*** DRAFT ***
Minutes of the 66th meeting of the Canadian National Committee of URSI
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The meeting started at 9h am on 1 April 2007 in the Council's Chamber (room
1147) at the National Research Council Canada, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ont.
Members present:
+Antar, Yahia (RMC/Kingston, Chair)
+Caloz, Christophe (Polytechnique/Montreal, Comm. D)
+Despins, Charles PromptQuebec/Montreal, Comm. C)
+Freundorfer, Al (Queen'sU/Kingston, Comm. A)
+Gray, Andrew (NRC-HIA/Penticton, Comm. J)
+Koustov, Alexandre (U.Sask/Saskatoon, Comm. G+H)
+LoVetri, Joe (U.Man/Winnipeg, Comm. E)
+Petosa, Aldo (CRC/Ottawa, Comm. B)
+Prato, Frank (UWO/London, Comm. K)
+Staples, Gordon (MDA/Richmond, Comm. F)
+Vallee, Jacques P. (NRC-HIA/Victoria, Secretary & member)
Absent member/guest:
-Delisle, Gilles (INT/Montreal, past-Chair)
-Pinard, Denis (CNRC/Ottawa, guest)
Agreed agenda:
--------------
Start-up:
01. Welcome and Introductory remarks (Antar)
02. Approval of the Agenda (Antar)
Secretariat:
03. Approval of the Minutes of the 65th Meeting (Vallee)
NB: minutes are on the CNC web site www.ursi.ca/2006min.html
04. Business arising from the Minutes (Antar)
05. Acting treasurer's report (Vallee)
a. NRC HIA [Fahlman] fund for CNC's annual mtg [$9,148 cdn]
b. NRC CNC [Vallee] trust fund for seed/promotion [$40,469 cdn]
c. NRC CS [Pinard] fund for the HQ in Belgium [$12,104 cdn]
d. Other NRC contributions [HIA Secr.; CorpServ URSI-GA deleg.]
06. Canadian URSI Membership lists, by Commissions (Vallee)
General reports:
07. Chair's report (Antar)
08. Short 5min reports (one from each CNC commission rep.)
Future radio conferences (Antar):
09. Ottawa 2007 July22-24 URSI-Joint NARS/US-NC mtg
10. Montreal 2007 July ISSS07 - Comm C and D
11. Toronto 2010 NARS/IEEE-APS/URSI US-NC/URSI CNC internat. symp.
Promotion:
12. Candidatures for URSI Medals & URSI positions (Antar)
13. CNC student awards (Antar)
14. New CNC appointments or reappointments (Antar)
15. Solliciting new ideas on: (Antar)
-how to promote Radio Science in Canada
-how to publicize our activities within the community
Wrap-up:
16 Other businesses (Antar)
17. Tentative date & place for next URSI CNC meeting (Vallee)
01. Welcome & Introductory remarks
======================================
Dr. Yahia Antar, CNC Chair, welcomed all CNC participants to the NRC campus.
Dr. Antar thanked Dr. J. Vallee for the logistical details of this meeting.
02. Approval of the Agenda
==============================
The Chair asked for any change to the agenda (as sent). No change.
Dr. Prato & Dr. LoVetri moved for the approval of the agenda. Unanimous.
03. Approval of the Minutes of the 65th Meeting
===================================================
The Minutes were available on the Canadian URSI web site at
www.ursi.ca/2006min.html
The Chair asked for any change to the Minutes. No change.
Dr. Prato & Dr. LoVetri moved that the Minutes be approved. Unanimous.
04. Business arising from the Minutes
=======================================
See below.
05. Acting Treasurer's report
=================================
a. NRC HIA fund [Fahlman] for travels to CNC's annual mtg:
NRC-HIA in Victoria paid all the travels of the CNC members attending
the CNC annual meeting in 2006 April 30, held in Victoria BC,
amounting to a total of $9148.
NRC Travel Expense Claim Forms for this year's meeting were handed out.
b. NRC CNC trust fund [Vallee] for seed/reserve/decision/awards:
NRC-CNC trust fund in Victoria stood at $40,479 on 2007 April 1.
J. Vallee explained the entries and exits in the last few months
[2 student awards; 1 conference reservation; 1 travel to decision meeting].
c. NRC CorpServ [Jorjani] fund for the URSI HQ in Belgium
NRC-CorpServ in Ottawa has paid 7712 Euros [about $12,000] to URSI
Headquarters in Belgium for the annual canadian contribution
[representing 8 URSI votes at the GA]
d. Sum and other NRC contributions
-The sum for the items (a,b,c) is $61,627 for URSI matters [as of 1 April].
-In addition, NRC-HIA in Victoria pays for the staff involved in
CNC activities, annual meeting, maintaining trust fund & web site, etc.
-NRC-CorpServ in Ottawa contributes towards the travel of 1 voting
delegate at the URSI GA [excluding federal government members].
06. Canadian URSI Membership lists, by Commissions
======================================================
Canadian membership is open to anyone interested, who is active, and who
publishes (no election). Each CNC member updates his Cdn commission's list.
J. Vallee has queried each CNC member about updating their commission list
[current lists were sent to all CNC members on 2007 Feb.9].
Since Jan.2007, updated Cdn lists were received for Commissions A,B,C,F,J.
07. Chair's report
======================
Dr. Antar reported on happenings at the international level,a nd his
involvement in setting up future conference meetings in Canada.
Dr. Antar submitted to NSERC a proposal requesting up to $40 000 for student
travels to Ottawa for the 2007 July NARS meeting of URSI (CNC and USNC).
In addition, the CNC members agreed to give some student travel money
from the CNC trust fund (up to $20 000) for this 2007 July NARS conference.
Exact details will follow the announcement of the amount of the NSERC award.
The profit sharing of the surplus money between Canada and a co-sponsor
for an international conference involving CNC follows the formula:
-25% of surplus to Canada
-25% of surplus to co-sponsor [such as IEEE or USNC]
-50% of surplus divided as based on the number of registrants [Cdn vs US].
Dr. Prato noted that URSI CNC is seen as doing very well by CISET, when
compared with the other 30 CNCs under the CISET umbrella. Dr. Prato's
presentation to CISET is on the URSI CNC web at www.ursi.ca/Prato2005.ppt
08. Short 5min reports (one from each CNC commission representative)
======================================================================
Each CNC member spoke about on-going activities & developments in their
field. Some concerns expressed were outside the purview of the CNC mandate.
Each commission representative should try to disseminate, to the Cdn
members of their own commission, the information about URSI & meetings.
Following Dr. Despins' presentation on Commission C, it was
proposed by Despins and seconded by Antar that the URSI CNC supports a
IEEE-International Conference on Communications [ICC] for
Spring 2011 or Spring 2013 in Canada.
09. Ottawa 2007 July URSI-Joint NARS/USNC mtg
===============================================================
Dr. Antar reported on the preparations. He indicated a need
for 400 registrants to break even. Any profit would be shared
as mentioned earlier (see item 7 above).
10. Montreal 2007 July ISSS07 - Comm C and D
===============================================================
Dr. Caloz indicated the progress on the preparations for International
Symposium on Signals, Systems & Electronics (www.issse2007.polymtl.ca/)
A student award was agreed by the CNC (see item 13 below).
11. Toronto 2010 NARS/IEEE-APS/URSI US-NC/URSI CNC internat. symp.
===============================================================
Dr. Antar reported on the ongoing negotiations. Any profit would be shared
as mentioned earlier (see item 7 above).
Charles Despins will report back next year on the
IEEE-International Conference on Communications [ICC]
slated for Spring 2011 or Spring 2013 in Canada.
12. Candidatures for URSI Medals & URSI positions
===============================================================
Medals: deadline for submission of candidatures is 15 August 2007 - see
http://www.ursi.org/Chicago08/Awards08/Awards08index.htm
For recent winners, see cover of 2005 June Radio Science Bulletin.
CNC members will send suggestions via emails to Antar, who will
coordinate the submissions to URSI.
Positions: various names were discussed for vice-presidents of
international URSI commissions.
CNC members will send suggestions via emails to Antar, who will
coordinate the submissions to URSI.
13. CNC student awards
===============================================================
In 2003 April, the CNC agreed that such student awards should be for:
-work done in Canada
-conference held in Canada
-student must be at a Canadian university
A $500 URSI CNC award was proposed by Caloz, seconded by Despins,
for the best Cdn-based student paper at the ISSSE 2007 July
conference in Montreal. Agreed.
A $500 URSI CNC award was proposed by Staples, seconded by Freundorfer,
for the best Cdn-based student paper at the Cdn Remote Sensing 2007 Oct30
conference in Ottawa. Agreed.
14. New CNC appointments or reappointments
===============================================================
Comm K: it was proposed by Antar, seconded by Koustov, to ask HIA
to extend Dr. Prato's term to 31 December 2008.
CNC Chair: it was proposed by Prato, seconded by Staples, to ask HIA
to extend Dr. Antar's term to 31 December 2008.
Candidatures for CNC Chair will be discussed at the next CNC mtg.
15. Solliciting new ideas on:
-how to promote Radio Science in Canada
-how to publicize our activities within the community
=============================================================
There were considerable discussions, relating to the promotion of
Radio Science in Canada, and how to publicize our activities within our
community.
Should we have an e-mailable Newsletter, with items written by each CNC
commission Chair on a rotating basis ? It was pointed out that this facility
exists already since 2003 (item 16 in 2003 Minutes) and is maintained by
Shantnu Mishra in Ottawa, but that no CNC member ever submitted to him an
article for emailing (item 21 in 2005 Minutes; item 14 in 2006 Minutes).
Mishra's long email list is drawn from the individual commission lists,
as maintained each year by each CNC commission Chair.
Since Jan.2007, updated Cdn lists were received for Commissions A,B,C,F,J.
Should we pay $5000 for a professional CNC web site, and further
periodic payments to upgrade it regularly with news items for each
commission ? LoVetri suggested a dynamic URSI CNC web page, encompassing
all the basic information already found at www.ursi.ca as created and
maintained there since 1999 by Vallee. Each commission Chair would have
direct access to his/her commission web page, and would maintain it.
LoVetri suggested setting up one URSI CNC student paper award for each
of the 10 URSI CNC commissions, and he will report back on the terms of
reference. In practice, each CNC commission Chair will select
one Canadian paper from all refereed papers published in a calendar year
with a student as first author. An amount of $250 each was mentioned,
for a yearly total of $2500.
It was suggested to promote ANTEM as a benefit to Canadian Radio Science.
16. Other businesses
==============================
Awards: names were discussed for the Young Scientist Awards (less than
35 years of age) for the 2008 Chicago URSI GA.
CNC members will send suggestions via emails to Antar, who will
coordinate the submissions to URSI.
17. Tentative Date and Place for the next URSI CNC meeting (Vallee)
=======================================================================
There was a suggested or pencilled-in date for Montreal in the first
half of May 2008, hosted by Charles Despins.
Y.Antar thanked all members present for their work on the CNC.
Antar thanked Vallee for his hard work and reminders of impending deadlines.
J. Vallee thanked all members on behalf of NRC-HIA for helping Radio
Science in Canada, and encouraged them to fill the NRC Travel Claim Forms
and to send them to him at NRC-HIA in Victoria.
The CNC meeting ended at 16h.
PS: Minutes written by J.P. Vallee.