alive and well - Geological Society of Australia

Society UpdateBusiness ReportThe September TAG brings you columns from our regularcontributors, Letters to the Editor (much longer thanusual), comments on Society activities, Division updates,news and views — and a special report plus two features! Thefeature about James Dwight Dana looks at this prominent historicalgeologist and our second feature by Kirsten Gottschalklooks to the future and the technological changes and infinitepossibilities the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will bring toscience. This issue’s special report was inspired by the Special Reporton Engineering Geology by Greg McNally, published inTAG 163 (June 2012 issue).We also report on and celebrate GSA Award recipients (seepage 36). It was very pleasing to see Award recipients bring theirfamily and friends to the Awards night. These geologists, whoare our members and peers, were recognised for theircontributions to the Earth Sciences and the GSA. As well, AJESAwards were presented for peer-reviewed papers judged as thebest for that year, and for papers written by younger EarthScientists (keep your eyes peeled for their future contributions).No doubt some faces will be familiar and others may becomemore familiar in the future. Congratulations to all GSA Awardrecipients of National, Division and Specialist Group Awards andto recipients of AJES Awards — it is great to see you beingrecognised.Regrettably, with the plethora of awards the Society has,there was and possibly always could be insufficient time for thereading of citations.Annually, at Division award nights held around Australia,citations are read and the recipient has an opportunity to reply— replies are then usually followed by dinner and a vino or two.Division awards seem to have much more time for the ceremonythan at larger conferences, especially the InternationalGeological Congress (IGC).This issue also includes news … big news … the NationalRock Garden achieved Deductible Gift Recipient status and thewebsite is up and running at www.nationalrockgarden.org.au— and accepting donations! Visit the site, send us your feedbackand please bookmark the address as more rocks are added to theRock Listing page.Leading up to the 34th IGC, many GSA members, andmembers and employees of other Earth Science and Geoscienceorganisations and associations, put a huge effort intodeveloping a local IGC to be proud of. Whether it was organisingfield trips, presenting papers, authoring field guides, preparingabstracts, convening sessions, coordinating themes,representing their employers, ‘manning’ booths or listening tonew scientific research, all of you made the 34th IGC a congressto be proud of. The driving forcesbehind these events are thevolunteers. On behalf of manypeople, thank you for making the34th IGC so memorable. Also, aspecial thanks to the members assisting us on the GSA booth —as always these big conferences are a wonderful opportunity tomeet you and to hear your views. Please see photographs onpages 36 to 40. I have cheekily included a photo of myself froma pre-IGC event with Professor Iain Stewart at SydneyUniversity. I hope you don’t mind.Now to other GSA business. The June TAG included a lot ofinformation about potential governance changes and both theCouncil Meeting and the Annual General Meeting wereopportunities for further exchanges of ideas on this topic.I deliberately say ‘further’ because there has been a lot ofdialogue between the Divisions and Specialist GroupCommittees, the Executive Committee, Governance Committeeand legal advisors over the past two years. This issue includessome member feedback and additional legal advice, which wehope provides further and helpful clarification. Understandably,for members not on committees, there has been lessinformation coming to you, whereas feedback betweencommittees has provided a greater exchange of ideas.At each biennial conference many committees change. TheGSA now has a new Executive Committee and many SpecialistGroups have changed office bearers as well. There is somecontinuity as a small number of members serve for a second andthird term on a committee — but in other instances there is lesscontinuity. The committees with less continuity tend to struggleat times, so please feel free to contact me if you have anyqueries. Thank you to the outgoing GSA Executive Committeemembers and to all members working on the other committees.The contributions you have made to the GSA and to the EarthSciences over the previous years are valued by many members.The GSA will soon commence our annual membershiprenewal period. If you are changing your contact details,membership type or modifying a specialist group affiliationplease contact info@gsa.org.au to assist us with your renewal.Finally, please keep in mind the deadline for the Decemberissue is 26 October and remember the earlier we receive yourcontributions, the more likely you will be published. For allcontributions and enquiries please contact me attag@gsa.org.auSUE FLETCHERExecutive Director4 |TAG September 2012