Stewart R. Wallace — 1919–2009 - Society of Economic Geologists

JULY 2009 No 78 SEG NEWSLETTER 5
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SEG Council Actions —
Toronto, Canada � February 28, 2009
The SEG Council held a regularly scheduled
meeting at the Radisson Admiral
Hotel in Toronto, Canada. Members of
the Council present were J.F.H. Thomp -
son (Chair), S-J. Barnes, L.H. Chapman,
J.L. Doebrich, B. Dubé, J.W. Hedenquist,
B.G. Hoal, D.J. Kirwin, F. Molnár, S.J.
Piercey, S.F. Simmons, B. Suchomel (Presi -
dent of Foundation), and N. Wil liams.
Apologies were received from A.C. Harris,
H.J. Noyes, J. Perelló, R.D. Presnell, and Y.
Watanabe. F.I. de Azevedo, Regional VP
for Latin America, attended briefly as a
guest. President Thompson called the
meeting to order at 8:00 a.m.
The following actions were taken at
the meeting:
� Approved a motion from N. Williams
to accept the minutes of the previous
meeting and ratify the following
actions taken by the Council since its
meeting on October 24, 2008:
– Approved on November 12, 2008,
the draft Council Minutes for the
October 24, 2008, meeting held at
the SEG headquarters in Littleton,
Colorado, USA.
– Approved on November 29, 2008, to
amend the SEG Bylaws, namely,
Article XVI – Governance Policies.
– In accordance with the SEG Bylaws,
Article XVI, Sections 16.1 Conflict of
Interest Policy, all SEG Council
members submitted their Conflict of
Interest Disclosure Forms as of
February 15, 2009.
And the following actions taken by
the Executive Committee since its previous
meeting on October 23, 2008:
– Approved Fellowship List No. 08-03
on November 28, 2008, thereby
admitting the following 15 candidates
to SEG Fellowship: Rempta P.
Baluda, David W. Broughton, Lucy
H. Chapman, Mark M. Davis, Jeff L.
Doebrich, Mark C. Fletcher, Ken D.
Galambos, Mirta M. Garrido, A.
Keith Kenyon, Oswaldo Ordonez-
Carmona, Keith D. Scott, Weidong
Sun, Ghislain Tourigny, David R.
Tretbar, and Gerard I. Tripp.
� Accepted an oral report by President
Thompson in which he highlighted the
record membership total, numerous
and widespread Society events and
activities, including presentations by
SEG lecturers, and the continuing
strong support of students. He
described his recent successful meeting
with the staff at SEG and noted the
implications for programs and funding
in the recessionary economy. On
request, Past President Williams added
that the SEG-GSSA 2008 conference in
South Africa had been particularly
well organized and successful.
� Accepted an oral report by B.J. Such -
omel, President of the SEG Founda tion,
in which he noted that contributions
had exceeded budget with a significant
input from corporations to the
Graduate Student Fellowship program.
Although student support over the
year had been very strong ($525,000),
the economic downturn had adversely
affected the Founda tion’s ability to
sustain this level of funding for 2009.
This situation was exacerbated by the
9% increase in the number of student
grant applications received in the current
year. In response to a question
from J.W. Hedenquist on fund-raising
strategy, Suchomel noted that there
was unrealized funding potential
among both corporate and individual
sources, the possibility of more noncash
contributions, and the need to
increase matching contributions.
� Passed a motion from J.W. Heden quist
to accept the Executive Director’s
annual report for 2008. Key highlights
included the increased membership
outside North America (now 54%), the
historically high proportion of students
(17%), and the launch of the online
Economic Geology ar chive. A summary
of this report will be published in the
April issue of the SEG Newsletter.
� Passed a motion from J.W. Heden -
quist to approve the Treasurer’s and
Auditor’s reports for 2008. In the latter,
the Auditor found that the financial
statements “present fairly, in all
material respects, the financial position
of the Society” – a copy of the
auditor’s report was available for
inspection at the meeting.
� Passed a motion from S.F. Sim mons to
approve the Amended budget for
2008 as presented by the Executive
Director on behalf of the Treasurer.
� Accepted an oral report by S.F.
Simmons, Chair of the Publications
Board, in which he summarized the
year’s key events, including the
appointment of a new editor of
Economic Geology, the increased market
for publications as represented by
a growing SEG
membership, the
decline in financial
assets related
to the market
downturn, recent
publications, and
new initiatives
such as digital
downloads from the online bookstore.
Simmons further noted that the online
archive of Economic Geology via
GeoScienceWorld merited more publicity
and improved website visibility.
Other issues raised during discussion
included the need to focus on timeliness
of journal publication as well as
the cost of shipping as affected by the
weight of journal issues.
� On a motion from S-J. Barnes, the
addition of Richard Goldfarb to the
Publications Board was approved.
Subsequent to the Publications Board
meeting on March 1, 2009, the Coun -
cil would be requested to approve a
list of names from which future directors
could be selected. This would
assist in succession planning.
� Passed a motion from S.J. Piercey to
accept the report from the Vice
President for Regional Affairs, D.J
Kirwin, in which he noted the following
Regional VP appointments for
2009-2011: Maria Boni (Europe),
Nikolai Goryachev (North Eurasia),
Francisco de Azevedo (Latin America),
and Paul Nex (Africa). Kirwin also
listed the Honorary Lecturers for 2009
as Andy Killick and Mike de Wit (both
South Africa), Chusi Li (USA), Yasushi
Watanabe (Japan), Noel White
(Australia), Jeff Heden quist and Mark
Hannington (both Canada), Rich
Goldfarb (USA), Bill Chávez (USA),
Steve Enders (USA), Francisco Camus
(Chile), and Doug Kirwin (Thailand).
A special vote of thanks was extended
to the previous VP for Regional
Affairs, Antonio Arribas R, Jr., for his
active role in growing the membership
and activities, especially in Latin
America. After some discussion on
specific proposals, it was agreed that
each Traveling Lecturer and each
Honorary Lecturer should receive a
list of student chapters to facilitate
the scheduling of talks. The list of lecturers
should also be
to page 6 ...
communicated to student
chapters and
BRIAN G. HOAL
SEG Executive Director
and Editor