Minutes of ESCS Board Meeting

2nd July 2003
Bella Center, Copenhagen

 

Present:
Rob Liskamp (RL), Oliver Kappe (OK), Jorg Rademann (JR; Substitute for Gunther Jung), Thomas Høeg-Jensen (THJ; Replacement for Kim Andersen), Ferenc Darvas (FD), Mark Bradley (MB), Gyorgy Dorman (GD), Anna-Maria Papini (AP), Fernando Albericio (FA), Takashi Takahashi (TT; Guest from JCCF), Lieven Meerpol (LM), Hubert Gstach (HG), Morten Meldal (MM), Jean-Alain Ferentz (JF; Substitute for Jean Martinez), Chaim Gilom (CG), Gary Gellerman (GG), Andreas Marzinik (AM), Lars Baltzar (LM), finland guy (XX) and Phaedria M. St.Hilaire (PMS; recorder for meeting).

MM read minutes of last minutes which were approved without change. ESCS statutes have been changed to allow for the existence of Subcommittees.

The Subcommittees are the working arms of the ESCS society and the head of each committee should submit a Report every six months to the Chairman (MM) pointing out the progress made in that period. This report is based on a brief plan of activity for the next 2 years (including milestones) submitted to the Chairman by xxxx.

Current Board Membership

• The "Miss-two-consecutive-meetings-you-are-out-rule" was applied.
• Mike Davies should be replaced. Action: MB recruit a replacement
• New board members are CG and GG representing Israel.
• What about outside Europe members? E.g. Japanese (TT) and American?
  They are welcome as observer members.
• Furka elected as Honorary President of ESCS at last meeting 2001. Should there be procedures, benefits etc for honorary presidents? No decision was made

Review of ESCS Sub-Committees

Membership committee

• Van der Eycken is inactive and should be replaced.
  Action: LM find a replacement
• Membership fee set at 100 Euro/year. Get Combinatorial Science free for first 2 years and discount on registration @ EUROCOMBI-x meetings.
• Membership fees start as soon as the journal policy is in place with Wiley ca Aug 2003? Action: FD will institute a payment system for membership fee with help from LM.

Financial Committee

• No changes. Accounting and auditing in Denmark by Carlsberg.
• Two account structure: A closed account requiring 2 out of 3 board members to release accounts: FD, HG and MM. And an open accounts for running expenses.
• Possibility to keep current open account in Denmark suitable for on-line payment @ 800 DKK/mo for open account. No decision was made

Harmonisation and Standardisation Committee

• Robert Ferenzie in charge and FD is contact person. RF has started standardisation procedures. Action: FD send draft to board members.

Public Relations Committee:

• Should send electronic newsletter to all ESCS members and affiliates 4x/year.
• Members to send info to MB.
• ESCS should collaborate with Michael Lebel and his home page for exchange of info and for listing publications especially for European members. Make Chezs active members.
• Action: MB make sure the current ESCS home page is open and contact Michael Lebel for co-ordination of home pages.
• Use ESCS homepage for dissemination of information.
• Actions: Board members send their pictures to MB for home page. Small files!

Publication and Journal Committee

• First issue of QSAR/Combinatorial Science out in Jan 2003. But until now no Comby Sci. papers.
• Journal comes out 10X/year.
• Wiley promised on-line submissions. Action: Editor work with Wiley to Ensure that happens soon.
• Action: ESCS board members in particular should support the Journal by submitting good papers. Publicise the journal at every opportunity.
• ESCS office (Carlsberg) gets 40 copies of each issue for publicity.
• ESCS board and member get free issue of journal. Will Wiley mail directly or will ESCS office mail to members? Action: MM and Editor finalise issue with Wiley soon.

Scientific Committee

• Too focused on organic chemistry should include biology and other fields.
• Action: Committee members should actively recruit members in biology and other fields

Funding and European Contact Committee

• RL no longer in charge of COST.
• COST had no money to sponsor EUROCOMBI-2.

Training Committee

• Suitably active.
• Successful training course in Florence, April 2003. 29 participants. 7 countries. No time for full report from GD.
• Successful tutorial in connection with EUROCOMBI-2.
• Another training course planned for April 2004.

Other Issues

EUROCOMBI Meetings

• EUROCOMBI-3 in 2005 in Southampton (MB) and EUROCOMBI-4 in 2007 in Italy (AP)
• The organisers of these meetings should immediately put in place the Committee and selection process for ESCS award.
• If the meeting is organised by an ESCS member then the member (Org. committee) gets rewarded with 30 % of profits. (This is not possible for ESCS members in Industry)
• If the meeting is organised by a company that specialises in arranging meetings then the company gets 15% (on top of their fee? What about the chairman of the org com?)
• A Loss incurred from a meeting (after ESCS contributes funds) is responsibility of the organiser.
• Registration fees for EUROCOMBI meetings should not be higher than at EUROCOMBI-2. Focus is to attract young people and as many participants as possible.
• Travel grants for the support of young people should be offered.

Local Scientific Meetings

• ESCS will support local meetings e.g. training. Organisers should send ESCS (Treasurer, Chairman and Secretary) a budget of meeting then ESCS determines how much it can support the meeting.
• ESCS in return gets a share of the profits based on risk.
• ESCS also helps with scientific program and attracting scientific speakers

Subcommittee meetings

• ESCS will consider paying travel costs of academic members for subcommittee meetings. A budget should first be send to ESCS for approval.
• Other methods of communication between subcommittee members should be first exploited. E.g. conference calls and emails.

Miscellaneous

• Check copyright issues when posting things on the internet. The Society will NOT be responsible for and infringements.
• ESCS board elections are due next time i.e. 2005.
• The five-ball logo used in connection with EUROCOMBI-2 in now the official ESCS logo.
• Action: Board members should send current email address to the secretary and Chairman: Fd and mpm@crc.dk.
• Takahashi, the representative of the Japanese combinatorial Society (JCCF) gave a brief overview of their society.
• There should be more co-operation between JCCF and ESCS.
• ECSC members are urged to attend the JCCF meetings in Japan but in return, the JCF has to increase the percentage of lectures given in English.
• Japanese attend EUROCOMBI meetings in Europe.
• Action: ESCS (MB) should announce the JCCF meetings on the ESCS home page. Contact person is TT.