Minutes of the IUPAP Council Meeting

October 8, 2002
Berlin, Germany

Participants

Present: R. Barber, K. Binder, J. Franz, P. Kalmus, J.L. Moran-Lopez, J. Nilsson, Y. Petroff, B. Richter, H. Yasuoka, E. Zingu,

Absent: A. Ardeberg, G-z. Yang.

IUPAP Staff: E. Ridgway.

Richter called the Council meeting to order at 1:00. The Minutes of the 2001 Council meeting in Mexico City were approved.

Financial Affairs

The Council voted to approve the audit report for the year 2001. Concern was expressed about the financial future of IUPAP, but the budget for 2003, which showed a large projected deficit, was approved (Attachment A).

Member Affairs

The Council agreed that Kenya and Georgia would be dropped from membership. The Council voted to recommend membership for Cyprus at the level of one share upon payment of its first year's dues.

Nomination Slates

The Council voted to recommend for approval by the General Assembly the slates agreed upon by the Council and Commission Chairs.

Conferences

The Council formally approved the IUPAP-sponsored conferences for 2003 and early approval for several conferences for 2004. (See list under Conferences)

Resolutions

The Council then reviewed the resolutions discussed previously by the Council and Commission Chairs. Small changes were approved for Resolutions Nos. 1, 3, and 5. The wording for the new resolution on establishing a Working Group on Energy was proposed and approved. Other resolutions were approved for recommendation to the General Assembly in their current form.

Plans for Future Meetings

Plans for a brief meeting at noon on Friday of old and new members of the Council and Commission Chairs were discussed. Possible dates for the January meeting of the new Council and Commission Chairs were discussed. It was agreed that the best dates seemed to be January 25-26. Franz will check to see if a majority of members can attend a meeting then.

Other business

Richter gave a brief overview of his presidential address to the General Assembly. He plans to discuss sustainable development, the state of physics in the world, and ethical concerns. The group discussed what IUPAP could do about ethics and whether the General Assembly should be asked to establish a special task force on this issue. It was decided that the new Council and Commission Chairs would have to deal with this issue as nothing had been prepared for the General Assembly on this issue. The concern about ICSU's lack of interest in basic science was discussed again. The group agreed to try to give some publicity to the paper on basic science prepared by Kalmus.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 pm.