMMOCK (EDi)

Eamon FENNESSY (EF)

Herbert Gruttemeier (HG)

Thomas LAHR (TL)

Gabriel LOPES da SILVA (GL)

Igor MARKOV (IM)

Han-Chul (Brian) PARK (HP)

Francoise PELLE (FP)

Kent SMITH (KS)

Martin SMITH (MS)

Peter STRICKLAND (PS)

Indira SUNDARARAJAN (IS)

Carlynn THOMPSON (CT)

Walter WARNICK (WW1)

Secretariat:Barry MAHON – Executive Director (ED)

Kathryn Johnson (Sec’t)

Agenda Item / Discussion / Action / By Whom
1. / Opening Remarks by the President.
KM welcomed attendees to the Bureau of the Executive Board Meeting and summarized the itinerary of meetings while the ED gave some logistical information on events outside of the meetings.
Each attendee introduced him/herself and briefly described the entity with which they are affiliated and spoke of items that they thought would be of interest to other members.
KM briefed the group on the ICSTI secretariat’s current staffing needs and said that the outgoing ICSTI Assistant Administrator would continue to provide electronic support until a replacement is found for her. The ED said that there are a number of applicants and screening was underway.
The ICSTI Public Conference is scheduled for Monday, May 17. A meeting to explore collaborative opportunities between ICSTI and CODATA is scheduled following the Public Conference.
2. / Approval of minutes from January 2004 Winter Meeting
There were no corrections or modifications suggested. It was moved by EF and seconded by TL to approve the minutes.
3.
a.
b. / Treasurer’s Report,Finance Committee
Current Situation
Proposed Budget for 2005
BD gave a brief summary of the budget for the current year and the proposed budget for 2005. He asked for clarification on a couple of issues before he makes the budget report to the general assembly.
4.
a.
b.
c.
d. / Current Situation of ICSTI – Report from the Secretariat
Winter Meeting & Public Conference
The ED reported that the Winter Meeting in Paris went well and resulted in a few actions for this meeting; namely, that INSPEC would host and handle the logistics and content. There was a discussion on the General Assembly in 2005 with VINITI (Russia) as host and a proposal has been prepared for presentation on the current meeting.
White Paper
A document has been written by the ED on open access has been included in the meeting binder for discussion at the General Assembly Meeting. Further review and a discussion on publication needs to take place.
ICSTI Report Presented to House of Commons
The ED received approval from the Executive Board to submit feedback, as requested from Elsevier, on a report on Scientific Publication and Open Access. ED to report on any other pertinent information to report on this.
Staffing
The ED gave additional information on the current need for a new Assistant Administrator and mentioned that the Secretariat has arranged for a temporary recorder of the meeting discussions. / Report on further, pertinent info / ED
5.
a.
b. / General Assembly in Ottawa
General
The Ottawa meeting was considered a success despite the low attendance due to the SARS epidemic that kept some members from trying to enter Canada. The minutes from that event are included in the current Meeting Binder under Tab M.
Socio-Economic Study
The results of the study on impacts of STM information were presented at the Ottawa meeting. A draft report was given to the TACC and a final report developed thereafter. It has been made freely available on the ICSTI Website with 157 downloads, to date.
6.
a. TACC
b. IPC
c. Member-ship
d. Statutes & By-laws
e. FORUM
f. Website Advisory
g. Mrktg/ PR
h. Annual Meetings / Committees
Committee Chairs gave a brief summary of the status of current activities with the exceptions of the IPC and Marketing Committees, whose Chairs had not yet arrived, and the Membership Committee, which is currently without a chair.
a. TACC
Elliot Siegel reported that the IUCr effort is not as far along as it should be and recommendation to write papers falls far short. He said NLM would like to see studies of common issues, not just solicit papers. He mentioned that the TACC chair, overseeing one of the most active committees, needs assistance. He asked for suggestions and that the members think about options for helping the TACC.
b. IPC – Chair not present
c. Membership – Chair position currently vacant
The ED mentioned that Thomsen/Biosis has an issue of dual membership and signifies that ICSTI needs to reexamine its dues structure.
d. Statutes and By-laws – Nothing to report
e. FORUM
Martin Smith reported that proceedings from the last public conference were scheduled to go up on the FORUM’s Web site. He made a request for articles.
f. Website Advisory
Bernard Domouchel discussed making the ICSTI Website secure. He said downloads are increasing and gave some metrics on various documents and Web pages.
g. Marketing / PR – Chair not present
The ED reported that copies of the brochures were made for the meeting and members’ final review. He said they were geared up for publication and distribution.
h. Annual Meetings
Tom Lahr reported that the next Annual Meeting will be hosted by VINITI in Russia but that there is a concern about falling attendance in recent years. There may be a difficulty in members getting the necessary funding to attend a meeting in Russia.
7. / Other New Business
IB suggested providing information on a policy workshop to the IPC when they meet the following day and the Bureau thought it would have sufficient interest for members.
Discussion ensued about changing from the regular procedure as regards committee meetings: since there is a lot of overlap in issues and interests, that all members could participate in committee meetings if and which they chose.
8. / Other Old Business – None presented
9. / Meeting Adjourned