| INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR APPLIED
MINERALOGY
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MINUTES OF THE FOURTH GENERAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL
HELD ON 3 JUNE 1996 IN WARSAW, POLAND
| PRESENT: | Australia | in the Chair |
| South Africa | ||
| South Africa | ||
| USA | ||
| Portugal | ||
| Germany | ||
| Switzerland | ||
| USA | ||
| South Africa | ||
| Korea | ||
| Brazil | ||
| Finland | ||
| Poland | ||
| Sweden | ||
| Belgium | ||
| Germany | ||
| Russia | ||
| Poland | ||
| Canada | ||
| Canada |
WELCOME
The President of ICAM, Dr John Graham, welcomed all delegates present at the meeting.
No apologies were received.
Prof. Dick Hagni asked for the topic of IMA-CAM to be added to the agenda. This was agreed to by the delegates and would be discussed under Item 13 General.
The minutes of the last general meeting held in Perth in 1993 were distributed, read and signed as reflecting a true record of the proceedings of that meeting.
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES OF THE FOURTH MEETING
There were no matters arising.
Dr Graham presented his report verbally. He described the fourth ICAM meeting as being a great success and making a slight profit. He thanked Prof. Szymanski for taking on the difficult task of holding ICAM’96 in Warsaw.
SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REPORT
Dr Pierre Hofmeyr presented his report verbally. He explained to the meeting the current structure of the ICAM Council. Members of ICAM are mineralogical or geological organisations in the member countries. These organisations are referred to as constituent bodies. In terms of the ICAM constitution only they have the authority to appoint delegates to represent those countries at ICAM Council meetings. These delegates are referred to in the constitution as members. Dr Hofmeyr emphasised the extreme difficulty of remaining in contact with the constituent bodies and in getting them to appoint members to ICAM. With changes in the executive committees of these organisations usually being more frequent than the interval between ICAM meetings, the subject of ICAM is lost from their agendas and the whole ICAM concept has to be explained repeatedly. When constituent bodies' addresses change ICAM is not informed and it is extremely difficult to obtain the new addresses. The whole concept of the definition of constituent bodies and members needs to be reconsidered and changed to a more practical system.
Prof. Szymanzki reported that 170 delegates had registered for ICAM96 and that this was a little disappointing as they had budgeted for considerably more. He said that it was too early to assess whether or not the Congress would be a financial success.
The proposed changes to the constitution were accepted by a Postal Ballot of the Executive Committee prior to the Warsaw meeting. Thus this General Meeting was held under the revised constitution with Dr Graham as President and Prof. Szymanski as Vice-President as Prof. de Waal had stepped down as President as the new constitution came into immediate effect.
Dr Graham brought up the subject of Constituent Bodies and suggested that all delegates should give the matter thought to find a more practical system of effecting membership of ICAM.
Prof. de Waal raised the issue of whether or not ICAM should continue as it was dear that the organisation of ICAM was becoming more and more difficult and possibly it should be terminated. The members were unanimous that it should continue.
Prof. Kahn suggested that membership of ICAM should be on an individual basis and not through constituent bodies. It was decided that this was too major a step to take at this meeting.
Ms Wickert suggested that part of the Conference fee should be allocated to the ICAM
Secretariat as at present the Secretariat has no ICAM funding and is dependent on support from his employing company which is not a healthy state of affairs. No decision was reached on this issue.
Dr Ewing suggested that ICAM should hold joint meetings with the International Council of Advanced Materials as the two organisations had an overlap of interests and this liaison could lead to much greater support for ICAM conferences. This idea did not meet with much support and is contrary to the present (and previous) constitution which requires ICAM congresses to be held in their own right.
Prof. de Waal raised the subject of constituent bodies again and said that, after hearing the on-going discussion, he supported the idea of constituent bodies being discontinued and funding a different system of arranging membership of ICAM.
At the previous General Meeting in Perth, Prof. Hagni had said he would contact Dr Don Hausen regarding holding ICAM2OO4. However, he had not done so and therefore could not offer that the USA would host the next congress. Dr Ewing offered to approach the International Council of Advanced Materials regarding holding a joint meeting in 2000. This was not agreed to. Prof. Hagni then suggested a joint IMA-CAM/ICAM meeting in 1998 as this would definitely take place. It was decided that this was an option if no country offered to host the next ICAM on its own although such a joint meeting would be unconstitutional.
Prof. Kahn of Brazil and one of the members from Germany offered to hold ICAM2000 in their respective countries but said that they would have to get a mandate to do that after returning from ICAM96 and would report back as soon as they could. The meeting agreed to defer the decision on where ICAM2000 would be held until these two countries had reported back.
As no other offers were on the table it was decided that the country between Brazil and Germany not hosting ICAM2000 would be invited to host ICAM2004 if that country's constituent body was prepared to do so. This would be verified at the Council meeting of ICAM2000.
No nominations for a new Secretary General were put forward. Despite Dr Hofmeyr not wishing to stand for re-election he reluctantly agreed to remain in that position until a new Secretary-General could be appointed or elected.
Election of other Office Bearers
In terms of the revised constitution the new President is automatically Prof. Andrej Szymanski. As a country to host ICAM2000 could not be finalised at this meeting the election of a Vice-President would have to be deterred until this was finalised. At that stage it would be incumbent on the members of the host country for ICAM2000 to elect a Vice-President who would then automatically become President at the end of his term of office.
Constitutionally the Executive Committee is made up of the Office Bearers and one member from each of the founding countries. As no constituent body had formally nominated the member to represent them on the Executive Committee, this Committee could not be constitutionally formed.
Prof. Hagni was duly appointed to be this representative.
As all matters pertaining to IMA-CAM had been covered in discussion under previous items it was not necessary to return this addition to the Agenda as had been requested by Prof. Hagni. No other matters were raised for discussion.
In a dosing address Dr Graham thanked members for attending this Council meeting and wished Prof. Szymanski well in his term of office as President.
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