Australian Institute of Physics - SA branch Minutes of the meeting held at 2:30 pm on Sunday 4th February 2007 at Lungomore Caffe, Glenelg, then transferred to the home of the Vice-chair. Present: Drake, Campbell, Shiell, Manning, Quinton, Roach, Dall'Armi-Stoks, Samardzic, Fewell Apologies: Wedding, Blankleider. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING: Quinton noted the clarification, circulated by email, that the Mother of the Bronze Bragg winner accused us of incompetance because the awards were so late in the year. Dall'Armi proposed the following amendments: "...nominating Samardzic as Vice-Chair for the AIP" should be: "...nominating Samardzic as Vice-Chair for the AIP executive" "There are 3 things to be paid:" should be "There are 3 invoices to be paid". "defence" should be "Defence". "Samardzic thanked Dall'Armi-Stoks for being Vice-chair, Quinton for being Chair and Matthew Fewell for being Treasurer." should be "Samardzic thanked Dall'Armi-Stoks for agreeing to be nominated as Vice-chair, Quinton for agreeing to be nominated as Chair and Matthew Fewell for agreeing to be nominated as Treasurer." The minutes were then accepted: proposed: Samardzic, seconded: Dall'Armi-Stoks BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES: Dall'Armi-Stoks reported following up on the invoice from Mike Gore, but had received no response. Samardzic thought that he may think that the ANU should cover the amount in question. Quinton recommended to stop pushing the issue. Dall'Armi-Stoks asked if the report on the AGM had been sent to "Australian Physics". Campbell said he had not written it yet. Dall'Armi-Stoks asked about the venue for the Congress. Samardzic reported that it was chosen as Adelaide Uni. and she went through the details of booking the rooms and of the meeting this week. Quinton asked if the brochures were available. Samardzic replied that they could be produced in lots of 1000. CHAIR'S REPORT: Quinton defined the urgent matter as to have a budget and branch report for the council meeting in two week's time. (Samardzic said that she has written the branch report, but needs some information about student awards from Campbell.) He also reported that a nominee is required for Science Meets Parliament, but the rules are not established yet or the dates known. (Dall'Armi asked about expenses. Samardzic detailed the arrangements for the last two years, then said that all costs would be covered for one person. Dall'Armi-Stoks expressed interest in going. Quinton suggested that there would only be short notice.) Quinton reported on the response to his message to members on email, to which there was one direct reply from a member in the UK, Andrew Udina, who wanted more interaction with the IEEE. (Dall'Armi-Stoks said that Hedley Hansen was interested. Samardzic identified Mike Evans as the IEEE contact in the past. Consensus was to stick with joint meetings rather than do things under the IEEE banner.) Quinton apologised for missing the AGM. Dall'Armi-Stoks suggested a contact list for committee members, which Samardzic noted is already on the web site. Dall'Armi-Stoks suggested a printed list. TABLED DOCUMENTS: Drake tabled an invoice for the supper at Deb Kane's lecture. Quinton tabled a request from HERDSA for support for a conference. The consensus was to get more information to determine if there is a benefit for members and Quinton is to ask for more information. He thought it could raise our profile under "outreach". TREASURER'S REPORT: Fewell noted that he had circulated spreadsheets showing the current financial situation by email. He asked the committee to approve the proposed signatory arrangements for AIP cheques: "Cheques require the signature of any two of five signatories, these being the current four (Campbell, Samardzic, Dall'Armi-Stoks and Quinton) plus Fewell". This was agreed to by all present. Fewell asked for advice on the budget to be prepared. Samardzic explained the situation and the current federal policy, sponsorship for last year and new expenses for the teachers' award. She undertook to prepare a rough budget and send it to Fewell, who will then circulate it to committee members. 2007 ACTIVITIES: Quinton noted the activities already in hand: - talk by Robert Loss on February 15th. - Student Night on March 8th. (Campbell noted that the invitation to departments for this has not gone out yet, so it is possible to change arrangements. Roach noted that it clashes with a talk to Science teachers, which will be rescheduled. Campbell reported that the event is being advertised by Judith Pollard to teachers attending a professional development session earlier on the night.) Quinton said that he wants the subcommittees to be more active, to produce a more vibrant branch. He noted that committee members had agreed. He said that we all have a passion for our society, to which no one had objected. He was looking for new ideas for activities. Drake asked about the Science shows. Manning and Shiell reported on their show to the Double-Helix club and the good response from adults. Quinton asked if they could do a public talk as part of the program. Shiell agreed, and requested money for "props". Dall'Armi-Stoks supported this request. Manning said that they are to do a Science show in National Science Week. Roach said that an astronaut can do a public lecture on Wednesday April 11th. Drake asked if we can do something different with the astronaut. Shiell noted that it is the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch. Roach noted a number of other relevant anniversaries. Shiell and Drake suggested a number of other ideas. Roach and Samardzic explained how the expenses are paid, suggesting that new initiatives are not possible and that we get good value under the current arrangements. Quinton noted the poor attendance last time and asked how we could get people to come. Roach and Samardzic explained that as the astronaut had made 5 flights, there will be no difficulty in getting publicity. Dall'Armi-Stoks asked about the joint meeting with ASSA. Campbell said it is normally in August-September. Drake asked if it is "our turn" to choose a speaker. Campbell thought that it is. Samardzic referred to the joint AIP/IEEE lectures, and noted that Rod Boswell was the speaker at the last one. Drake decided that it is our turn to find a speaker for the next one. Dall'Armi-Stoks and Samardzic discussed the situation behind the selection of the WIP lecturer. Samardzic summarised that the subcommittees used to be more active, but not last year. Quinton said that he wants it back to how it was. There was some discussion of possible speakers and events, including - Klaus Barschat (Campbell) - new Flinders lecturer (Quinton) - Terry Burns, of the Science and Engineering Challenge (Quinton, who is to contact Terry) - Debates of the professors, eg Munch, Thomas (Drake - there was a consensus of the need for a good facilitator, possibly a professional) - Debates generally eg on nuclear power. (Dall'Armi-Stoks. Campbell suggested that there is a need for such debates among members, but they should be for members only, as a public debate would see speakers shouted down by the Greens.) - Mythbusters (Manning is trying to contact them.) - Rough Science (Roach, Shiell) - Other overseas lecturers (Shiell. Roach cautioned that this requires at least $16000). - Fred Watson (Dall'Armi-Stoks and Samardzic.) - Events with Double-Helix club (Manning.) Quinton suggested that we should leave something for the Meetings subcommittee to do, and we should talk about the subcommittees themselves. (Drake undertook to make up a spreadsheet of events and circulate it.) Quinton opened discussion of the subcommittees by asking if the current set is sufficient, listing them to be: Meetings, Awards, Editorial, Education, Publicity and Recruitment, Science Policy and Student Activities. Quinton said he particularly wanted to cater for high school teachers. Roach suggested that there is little prospect of teachers being more involved with the AIP, as they already are involved in SASTA and the Physics SAC, or they don't think they can contribute, or they are retiring. Quinton said he wanted to direct activites to them. Roach and Samardzic said that they have done this through professional development when there was a need, particularly after the introduction of applications. They suggested that we listen to what is being asked for. Quinton summarised this as we should "be reactive" and asked if anything else if required. Roach said that the practical sessions, offered by Veitch but posponed, are wanted. He said that at conferences exhibitors such as Pascoe put on equipment displays. The AIP could do it in a special night, possibly at Flinders. Samardzic said she was keen to put together a resource thing for primary teachers. Manning reported that primary schools had a lack of equipment, while Dall'Armi-Stoks quoted a case where they had much that was not in use. Roach referred to "Primary Connections", suggesting it as an opportunity for professional development by physicists and good for Manning and Shiell. Quinton said he saw this fitting in with a subcommittee for "publicity, outreach and recruitment". Samardzic noted that the AIP cannot have resources, but could tee up to borrow bits from the Universities. Dall'Armi-Stoks asked if the SASTA newsletter goes to primary schools. Roach replied that 30/500 are for primary schools, but it may be possible to hook in with Primary Connections. Quinton suggested that these discussions should be deferred to the education subcommittee. There was discussion of the Editorial subcommittee. Campbell suggested that a subcommittee was not required as such and that it had been introduced to write reports of branch activities, because he had not been doing it. There was consensus that members of the committee should write reports and submit them through Campbell as Associate Editor. Quinton asked about "Publicity and Recruitment". Samardzic said that this always came back to the question "What use is the AIP to me". (There was a discussion of the AIP spending money on tea and coffee for committee meetings. Quinton summarised that we must not spend members' money on personal benefits for the committee.) Samardzic explained that Judith Pollard has taken over the national science policy position as she (Samardzic) was too busy. Samardzic reported that messages to politicians are chosen from the Science Policy, but the document was too long. There was a move to cut it to one page, but this has lost momentum and there has been no development for two years. There was some discussion as to whether Judith Pollard should be invited to be on the branch Science Policy committee. Quinton is to talk to her about it. There was consensus that members will not contribute to subcommittees unless they are on the committee. Quinton suggested that people could be asked through the year to join the committee. Dall'Armi-Stoks suggested asking other societies to advertise our events. Campbell gave an example of how such advertising takes place: the Robert Loss lecture has already been advertised by Paul Curnow (who got the information from our web page) to a group of 200 people who are interested in Science lectures. Quinton suggested getting a list together for publicity. Samardzic offered to attend the first meeting of the subcommittee. Quinton and Shiell discussed the situation for "student activities" at Flinders and UniSA. Quinton is to email Veitch about whether he wants to be on subcommittees. He will also email Blankleider and Wedding, to give them the chance to say yes or no to their allocation to subcommittees. Quinton declared that he wants committee meetings to focus on branch work instead of subcommittee business. In the course of the above discussions, the following allocation of subcommittees was made: Subcommittee Convenor Other members ------------------- ------------- -------------------- Meetings Drake Blankleider, Shiell Awards Blankleider Education Dall'Armi-Stoks Roach, Samardzic, Quinton, Wedding Publicity and Quinton Dall'Armi-Stoks, Manning Recruitment Science Policy Quinton Roach, Dall'Armi-Stoks Student Activities Shiell Manning, Flinders person to be found. STUDENT ACTIVITIES: There were questions about continuity of WARPED at Flinders, as little provision has been made for a transfer to new 3rd-year students. Quinton says there is a keen student, but she is not on the current committee. Shiell said he is concerned about SPACED, which is moving to become a general science society. He wanted the AIP to take action, with a letter opposing this, supported by Dall'Armi-Stoks. Quinton undertook to write a letter describing the circumstances in which the AIP provides financial support for student activities, in that it must be in support of Physics activities. Campbell asked that Quinton send him the text so he could add an AIP letterhead and then send to Shiell by email. Dall'Armi-Stoks asked Manning to ask SPACED fora budget report for last year. Quinton agreed that they could not expect further funding if last year's report is not submitted. L. Campbell 4th February 2007