1. Minutes of the previous meeting will be tabled for confirmation.
Minutes were distributed for approval. These were circulated amongst members. Lachlan Newham moved to accept minutes and Dave Swayne seconded them.
2. President's report.
There is not much to report here as the SocietyÕs President, Tony Jakeman, gave a report before the first plenary.
į He reiterated that everyone who registers for the conference is a member for two years. Alternatively people can pay a small fee (USD40) for two years to be a member before the conference. It is clear we need to improve communication of this to conference participants as many seem unaware that they are members.
į The awards for 2005 and 2006 have been announced and given. We are trying to further improve the situation of encouraging students and early career researchers into the Society.
į We already have expressions of interest for the conference in 2010. Giorgio Guariso, who was nominated for the PresidentÕs position to be elected at the end of the meeting, will need to consult the Board on the choice for that 5th Biennial Meeting.
Tony then called for questions and clarifications and went through the agenda to the meeting. He mentioned that we would be suggesting a slight revision to the AwardsÕ committee. Nominations to the Board and Office were also shown. People were invited to nominate for positions from the floor. It was also stated that the Board would also be expected to be more active in the future. Andrea Rizzoli will set up a Wiki site to let us gather the lessons from this conference and to prepare for the conference in Barcelona in 2008. It was suggested we could have 5 strong themes which are workshopped more heavily before the conference.
Tony then discussed Holly HartmannÕs workshop W11 which had suggested having a 10 year initiative with a working group type focus, bringing in other interest groups. This would involve email communication and possibly a web based meeting every few months between Board members. Tony stated the Society would be willing to take on other suggestions.
The idea of special interest groups and there roles in iEMSs was also discussed. It was stated that they could help gel the organisation even further. There was support from the floor for this concept. Special interest groups can be self-organising. It was also stated that it is hoped that some of the workshops would continue working using the electronic media. The idea being that they would establish themselves to function between meetings and report back at bigger meetings (ie. conferences). The Wiki was raised as a way to help these groups to communicate (this has been set up now). This process would be started with the revision of the Position Papers from each workshop. The Society will find technical solutions to assist with these processes as we are hoping to get these groups to interact.
Alexey Voinov suggested in off-conference years (ie odd years) we test drive a web based conference. This is a way of exploring alternatives to long distance travel. It could be especially important for updates on ongoing conversations from workshops. These could be structured around progress reports or papers. Depending on the level of sophistication of web facilities we could do it in interactive or non-interactive mode. Dave Swayne stated that their group been fairly successful in web based meetings in the last year. He mentioned that there is a service where you can download Powerpoint presentations, and you can stream audio using a piece of software. All of this is open source and would need to be run off a server. It can support up to 200 concurrent listeners. It was suggested that this could be a way to invest in some of our profits for the Burlington conference. Dave mentioned that they plan to use it for students so that they are able to make presentations from home even though they canÕt afford to come along. It was suggested we have a special interest group on this topic to discuss further. Tony suggested someone needs to convene this – not Alexey or Andrea as they are already committed to many other tasks.
A member asked what the next steps are to set up the Wiki. Andrea said there is already one running on the server. He just needs to prepare and send instructions to workshop people on how to make use of this (done now).
3. Treasurer's report including details of the second biennial
conference (iEMSs 2006).
For 2004-2005: reports are available on the website. Expenditures include preparation of proceedings. There are only a few hard copies which have been lodged with libraries so the proceedings could be cited. We also spent some money on support of development of ShortCom software.
į iEMSS 2006 ran a good profit. We need to discuss now how to best use this to support our aims and goals. There were some suggestions that we could use this to sponsor students to Barcelona.
į We currently have 350 members. There is a proposal that people get free membership after 2 reviews for the societyÕs journal, EMS.
į We switched payment systems online which caused some difficulties. Many problems are that there are spam messages. We have to face this since all E banking is subject to such attacks. The system only works in 55 countries and some pages display in German only. This needs to be fixed. It has enhanced security for members and iEMSs given we no longer need to store account details on our server. It has also reduced our transaction fees and is good for reimbursing money. It is low maintenance and accepts all credit cards.
į We propose to use different rates paying by bank or credit card – giving a discount by bank. WeÕre also keen to have different fees for on-site registrations with smaller fees for one day registrations.
Asked for approval of the treasurersÕ report.
Richard Sojda moved to approve report. Robert Argent seconded this. The report was accepted.
Tony suggested that extra funds might be used to encourage some of the interest/workshop groups.
4. Plans for iEMSs 2006 Barcelona, Miquel Sanchez-Marre.
Miquel Sanchez-Marre, convenor for iEMSs2008 in Barcelona, presented details of the Barcelona venue and surrounds. All very nice!
A question was asked about accommodation. Miquel said they will develop arrangements with several hotels and that there are also student residences available. MiquelÕs presentation will be put on the website for the conference. Dates for the conference - likely to be July (second week July). No later than this because Northern US holidays will interfere.
5. Report on the journal, Environmental Modelling and Software.
Tony Jakeman, Editor of EMS, gave a short report having given a longer report at the beginning of the conference. He said that the journal has quite a backlog. The EMS Board has met at the Conference and has plans to reduce this. Three extra issues will be published this year and he is trying to secure six. The Board of EMS is planning to be tighter on the scope of the journal – more generic methods, frameworks and insightful applications. He is also distributing reviewing to manuscript editors- up to 6 per year. This will help make even more informed decisions.
The impact factor reported in the minutes of the last meeting was questioned as being too low from the floor. Tony clarified that shortly after the meeting the journal got an impact factor up to 0.87 (for 2004). For 2005 it is now 1.35.
Someone asked if the Society has a membership data base. Andrea replied that we do in theory but havenÕt used this to date for the journal. It was agreed that it would be good to get better links to allow the membership to be used for refereeing papers etc.
ACTION: Tony to get membership of IEMSS into EMS data base of possible reviewers.
6. Motions:
į Awards Committee nominations – Andrea Rizzoli, Alexey Voinov, George Leavesley
Tony stated that this was not a big job but they do have to solicit nominations and present them to the Board. It is not always easy to see who are Early Career Researchers. It was suggested that this information be added to the data base collected from membership forms to assess early career researchers.
ACTION: Andrea to update the membersÕ database and the registration website to incorporate date of obtainment of PhD title.
į Criteria and categories of awards
These are sustained excellence in research and service to society – in this order for the medallists and reverse for fellowships. We have dismissed categories in this conference. The former situation was a disadvantage to some groups. Also these seemed a bit artificial. There was a motion to dispense with categories and accept nominations for the Awards Committee. Rob Argent put forward the motion. Barry Croke seconded. No disagreement was recorded.
į Nomination for convenor of student prizes and commendations
Jenifer Ticehurst has carried this out at 2006. She will be responsible for picking a committee to look after this. Jenny is willing to stay on for one more time. Two motions: that we have this position, second is that Jenifer Ticehurst fill the position. The motion was forwarded by John Norton and seconded by Brian MacIntosh.
7. Collecting feedback from this meeting: book, experiences of
workshop processes
Andrea to set up another Wiki with a view to doing an even better job than here. We can use this to have some feedback on the book process.
The meeting then discussed what kind of proceedings for 2008? It was stated that the larger profit is because there was no printed proceedings. We also havenÕt focused much on the production of papers. The experience of having linked sessions and workshops was also discussed. It was agreed that we need a bit more time to present each paper but essentially this structure worked very well. To what extent do we need paper sessions? There are clear benefits of external visibility of paper sessions. They give people a chance to speak and publish. It is also important to have papers before the conference which are refereed by people attending workshops – as an opportunity to get acquainted with work. It was felt that it is good to have short presentations. There is a book of rules for conference convenors which is being prepared by Lachlan Newham and Susan Cuddy. What most participants missed is a book of abstracts. This allows people to brush up on the content of a particular presentation.
Andrea suggested we loosen the page limit for papers. Lachlan Newham countered saying we want to limit page numbers, otherwise it is too difficult for people who have to review many papers. It is still possible to say good things in 6 pages but it is a very efficient way of giving the floor to people to present their work. Past this level of detail the workshops are a more effective method of interacting. It was agreed we would not want more rules to how workshops are run. The key is that if paper length is defined as 15 minutes people need to make sure there is time for questions so only talk to 12 minutes.
It would be possible to give two page guidelines on how to run workshops. This could come out of the experience of the workshops. Some of the specialists could also run a Ōhow to run a workshopÕ session at the start of Barcelona.
ACTION: Ruth Waldick, Holly Hartman should pick this thread up.
Posters were raised as another good way of presenting research allowing for parallel processing of work. They stay up all week while the workshops takes place and put less emphasis on presenting papers. We could make the written paper optional for posters.
Someone also suggested it would be nice if there were to be formalised software demonstrations etc. Mostly we are staring at Powerpoint – would be better to have live demonstrations.
For the proceedings we have obtained an ISBN and given page numbers so people can cite the proceedings. We have also printed 3 copies and sent to 3 libraries.
A list of attendees is also necessary for the conference. It was suggested these could be put up on the web if no-one had any objection to their email address appearing on a website.
It was agreed that the pack for this conference was well put together.
8. Elections to the Board.
Tony Jakeman expressed heartfelt thanks to the outgoing Secretary, Rebecca Letcher, and to Alexey Voinov for their hard work.
Guy Larocque nominated himself for Board.
Nominations were forwarded by Julian Reichl and seconded by Nigel Quinn.
Nominations were as follows.
Nominations for the iEMSs Office
(2006-2008)
President
Giorgio Guariso, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Treasurer
Jaro Mysiak, FEEM, Venice Italy
Secretary
Andrea Rizzoli, IDSIA, Lugano, Switzerland
Vice -presidents
George Leavesley, United States Geological Survey, USA
Ralf Seppelt, UFZ Leipzig-Halle, Germany
Michael McAleer, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Alexey Voinov, University of Vermont, USA
Nominations for the iEMSs Board of
Directors (2006-2008)
1. Robert Argent, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
2. James Ascough, ARS Tucson, USA
3. Bruce Beck, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
4. Neil Crout, University of Nottingham, UK
5. Brian Fath, Towson University, USA
6.
Carlo
Giupponi, Fondazione ENI "Enrico Mattei", Italy, EU
7.
Holly
Hartmann, CLIMAS/SAHRA, USA
8. Anthony J. Jakeman, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
9. Ari Jolma, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, EU
10. Guy Larocque, Centre de foresteries de Laurentides, Canada
11. Carlo Lepori, IDSIA, Switzerland
12. Rebecca Letcher, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
13. Ian Littlewood, CEH Wallingford, United Kingdom, EU
14. Joaquim Comas Matas, University of Girona, Catalonia, EU
15. Kimio Morimune, University of Kyoto, Japan
16. Les Oxley, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
17. Claudia Pahl-Wostl, University of Osnabrck, Germany, EU
18. Miquel Snchez-Marr, Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalunya, EU
19. Achim Sydow, Fraunhofer FIRST, Berlin, Germany, EU
20. David Swayne, University of Guelph, Canada
21. Martin van Ittersum, Universtity of Wageningen, the Netherlands
22. Ilias Vardavas, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, and University of Crete, Greece, EU
23.
Kristina
Voigt, GSF Neuherberg, Germany, EU
24.
Ruth
Waldick, Environment Canada.
9. Other business.
Giorgio Guariso, the new President of the society, finished the meeting with other business. He said he is hoping for good cooperation from the Board. He said it would be good to have a small newsletter where everyone can send a line of information to the others once a month etc. Something light but which can keep the relationship going for the society. He hopes members will help to continue with this work.
No other business was raised.