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5th Annual General Meeting, 6 July 1999

Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics


4.30 PM, Griffith University, Brisbane


The meeting opened at 4.30 pm with Mike Young, ANZSEE President, in the chair.

 

1. Apologies

Apologies were received from Rod Gill.

 

2. Minutes of the 1998 AGM

Kali Sanyal, the Executive officer, presented the minutes of the 1998 AGM, and was passed unanimously without amendments.

 

3. Matters Arising

President reported on recent developments in the USA to establish a US Chapter of ISEE. Lal reported on the contacts made with the Indian Chapter of the Society and the Thai Society of Environmental Economists and the Environmental Economics Program for South East Asian.

 

4. President’s Report

The President tabled his presidential report after highlighting the following key points.

Hard work of ANZSEE recognised

Young thanked members of the ANZSEE for the support and hard work, particularly, John Tisdell for organising the 3rd ANZSEE conference this year; David Stern for taking the lead role in organising ISEE 2000 and Kali Sanyal for his continued support as the Executive Officer.

ISEE

ISEE HQ has moved out of Bob Costanza’ office into an independent place. With all the other changes occurring, it appears that the future of ISEE may rest on the outcomes of ISEE 2000 conference.

ISEE 2000

The organisation of the ISEE 2000 is on schedule with the second announcement expected to be made later in July. Australian Organising Committee is taking the day-to-day decisions about the conference with an International Advisory Committee providing advice. A Steering Committee overseas the program.

Branch activities and ANZSEE 2001 Conference

Active Branches include Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Armidale. Sydney members are active but Mark Diesendorf is still pursuing the concept of a local branch.

John Tisdell suggested ANZSEE to perhaps consider holding an annual conference.

Matters arising Mark Diesendorf raised the concern that there appears to be less emphasis placed on social issues in the ISEE charter. The President agreed to take this issue up to the drafting team with a suggestion to include `social’ in the purpose statement.

Steve Dodds made the suggestion to ensure that in case the President elect is also the Immediate Past President, then additional members to be nominated to the Board such that size of the Board remains at seven.

 

5. Secretary’s Report

Kali Sanyal presented the secretary’s report. There are 67 active members. Foreign membership, particularly student membership has declined, continuing the recent trend. The membership has been on the decline since 1997. Some believed this was due to the perceived shift in the focus of the society.

Another reason for number to decrease could also be members forgetting to renew their subscription. It was suggested that the Executive should consider introducing multiple year subscription.

 

6. Treasurer’s Report

ANZSEE continues to lose money/ However, the annual deficit has been reduced from $5044 in 1997-98 to $1105 in 1998-99. Expenditure was about twice revenue, largely because of the massive increase in the cost of liability insurance. The 1999 Conference was expected to break even. With ceteris peribus, a surplus is expected in 1999.

ANZEE’s current net assets are $6016 representing a 15% decline on previous year.

ISEE 2000

Treasure believes that ISEE 2000 will help us to generate some funds. When asked for clarification, the treasurer noted that any profit upto $20000 is expected to be shared between ISEE 2000 and ANZEE. Any surplus will be used by ANZEE for establishing a scholarship. ISEE will have a priority call for $15000 and ANZSEE $2000. Below that the liability will be equally divided.

Dodds raised the concern about the apparent lack of transparency in past Conferences profit and loss statements. The meeting agreed that as a matter of principle, ANZSEE should show a clear profit and loss statement for the ISEE 2000.

External Assistance

The meeting agreed that ANZSEE should obtain donor assistance to encourage greater participants from developing countries.

Environment Australia has given a grant of $50K conditional upon holding a roundtable discussion, which Mike Carter of EA is organising.

 

7. Election of Office Bearers

The following office bearers were elected unopposed:

 

President Mike Young
Vice President Rod Gill
Vice President Terry A’Hearn
Vice President John Tisdell
Treasurer David Stern
Secretary Padma Lal
Executive Officer Kali Sanyal
Member John Wolfenden
Member Philip Sutton
Member Leigh West
Member Mark Diesendorf
NZ Contact Chris Livesey

Steve Dodds indicated although he can not serve on the ANZSEE committee, he is willing serve on various subcommittees if required.

 

8. ISEE 2000

Pezzey suggested ANZSEE invite AARES to run a session at the ISEE 2000 conference. Mike Young will approach the AARES president.

ISEE 2000 web page has been set up. On the website, all the abstracts will be placed with link to authors.

Various publishers have been approached for publishing a volume of selected papers. The Treasurer noted that some of the Conference speakers have been chosen to suit Elgar’s interest.

 

9. Policy and Future Direction

a. The meeting agreed to postpone the decision about increasing the frequency of ANZSEE conferences till after the ISEE 2000 conference.

b. Suggestion was made to agree on a format for future conferences, choosing between small low key conference approach that was adopted by the Brisbane conference committee or the large conference format adopted for the Melbourne event. The Meeting decided that the decision regarding the format should be left to the local organising committee in consultation with the Executive.

c. Wolfenden suggested the Society should be less academic and must try and become more practical and adopt a more `hand on’ approach involving resource managers and policy makers. He also suggested that future conferences should take a more workshop type format.

d. Diesendorf made a number of suggestions. He noted:

(i) the Society has been very inward looking
(ii) the ANZSEE should become more proactive
(iii) the ANZSEE should organise small activities in collaboration with other group and hold small events around the country to attract greater publicity.
(iv) the ANZSEE must also try and put together a communications strategy targeting in particular major newspapers such as the Financial Review, the Australian
(v) the Society develops a mentoring program for graduate students.
(vi) Develop a membership directory.
(vii) Establish a system of members depositing their papers, articles etc in one location.

 

10. Other Business

Joint membership of ANZSEE and ISEE

When queried, Mike noted that this was not feasible or desirable because of a. exchange rate risk. He also noted that the issue of associate membership would be reviewed.