G-NEST - the Global Network for Environmental Science & Technology
Minutes of the First Advisory Council Meeting
Held at Doryssa Bay Conference Centre, Samos, Greece, 1 September 1999
Present:
* = alternating ACM members
1 Welcome and Objectives for the Meeting
Professor Lekkas welcomed everyone to the meeting, which had been called to establish the first Advisory Council of G-NEST, to elect a new Executive Committee, to receive views about future G-NEST Activities, and to consider the need for subscriptions and their possible level.
Professor Lekkas and Mr Venables gave a brief introduction to G-NEST and the long-term vision for the network, and answered a few queries about operational details.
2 Nominations for the Advisory Council
It was noted that, when G-NEST is fully established, Advisory Council members will be elected by G-NEST members in each country. In the interim, as provided by the Constitution and Rules of G-NEST, Advisory Council Members can be nominated. The meeting accepted those listed above with the indication of ACM, as the first members of the G-NEST Advisory Council. (list in alphabetical order of country is given at the end of these minutes.)
It was also agreed that the Executive Committee would, as it sees fit, appoint further Advisory Council Members from countries with G-NEST members that were not represented at this meeting.
3 Election of the Executive Committee
The following were elected as the new Executive Committee of G-NEST:
Professor Themistocles Lekkas (Chairman)
Associate Professor Dionysis Assimacopoulos (Vice-Chairman)
Mr Roger Venables (Vice-Chairman)
Professor Evangelos Petropoulos (Secretary)
Dr Marcus Hoefken (Treasurer)
4 Discussion of future activities of G-NEST
After a wide discussion on possible future G-NEST activities - events, publications, web-site developments - it was agreed that the ideas suggested would be considered by the Executive Committee and circulated by e-mail to the Advisory Council for comments and for proposals for who would take each item forward.
5 Subscriptions
It was decided that a membership subscription should be charged from 1 January 2000. The level for ordinary individual members would be £20, $32, GDr 10,000 and a suitable conversion to Euros. This would provide access to the Journal electronically. It was agreed that the Executive Committee would decide the rates for
• supply of paper copies of the Journal
• Corporate Member Subscriptions (though the Advisory Council did suggest that they should be higher than indicated in the first issue of the Journal)
• the reduced rate to be charged to students.
The aim of the Executive Committee was to provide facilities for payment of subscriptions by mail-order credit card and over the Internet.
6 Date and Venue of next meeting
To be arranged.
If no physical meeting is possible during the year 2000, it will be conducted by a series of ‘round robin’ e-mails, as provided for in the Constitution and Rules.
rkv/tl
4 September 1999