Minutes of the 2014 AGM
Physiological Society of New Zealand
Minutes of the2014 AGM
Venue: Wakatipu Room, Rydges Hotel, Queenstown. Date: 26th August 2014.
Meeting opened at 12:37 pm
Present:Colin Brown (President), Daryl Schwenke (Secretary), Marie Ward (Treasurer), Chris Charles, Allan Herbison, Peter Jones, Kim Mellor, Jeff Erickson, Rebecca Campbell, Dave Grattan, Ian LeGrice, Fiona McDonald, Rajesh Katare, June-Chiew Han, Rohit Ramchandra.
Apologies:John Miller, Geoff Barnes, Merryn Tawhai, Laura Bennet, Carolyn Barrett, Alistair Gunn, Regis Lamberts, Wei-Hang Chua, Justin Dean, Mark Trew, John Evans
Minutes of the 2013 AGM:
The minutes of the 2013 AGM were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting
Matters arising from the minutes:
None
Secretary’s Report: Tabled as a separate document and presented by Daryl Schwenke. In brief;
Prizes
The winner of Triennial Medal for 2014 is Prof Laura Bennet. However, due to Laura’s absence from the meeting this year, she will present her lecture at the PSNZ meeting 2015.
This year (2014) is the inaugural presentation of the ‘New and Emerging Researcher’ prize.
Council Membership
The terms of office for five council members came to an end; Dr Carolyn Barrett, Prof. Laura Bennet, Dr Kirk Hamilton, Dr Pete Jones and A/Prof. Merryn Tawhai. Following an earlier call for nominations for PSNZ members to join Council, nominations were received for Dr Rajesh Katare and Dr Kim Mellor. Both candidates were elected unopposed.
PSNZ Website
The administration of the PSNZ website has been transferred from Auckland (administered by Kate Harsant) to Otago (administered by Fran Short [physiology]).
Acceptance of the Secretary’s Report was proposed by Colin Brownand approved by PSNZ members.
Treasurer’s report:The report, including the unaudited accounts, were tabled as a separate document and were presented by Marie Ward. In brief;
Total assets of the Society, as of 31st July 2014, are $42,024.67
Membership
Currently, we have a total of 88 members, which is down from 2013 (106 members), mainly due to decrease in student membership. The acceptance of 19 new members was proposed by Colin Brown and confirmed by the PSNZ members who were in attendance at the AGM.
Student travel
Eight PSNZ students that presented abstracts were awarded a $500 travel award. It was noted that these are ‘awards’ and, thus, do not require the provision of receipts for proof of spending towards the conference. Rajesh asked whether a report should be expected from the students that receive the funding. This seemed like an unnecessary onerous task that other PSNZ members were not keen to request.
Acceptance of the Treasurer’s Report was proposed by Colin Brown and seconded by Pete Jonesand approved by PSNZ members.
President’s Report:Presented by Colin Brown.
- Colin thanked Marie Ward and Daryl Schwenke for their services for the PSNZ as Treasurer and Secretary, respectively.
- Reminder that the 8th FAOPS Congress will be held on 20thNovember 2015 in Bangkok.
- Two PSNZ council meetings were held via Skype on 24thSeptember2013 and 9th April 2014. The use of Skype for the Council meetings has proven to be a convenient method for Councilmembers to ‘attend’.
- Reiteration that Prof. Laura Bennet was the recipient of the PSNZ Triennial medal for 2014.
- As President of the PSNZ, Colin represents the PSNZ to the Royal Society of New Zealand. Although the RSNZ does not have a major impact on the PSNZ, it is important that the PSNZ remains affiliated with the RSNZ.
Revised PSNZ Constitution:
Colin Brown spoke to the pre-circulated document outlining proposed changes to the PSNZ Constitution. Colin explained that a working party had been established to bring these proposed changes to the AGM. Changes to the new Constitution can only be accepted upon approval from the Charities Commission.
The proposed changes were approved unanimously(proposed by Colin and seconded by Chris Charles).
Election and membership of PSNZ Council:
As described in the Secretary’s report, five Council positions became vacant in 2014. Both Rajesh Katare and Kim Mellor were elected unopposed and, thus, are appointed to Council. Rebecca Campbell was also nominated to Council, but her nomination was received after the deadline date. Rebecca was nominated by Allan Herbison, from the AGM floor, and seconded by Rajesh Katare.
These new members join the current Council members of: Colin Brown (electedPresident 2012); Daryl Schwenke (electedSecretary 2013), Marie Ward (electedTreasurer 2013), Chris Charles (co-opted 2012; re-elected to Council 2013), Kevin Stewart (elected to Council 2013), and Joe Zhang (elected to Council as Student Rep 2013).
It was proposed by Colin that the remaining positions remain vacant for another year, so as to stagger the appointment and termination of Council membership. A call was made to the floor for any other nominations. Marie Ward nominated Rohit Ramchandra, which was seconded by Chris Charles. Both Rebecca and Rohit were elected unopposed and, thus, appointed and welcomed into Council.
PSNZ Activity in 2015/2016
All members agreed to continue for another two years with PSNZ meetings under the MedSci umbrella at Queenstown Research Week. (Prop: Colin Brown; agreed by all other members).
PSNZ – ‘NEW’ Mid Career Researcher Prize:
A new bi-annual ‘prize’has been proposed (and to be further discussion by Council) aimed at rewarding excellence achieved by mid-career or “sub-professorial” researchers. This category was proposed because the Triennial Medal, which was originally aimed at up-and-coming leaders in research, has now become established for the ‘best’ researchers from the PSNZ. It was emphasized that the new prize would be specifically forsub-professorial candidates, unlike the Triennial Medal which has no exclusion criteria.
Allan Herbison raised the point that the actual Triennial ‘medal’ (physical structure) was rather modest and could be improved. Allan questioned whether a medal so modest had to be returned to the PSNZ or whether it could be kept. There was no clear answer.
Council will discuss the possibility of creating a new ‘Medal’ that is a true reflection of the prestige associated with the Triennial title. Subsequently a new medal could be created for each recipient.
Other Business:
None
Meeting ended 1:15 pm.
Daryl Schwenke, Secretary of the PSNZ