Council co-chairs: Tosca Ballerini - USA/Italy and Penelope Wagner-USA;
Council members: Alexandre Bevington - Canada, Punyasloke Bhadury - India, Erli Costa - Brazil, Eleanor Darlington - United Kingdom, Pedro Echeveste - Spain, Nadezhda Filimonova - Russia / Sweden, Jenny Fisher - United States, Gerlis Fugmann - Germany / Canada, Jolie Gareis - Canada, Meagan Grabowski - Canada, Rebeca Zapata Guardiola - Spain, Tiphaine Jeanniard-du-Dot - Canada / France, Silje-Kristin Jensen - UK / Norway, Antony Jinman - United Kingdom, Daleen Koch - South Africa, Lisa-Marie Leclerc - Norway / Canada, Maja Lisowska - Poland, Sílvia Lourenço - Portugal, Candice Lys - Canada, Heather Maraish - Finland / Canada, Sanna Markkula - Finland / Norway, Oliver Marsh - New Zealand / UK, Claudia Maturana - Chile, Inga May - Germany / Canada, Benjamin Merkel - Norway / Germany, Pablo Nicolás Núñez Pölcher - Argentina, Ana Salomé - Portugal, Julia Schmale - Germany, Nikolas Sellheim - Finland / Germany, Philipp Semenchuck - Norway / Germany, Paloma Serrano - Germany / Spain, Rosa Rut Thorisdottir - France / Iceland, Tristy Vick-Majors - United States, Mariette Wheeler - South Africa, Christie Wood - United States
Organization
- Council calls, RAC calls, MIC calls
- Ingress of 2 new council members
- Skype call with Spanish / Portuguese speaking APECS members
- Soliciting contributions from the atmospheric sciences to Antarctica month;
- Posting jobs from various listservers, posting news
- Posting news articles to the APECS Polar News site;
- Update website with info to the confereces where
- organizing IPY Montreal workshop
- updated the Travel Award website
- working on moving our APECS files from Dropbox to google docs
- working Barents 2020 application and sent it to Jenny
- working on Fram Report
- drafted a timeline for the Hiring process of the new director; updated the job description
- FrostBytes stuff ... Jenny and I had a call for volunteers and now seem to have a good group added various stuff to the publication database (still need to update a few things in there)
- finalizing the draft for the workshop paper (with Inga)
- Updating the "Who's Who in Polar Science" online database as required.
- APECS funding workshop being held as part of the Arctic Frontiers Conferene in Tromsø January 2012.
- Updated APECS internal mailing lists
- Training GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting web-conferencing systems
- Working on Barents 2020 application
- Drafting Strategic Plan
- Negotiations with Northern (Arctic) Federal University about joint summer field school around Russian Polar and Subpolar unique territories (budget, programme, potential partners)
- Standing in the Programme Committee (represent APECS there) of the conference for young scientists that will be held in Russia, Arkhangelsk, June. Collaborative work with Arkhangelsk Scientific Centre of RAS and NarFU
- Negotiations with EGEA as potential partner to organize joint event (e-lecture/webinar)
- Drafted several APECS contributions to different partners' newsletters
MIC activities
- Setting up of the Facebook and Twitter account for APECS-India National Committee. The response has been good. APECS-India related activities are being posted through Facebook. Initiated discussion to hold the APECS-India Workshop in 2012.
- creating APECS-Spain in an officially sense, with full legal background here in Spain, to try in the future to get funds and all those stuffs to organize events, seminars, etc.
- Working on a new picture for the chain letter member reactions
- Sending the Welcome letter and membership card to 24 new members each week
- Working on a strategie to recrute member to give the presentation to their university to bost up the number of bachelor student (email by country/universities.... working on a list???? )
- developing of outlines for APECS Sweden members enlargement. I met with a representative of APECS Sweden and we arranged to organize a seminar in Sweden in the year 2012 to attract new members and to share idea and experience on the Arctic and Antarctic research in various fields.
- -organize a meeting/brainstorm of local ideas of current/potential APECS members in Whitehorse Yukon, Canada
- Working on establishing of an Northeast US regional chapter of APECS regional group.
- Working with proposers of APECS Canada chapter
- APECS Portugal, informing both groups about the upcoming activities. We have been carrying out a process of attract new members and presently counting 13 members. We are now starting to organize the APECS PT annual workshop.
- developing a APECS Finland national commitee
- Updating APECS Poland website
- Correspondence with APECS members in South America on potential VPS or webinars held in Spanish/Portuguese
RAC activities
- Updated the RAC webpage to present all new members
- APECS Microbial Ecology VPS held on 29th November, 2011.
- DOMs: October – Permafrost (helped initially to set up the VPS), November – Microbial Ecology (minimal input from my side), December – Antarctica (see following point), January – Limnology (motivated people to start organizing). The plan for February is to do a Contaminants session and in March to have an interdisciplinary DOM on the Siberian Arctic.
- December Antarctica Day webinar: initiation and organization by APECS council member together with Jenny B., chairing of the session, during the webinar 64 people participated altogether; participation in the webinar as one of the speakers of one APECS council member; correspondence to Julie Berkman from Our Spaces to make a worldwide Antarctica Day resume
- Planning and co-organization of the January Discipline of the Month on Limnology, We will also co-ordinate a Limnology Virtual Poster Session, to take place during the last week of January.
- working group to redefine the structure of the APECS research fields and sub-fields;
Participation to past conferences and organization of APECS events / workshops
- Assisted in arranging the virtual workshop on Climate Justice in preparation for COP17 with York University on 26 October 2011.
- Attended COP17 in Durban, South Africa, as APECS representative.
- APECS Representation and Presentation at 2nd UArctic Student Forum, Inari, Finland and Kautokeino, Norway, March 19-25, 2011;
- APECS Representation and Presentation at ARKTIS Graduate School Annual Seminar, Rovaniemi, Finland, April 4 and 5, 2011
- Informal APECS representation at UArctic 14th Council Meeting and 10th Anniversary, Tornio and Rovaniemi, Finland, June 6-11, 2011(I tried to do it officially, but official APECS representation by myself was declined)
- APECS workshop at the AWI
- Organized and moderated the APECS Mentor Panel Discussion: Careers in polar extremophiles- research and opportunities at the CAREX Life in Extreme Environments Conference held in Dublin from 18th-20th October, 2011.
- Preparing APECS activity at AGU San Francisco 2011
Planning of APECS events/ workshops at meetings and conferences in 2012 and contributions with poster / presentations related to APECS activities
- Many APECS council members are involved as co-conveners in sessions of the Montreal IPY 2012 and participated to the review process of submitted abstracts
- Arctic Frontiers 2012 (poster)
- APECS Tromso Funding Seminar (presentation)
- International Symposium on Seasonal Snow and Ice (Lahti, Finland, May 28 – June 1, 2012) (APECS Panel)
- APECS Representation and Presentation at Jokkmokk Winterconference, Jokkmokk, Sweden, January 31 – February 3; (included an unofficial and informal 'presentation' of APECS to the Swedish Crown Princess)
- potentially set-up an APECS panel during the SETAC meeting in May in Berlin.
- Participated in two conference calls on the ASSW 2013 Symposium in Poland as APECS representative. For each session there will be one ECR selected by APECS. The set-up of a webpage is under way.
- The Arctic Council: Its Place in the Future of Arctic Governance, Toronto, Canada, January 17 and 18, 2012
- Jokkmokk Winterconference, Jokkmokk, Sweden, January 30 – February 3, 2012, (APECS presentation)
- 6th Pan-European Conference European Consortium for Political Research, Tampere, Finland, September 13-15, 2012 (possible APECS representation)
- Oceans of Changes, 24-27 April 2012, Majorca Island (Spain) (APECS event)
- In March 2012 a Polar Secretariat will hold a workshop with the participation of APECS Sweden members
- Submitted 1 poster about APECS at the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2012
- APECS Panel "International Collaborations in "Cool" Sciences"
- in physics conference
- NZ annual branch meeting of the International Glaciological Society, February 2012
- Ocean Sciences Meeting, Salt Lake City 2012,
- IPY Montreal 2012,
- SCAR Portland 2012,
- IASC Glaciology Workshop in January
IGS Symposium, June 2012, Fairbanks, Alaska
- AGU Fall Meeting 2012, San Francisco – parterning with Cryosphere division to have a mentor panel, publicize opportunities to be more involved & get funding, and we can recruit a whole bunch of new members
Chair: Penelope Wagner
Attendees: Mariette Wheeler, Nikolas Sellheim, Jenny Baeseman, Yulia Zaika, Rosa Thorisdottir, Silje-Kristin Jensen, Maja Lisowska, Silvia Lourenco, Alexey Pavlov, Ana David, Benjamin Beall, Benjamin Merkel, Christie Wood, Heather Mariash, Jenny Fisher, Julia Schmale, Lisa Leclerc, Gerlis Fugmann, Tosca Ballerini
Note taker: Nikolas Sellheim
Agenda:(br />1. Introduction
2. APECS newsletter survey - Ben
3. APECS Director transition - Yulia
4. Google Docs information - Penny
5. Upcoming events, plans, responsibilities
6. Other
Introduction: Penny Wagner
Welcomes the Council to its first call in 2012. There are many changes going to take place this year and she therefore reminds the Council of its duties as set out in the APECS Council Charter. She encourages the Council to subscribe to mailing lists, so that active participation in the website in terms of news, jobs, etc. is ensured. Updates the Council on new council members (Emily Choy) and those who have stepped down (Laura Weir). Reminds the Council of the Council report. Nikolas S. to draft a template for term report in February together with Penny and Tosca.
Newsletter survey: Ben Beall
Presents the results of the survey regarding the newsletter. 80% of the respondents read the last issue while only 50% have read the last 10 issues. This increase may be related to the change in the format, which was changed and streamlined so that it becomes more attractive. The APECS news section is the most popular, followed by partner news and jobs. The virtual poster session is the least popular section. All in all, the goals are met, while the general layout and design are popular. Yet, 'survey people' suggest and increase in the readability of the newsletter. White space should be increased while text should be reduced. There are two suggestions for the news section: A section for National Committees updates and polar resources. Despite the theoretical interest in the Virtual Poster Sessions, it is unpopular. The VPS format should be changed and the visibility should be increased.
APECS Director transition: Jenny Baeseman, Yulia Zaika
Jenny B. has resigned from her Director's position and is now phasing out her duties. Angelika Renner and Jenny B. have turned in the job description to the human resources department of the University of Tromsø and the job will hopefully be announced next week. Jenny B. encourages all Council members who are interested to apply: "the more applications the better." The job will be announced until the end of February (IS THIS CORRECT?). The initial appointment will be for 9 months as a testing period, after that the contract can be renewed for 3 more years. Until a new Director is found, Jenny B.'s current tasks will be delegated to ExCom and Council.
President Yulia Zaika thanks Council for enthusiasm and hard work and Jenny B. for a great job as a founder and Director of APECS. Yulia hopes that Jenny stays with APECS as an advisor. But now, the Council needs to be very active and needs to take over more responsibilities and the leadership needs to step up more. It is also a great opportunity for those interested to gain experience in running an international organization.
Google Docs Information: Penny Wagner
Penny wonders whether the amount of APECS emails may be too high and therefore in which way future communication between the Membership and Involvement Committee (MIC) and the Research Activities Committee (RAC) should take place. The Council does not see the number of APECS-emails as too high and that Google Docs can serve as a good tool to share documents and information.
Upcoming Events: Penny Wagner
Asks the Council members to enter their information concerning upcoming activities into the provided form.
Others
Silvia Lourenco is involved in organizing an APECS workshop in Lisbon in May, possible topics Education and Outreach and /or funding resources.
Julia Schmale encourages having a test call with GoToWebinar before the next Virtual Poster Session. Several people are interested in joining this call.