2nd Annual General Meeting, 10 December 1996
Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics
6.00 PM, CRES Australian National University Canberra
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from Tony Norton. Thirteen financial members were present.
2. Minutes of the Inaugural Meeting of ANZSEE and Matters Arising
The motion to accept the minutes of the Inaugural meeting was moved and seconded by Terry A’Hearn and Rod Gill respectively; the motion was carried.
a) Status of ANZSEE Constitution
Mick Common noted that the ANZSEE Constitution has been finalised and ANZSEE has been registered as an Incorporated Association in ACT.
3. President’s Report
ANZSEE president, Mike Young tabled his report for the 1996, noting that although ANZSEE has been viewed with suspicion, ANZSEE nodes in Armidale, Melbourne and Canberra has grown in strength. A need to establish ANZSEE nodes in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane was also emphasised. Mike Young, in his discussion with key ANZSEE members in NZ, had also raised the issue of forming a NZ branch for the organisation and establishing a node. However, it was concluded that given the geographic distribution of the small number of NZ members, setting up a node was not practical since at no one location is there a collection of at least 5-6 members. In an effort to attract more members and disseminate information about the society’s activities, the President raised the idea of establishing some form of electronic communication (see item 6.)
Reporting on his trip to the biennial ISEE meeting in Boston”, the President reported that agreement has been reached with the Executive of ISEE to hold the year 2000 ISEE conference in Canberra about the last week of July. The theme of the ISEE 2000 will be “Shaping the Next Millennium‘. The title was chosen intentionally to give prominence to the results of CSIRO‘s Resources Future initiatives.
The President also suggested that the 1997 ANZSEE conference be held in Melbourne. (see item 6).
4. Audited Treasurer’s Report
Mick Common presented attached audited Financial Statement for the year ending 30 June 1996, showing a total income of $68 389.84, expenditure of $58 341.88 and a net balance of $10048.16. The auditor’s report had highlighted the need to establish an effective control of transactions, including of issue of receipts.
David Stern moved the motion to approve and adopt the Audited Financial Report, seconded by Konraed Van Landeghem, and passed nem com.
5. Election of Officers and Committee
The secretary reported that the following nominations were received:
| President: |
Mike Young
|
|---|---|
| Vice-President: |
Rod Gill
|
| Vice-President (Conference): |
Terry A’Hearn
|
| Secretary: |
Padma Lal
|
| Treasurer: |
Mick Common
|
There being only one nomination for each post, the above were declared elected. Two nominations were received for Ordinary Committee membership: Colin Hunt and Steve Dodds, who were declared elected. One nomination was received for John Wolfenden as Post Graduate Coordinator and was approved. Kali Sanyal was nominated and appointed to the position of the Executive Officer.
6. Policy and Future Activities
(I) 1997 ANZSEE Conference
Motion to hold the 1997 ANZSEE conference in Melbourne was put forward by John Wolfenden and seconded by Chris Nobbs; the motion was carried. It was also agreed that Terry A’Hearn of the Melbourne Branch be given the responsibility of formally establishing a steering committee for the purpose of organising the conference. The Executive of ANZSEE was to formally set up a mechanism for the Melbourne Branch to establish the committee and organising the conference, including setting up a bank account and deciding on a specific theme focussing on an industry issue, possibly focussing on the sale of part of Telstra.
(ii) ISEE 2000 Conference
The decision to hold the ISEE 2000 Conference in Canberra about the last week of July was agreed to by the ISEE Executive during the President’s visit to Boston in August 1996.
The meeting agreed that by the 1997 AGM ANZSEE must finalise details about the conference.
(iii) Sponsorship and Committee for Thesis prize
After much discussion on the issue of ANZSEE awarding a thesis prize in ecological economics, the AGM agreed to award a biennial prize for best student paper arising out of a PhD thesis submitted in the period from 3 months prior to the last ANZSEE conference and 3 months prior to next the scheduled ANZSEE conference. ANZSEE will advertise the prize and the student paper can only be submitted with the endorsement of his/her supervisor. Submitted papers will be judged by a 2-3 member selection committee after receiving referees comments from selected ANZSEE member (s).
(iv) ANZSEE Website
In recognition of the slow decline in ANZSEE membership, the AGM agreed to use the electronic medium to advertise the activities of the society. After much discussion about the types of electronic setups which the Society could have, it was agreed that as a start, the society should post an ANZSEE Homepage and for Rod Gill, David Stern and John Wolfenden to develop such a Website.
7. Any Other Business
Three matters were raised under this agenda item:
(i). Papers arising form the 1995 Coffs Harbour Conference
Mick Common reported that 17 papers were refereed and letters have been sent out to the authors informing them of the decision to either accept, reject or accept with modifications. The plan is for accepted papers to appear in a special issue of Ecological Economics in 1997.
(ii). CRC for the Sustainable Development of Tropical Savannas
Ross Hynes of the CRC for the Sustainable Development of Tropical Savannas briefly explained the activities of the CRC for the Sustainable Development of Tropical Savannas and indicated that they now are faced with second order management issues which require integrated multidisciplinary (transdisciplinary) research initiatives. Ross Hynes hoped that ecological economics could play an important role in such initiatives and ANZSEE could be the avenue for them to use to develop such ideas further.
