Australian Institute of Physics - SA branch

Minutes of the meeting held at 6pm on Wednesday 29th September
in room 201, Physics Building at the University of Adelaide.

Present: Veitch, Samardzic, Shiell and Campbell.

Visitor: Shaun Manning.

Apologies: Brunger, Bouwknegt, Cockshell and Quinton.
            (Drake apologised subsequently, due to train problems.)

Minutes of Last Meeting: Approved without corrections.

Business arising from the minutes:
  - Public Schools Club:
      Veitch reported a meeting at the Dept. of Environment and Heritage
      on 23rd September at which the listing of the Public Schools'
      Club was considered. Participants included Veitch for the AIP,
      Rod Crewther and Harry Medlin. Results are not known, but
      we are confident of a good outcome, partly because all people
      from the club did not address the quidelines.
  - Oliphant Awards:
      Veitch attended the presentation, where he presented awards and the
      AIP got surprisingly good exposure, similar to that in previous
      years. The award selected by Veitch was to Alexandra Weiland from 
      Walford year 10 for a wind turbine model which attempted to 
      explain the current produced in an ammeter. As to next year 
      and increasing the award to $500, we need to consider it but 
      with input from the national executive.
  - Conference grant for David Ridout:
      Veitch and Campbell explained why the grant was given after all.
      David's "spouse" membership is the same as a full membership. The
      "spouse" membership is an administrative technique used by the 
      national branch to avoid sending two copies of the "Physicist", 
      but as a consequence David was not included in the branch's 
      list of members.

CHAIR'S REPORT (by Veitch):
  - We have not heard from Michael Bromley. Drake has sent an email
    to him. Campbell is to ask the Hon. Secretary if he has contact.

Tabled documents:   
  -  Veitch tabled the handbook from the Oliphant Science Awards
     (noting they they ran more smoothly this year).
  - Veitch tabled an email from the "bojob team" requesting that
    we add a link to our web page to their Aust. job search page. It
    has a direct link to Physics related sites, which Veitch has
    checked and found are not mainstream Physics.
      (Campbell asked about the job advert scanning and whether it
        has been passed on to the national branch. The answer is
        it has been passed on, but is not being done.)
  - Campbell reported receiving press releases sent by email from
    the national branch, and does not know who else gets them. It
    was decided that he should send them on to committee members.

TREASURER'S REPORT:
    This was sent by email to members just prior to the meeting.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS: Meetings:
 - Joint ASSA/AIP meeting on Wednesday 6th:
     - It is open to visitors.
     - Veitch is to order a supper platter (cut cheese) for 7:30pm
        to be collected by Campbell.
     - Dinner is to be held prior to meeting.
     - Samardzic to introduce speaker 
     - Campbell is to include details of Jon Lawrence's publications
        in the email reminder.
 - AGM
     - It is to be held on Wednesday 24th November.
     - Suggested speakers are Prof. Peter Teubner (Campbell to
       consult Brunger on this) and Margaret Folkard. 
     - Venue to be the Public Schools' Club. (Veitch is to ask Alex
       Kalloniatis for contacts, including hopefully the same
       caterer as last year.)

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS: Education:
     Samardzic reported on the Quiz. She said that she is 
waiting for the term dates to determine a date for the careers'
meeting, possible on Friday 22nd October. Samardzic is to 
consider if she can do it. Suggested speakers were Peter storer,
Peter Foster (head of research at Photon Engineering) and Alex
Hemming (DSTO). 
     Samardzic reported that the subcommittee ran the AISS 
(Australian International Space School) for the first time this
year. It included rocket launches, astronomy, cultural places,
a tour of the Woomera range, the WRESAT launch site, the
historical Science park and the ASRI launches on the October
long weekend. Next year it will be run in July to be back-to-back
with the South Australian Space School.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS: Student activities:
     Shiell reported that SPACED ran a video night on the last
Friday of the term, and is organising a dinner at Cafe 
Buongiorno. Recently they have run a series of barbeques as a 
fundraiser for a trip to Stockport, which requires $500 for the
bus. (Samardzic suggested that this could be done for $300 and is
to check on it.) The barbeques have been used as a membership
drive and there are now 45 members, compared with 11 at the AGM.
(The problem was that nothing was done in orientation week and
at initial lectures.) Last week they had a tour of Torrens Island.
Manning reported that this was good, focussed a lot on the
economic side, and included a general tour, attended by only 3
people. Shiell referred to a tour of the Bureau of Meteorology
(with help from Prof. Robert Vincent).
     Shiell reported that the refund for the first barbeque has
been received, noting that there was a problem with it being 
paid twice. He asked if the AIP could put money into the 
Stockport trip. Veitch imposed the condition that it be open to
AIP members, and Campbell said that some members would be
interested. Shiell said there was a problem getting Flinders
students. He noted that it can be cancelled if the weather
is not satisfactory. Samardzic suggested the planetarium is 
good. Shiell said that this would cost $5 per person.
     Shiell noted that the SPACED webside is not ongoing and that
the link has been lost. Veitch is to contact Bruce Dawson to
ask about it, and said that the AIP should link to it.
     The issue of a AIP student coordinator for each campus was
discussed. Campbell insisted on having a single student
coordinator with overall responsibility for the three campuses,
noting that there had been substantial problems when there
were separate coordinators for Adelaide and Flinders.
     There was a discussion regarding the science demonstrations
and other activities at primary schools:
   - Veitch referred to a good job done by someone from CSIRO.
   - Shiell and Manning are looking at a half-hour show, but are
     not closed to the idea of an interactive session.
   - Samardzic noted that Mike Roach is doing some things for
     primary schools, including a program "School of the Future"
   - Veitch reported how well kids reacted to the event he saw.
   - Manning suggested a dual approach, with different levels for
     years 12/345/67.
   - Samardzic referred to the problem that primary teachers are
     not trained as Science teachers and are intimidated by it.
     It is necessary to win the teachers over. (She noted that
     she is still doing the teacher training and the exam wrap-up.)
   - Veitch reported a request for proposals for IYOP (International
     Year of Physics) activities, with $3000 on offer for projects.
     October 29th is the deadline, with a second round in 2005.
   - Shiell noted that the shows for schools are not profit 
     generating, but they could use money to hire a truck and
     pay for consumables.
   - Samardzic invited Shiell and Manning to the next education
     subcommittee meeting. She noted that Mike Roach and Cockshell 
     are dedicated teachers who put in a lot of their own time.
   - Manning reported talking to a Science coordinator at Belair.
   - Manning noted that there is no Physics Club at Flinders, and
     that he and Shiell are thinking of a new club to cover all
     Unis. and high school students. Shiell suggested that this
     be an AIP subcommittee, chaired by the president of the club.
     Veitch cautioned that this raised a problem with support
     from the student union, and that there are problems with
     access for high school students.
   - Samardzic reported the improvement in the Quiz attendance,
     with no requirement to solicit attendance.
   - Veitch expressed support for the cross-Uni club, noting
     that there will be free AIP membership for 4th-year students
     from next year. He suggested Shiell find out how it can
     fit in with student membership, noting that there is no
     insurance to cover high school students.

NEXT YEAR'S COMMITTEE:
     The suggested executive is:
       Chair -      Samardzic
       Vice-Chair - not filled (Samradzic is to ask Roger Clay)
       Secretary  - Campbell
       Treasurer  - Quinton (to be confirmed with Quinton)  
     Campbell is to check if Adam Weigold and Peter Storer are members
and inform Samardzic.
     Shiell will be listed as Student coordinator. Veitch 
offered to remain on the committee. Veitch is to contact
Drake to see if he will continue (and hand on this year's AGM 
organisation).

DATE OF NEXT MEETING:
    This was set for Wednesday October 20th.

PS  The next education subcommittee will be held within a week or
     two.
                 The meeting finished at about 19:40

                                   Laurence Campbell, 17-10-04