Canadian Division of the ACA

Report for Council

Knoxville, June, 2008
1 Elected officers of the CanDiv include David Rose, Chair (2007-), Secretary, Pawel Grochulski (2006-). The Secretary position is due for election this year. 2 potential nominees (Pawel and Michael Murphy)

2 CNC/IUCr: The Canadian National Committee of the IUCr has been rejuvenated by significant turnover. The current committee consists of:

L. Delbaere, Chair; J. Britten, Vice-Chair; J. Schrag, Secretary; M. Fraser, Treasurer; S. Cameron; L. Cranswick; P. Whitfield.

There has been regular communication between the CanDiv and CNC on several issues.
3 IUCr Newsletter: Lachlan Cranswick is preparing a Crystallography in Canada article for the IUCr newsletter sometime in the next year.

4 The bid from Montreal for the IUCr Congress in 2014 has been chosen to present at the IUCr Congress in Osaka. The presentation will be August 23rd (Executive) and 25th (General Assembly). If this is successful, CanDiv and ACA should have high visibility at that meeting. CanDiv would support having the ACA organize a Montreal Assembly.

5 In cooperation with CanDiv, the CNC completed an operations survey for the National Research Council (the CNC sponsoring agency). This survey scored 40 out of a possible 45 (27 was considered “passing”). Thus, the NRC will continue to be the sponsoring agency. The main area suggested for improvement was in international activities to promote the interests of Canadian crystallographers. The ACA Toronto meeting and (if awarded) a Montreal IUCr Congress would help address that.

6 TO ’09 ACA Annual Meeting: The meeting is to be held at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto on July 25-30, 2009. Jim Britten is Program Chair and David Rose, Local Chair. A pre-meeting planning flyer has been prepared for the Knoxville meeting. A logo is available and a host for the Web site being investigated.

7 In an effort to promote Canadian crystallographers at the Toronto meeting, D. Rose and L. Delbaere jointly, on behalf of CanDiv and CNC, sent out a communication to Department Chairs and Institute Directors soliciting nominations for the ACA Awards for 2009. At least 2 nominations of Canadians for the Buerger Award have been made.

8 There was a feeling that funds could be forthcoming from Canadian sources (CLS, CISR) in support of synchrotron related sessions in Toronto. Possible collaboration with SynchSIG or Materials SIG (both have Canadian Chairs). There was also support for a session on minerals (a strength in Canada) and neutrons (support from Chalk River?).

9 The CanDiv discussed whether to “get in the queue” for another potential ACA meeting in Canada – possibly West coast (Vancouver/Victoria, Calgary/Edmonton) or East coast (Halifax). Ottawa or Quebec are also desirable, if Montreal is not successful for IUCr.

10 In another capacity, D. Rose attended the annual meeting of the National Postdoctoral Association in Boston in April, 2008. The ACA might want to consider the benefits of becoming a Society member. In addition, a small Canadian contingent met at the NPA to discuss forming a Canadian section, preliminarily called CAPS (Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars). The main goals of the NPA are to present ideas on consistent definition and treatment of postdoctoral scholars, areas of interest/training for PDS in areas such as career development and alternative career options, training/workshops on mentorship and other issues, advocacy for science policy, issues of interest to Postdoctoral Offices at various Institutions.

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Minutes of the meeting of the Canadian Division of the ACA

3 June 2008

Canadian Division of the ACA
(See below for attendance)

Thanks were given to the CLS for sponsoring the lunch for this mtg.

There are three officers for the Canadian Division: a President, a Representative on Council and a Secretary. The Division is looking for people to stand for these positions. Council would like a minimum of two nominees per position.

The secretary position is up for election this year – potential nominees are Pawel Grochulski and Michael Murphy.

Toronto ACA 2009

a. Organization

Jim Britten is the Program Chair of the Meeting, and David Rose is the Local Chair. They will work in close collaboration. They are striking committees for various purposes.

The Local Committee is looking for people to help with the following functions:

Fundraising: There is a list of fairly regular sponsors that need to be contacted. If anybody has ideas for new funding sources they would be welcome. The committee is seeking people to serve in this capacity.
Workshop Coordinator: The workshop organization is not the responsibility of the Local Committee, but a coordinator is required to coordinate the rooms, equipment and facilities on the ground for the workshops.
Webmaster: somebody is needed to setup and maintain the website for the meeting.
Communication is also a function which is vital to the success of the meeting, both between all the committees, and between the meeting and possible attendees.

At least 40% of the talks in ACA sessions must be contributed. Therefore, if Canadians submit a significant number of abstracts there will be good Canadian representation in the program. We need to drum up support from members and non-members to submit abstracts for the Toronto mtg.

There has been talk of having a big name plenary speaker. The speaker and topic would have to have a wide appeal across the ACA. Discussion from the floor suggested perhaps someone who was more of a user than a professional crystallographer. Could be somebody with a background in energy of environment. Mars was also suggested as a topic.

b. Sponsorship and potential sessions.

It looks possible that $200-$500 may be available from the CLS, the CISR and CINS for sponsoring the Canadian Division, which may be put towards a session.

John Tse suggested that there be a mineral session in the ACA for the Toronto mtg. David Rose will have discussion with the Synchrotron SIG regarding this as a possibility, since the Canadian Division is not a SIG and cannot sponsor sessions. Other possibilities are the materials SIG (Pam Whitfield). There may be substantial financial support available from the Can. Inst for Synchrotron Research (E. Pai) and CLS, especially for synchrotron-related sessions in Toronto.

There is talk of another Cdn bid for the ACA in another 5 years from now. Possibilities include Halifax, Ottawa, Victoria, Vancouver and Quebec City.

IUCr

There is a bid to get the 2014 IUCr General Assembly in Montreal. Canada is up against India and Prague. There has not been an IUCr in North American in a long time, and with U.S. visa restrictions on foreign nationals, Canada makes a good location. Louis Delbare has spoken to the President of the IUCr who personally favours the Mtl bid, since it is in Asia this year, has been in Europe three times previously, and will be in Europe again next year. The Mtl meeting of the ACA was the largest ever attendance.

The U.S. National Committee for Crystallography has made proposals to the IUCr executive committee for changes to the bylaws. These include:
That each region would have a regional representative to committee from each region.
That each of these reps would not count to the national total of reps on the IUCr.
Crystallographers who have concerns but are not members of the executive should be able to speak at their meetings, even if they are not allowed to vote.
At least two nominees should be presented for each position on the executive.

The current President does not support these propositions, but the U.S. National Committee is looking for support for these proposals.

There are several Cdns nominated to various IUCr committees and Louis Delbare has been nominated to the executive committee. NRC sponsorship of ca. $4000 p.a. has been renewed of the Cdn National Committee for Crystallography.

Other Discussion

Letters were sent to Department Chairs looking for names of Cdn nominees for ACA Awards. Two Cdns were nominated for the Buerger Award this year.

Lachlan Cranswick is assembling an edition of the IUCr newsletter on Crystallography in Canada.

Attendees:

D.R. Rose (Chair), Ian Swainson (Acting Secretary), John Tse, Wilson Quail, Megan Barker, Louis Delbaere, Gary Enright, Pam Whitfield, Michael Murphy, Michael Jennings, Emil Pai, Rob Thorne,