Agenda and Minutes

Third Meeting of the Board of the International Association for Urban Climate

Sunday, Aug 31, 2003

Conference Centre, Łόdź University, Łόdź, Poland

Agenda

 

1.         Welcome and agreement on agenda

2.         Items arising from the approved minutes of the 2nd Board meeting

3.         President’s remarks

4.         Secretary’s report

            4.1       Membership characteristics

            4.2       The IAUC website(s) & urban climate list

            4.3       Procedures regarding elections

5.         ICUC-5: Update on the conference

6.         Business arising from last meeting

            6.1       IAUC logo

            6.2       Website issues

7.         New business

            7.1       ICUC-6

                        i.          Presentation by potential candidate sites

ii.                  Discussion and possible selection of candidate sites

7.2             Conduct of first IAUC business meeting

7.3             Future development of IAUC

                        i.          Newsletter

                        ii.         Committees

8.         Treasurer’s report: The SJSU bank account

9.         Other business

Minutes

 

 

The meeting was opened at 11:05 am.

 

Present:          Barlow (late), Bitan (late), Bornstein (late), Eliasson, Fortuniak, Grimmond, Klysik (organizer ICUC-5), Mills (late), Nakamura, Oke (Pres.), Roth and Voogt

Absent:           Arnfield (Sec.), De Dear, Mayer

 

 

1.         Welcome and agreement on agenda

 

Tim Oke opened the meeting by welcoming Janet Barlow, Krzysztof Fortuniak and Gerald Mills to the Board and thanking the outgoing members Ingegaard Eliasson and John Arnfield for their contributions.

 

Tim Oke proposed to move some agenda items because the respective proponents were arriving later in the day.

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to adopt an agenda with a slightly revised sequence.

 

2.         Items arising from the approved minutes of the 2nd Board meeting

 

Tim Oke reported that Richard de Dear has been appointed to the Board and served well by e-mail.

 

Tim Oke reported that the local organizer of ICUC-5 (Klysik) will stay on the Board until the time of ICUC-6 in accordance with Board procedures.

 

Tim Oke reported that his personal vision statement has been posted on the website.

 

Tim Oke thanked the designated Secretary (Matthias Roth) for filling in at short notice and for taking over from John Arnfield.

 

No further issues were arising which are not included on the current agenda.

 

3.         President’s remarks

 

Linkages with climate community

 

Tim Oke reported on his efforts to approach various co-sponsors for ICUC-5:

IFHP (International Federation for Housing and Planning) – have a history of co-sponsoring previous meetings (Dhaka and Sydney) but he received a negative response from the secretary general.

PLEA (Passive and Low Energy Architecture) – no reply.

EMS (European Meteorological Society) – no reply.

 

Tim Oke noted that it is important for our association to become recognized as a useful addition to the world climatological community. Important linkages already exist with ISB, AMS, IUGG and FUMAPEX which in some cases have resulted in reduced conference fees for our members. Oke mentioned that connections to the general fields of urban design and urban planning should be improved. Connections with such applied fields are important for the health of IAUC.

 

Conduct of IAUC

 

Tim Oke asked for feedback regarding the need for IAUC to adopt a constitution.

 

Most agreed that a constitution might be helpful when opening accounts (e.g. by declaring charitable status funds could be held without need to pay taxes); approaching other organizations, etc. but the issue of legal implications was also raised. It was decide to postpone the discussion to later.

 

ICUC-5 related documents on website

 

Tim Oke proposed that IAUC publish ICUC-5 related documentation (e.g. extended abstracts) on the website. Everyone agreed that this is a good idea but concerns were raised regarding logistics and storage space.

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to investigate the possibility of publishing the proceedings of IAUC meetings on the IAUC website.

 

 

4.                  Secretary’s report

 

Tim Oke placed on record his personal thanks to John Arnfield for his many contributions to IAUC as Secretary.

 

The report was written by John Arnfield and read by the new incoming secretary (Matthias Roth).

 

4.1             Membership characteristics

 

John Arnfield reported that as of 15 August 2003, the total membership of the IAUC was 515, of whom 127 (25%) were female and 388 (75%) were male. By continents the membership breaks down as follows: Africa – 3%, Anglo America – 23%, Asia – 19%, Australasia – 5%, Europe & Middle East (includes Russia and Turkey) – 44% and Latin America – 6%. Interests are evenly distributed across the 8 topical areas. Sue Grimmond noted that it is important that the Association grows. One way to do so is to establish a membership committee which would look into membership related issues.

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to establish a membership committee whose chair would report back to the Board.

 

4.2             The IAUC website(s) & urban climate list

 

Discussion of IAUC website was moved to item 6.2.

 

John Arnfield brought to the attention of the Board that two different urban climate mailing lists exist: urbclim (which is independent of IAUC and is not an organ of the association) and the IAUC mailing list. The Board agreed to merge the two lists and notify non-IAUC mailing list members but who are urbclim members, of this change.

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to merge urbclim and IAUC mailing list and to adopt urbclim as the official medium of communication with members.

 

4.3             Procedures regarding elections

 

John Arnfield noted a low voter turn out for the Board election, and suggested this may be a result of timing - elections were held during the northern hemisphere summer vacation period when many are away from access to e-mail. He suggested that elections be held in March or April, instead of August.

 

·      It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to whenever possible to ask for nominations for Board replacements in March and to hold elections in April.

 

The term of membership on the Board of the Past-President and Past-Secretary was discussed, and also the timing of the election of the Secretary.

 

·      It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to have as non-voting members the Past-President and the Past-Secretary for four years, subject to review.

 

·      It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to elect the Secretary at the same time as the President.

 

John Arnfield pointed out that according to current Board procedures a person who is in their fourth year of service as a Board member is due to rotate off. If that person is elected President by the Board, with the term of office due to begin two years in the future, nothing in the procedures as currently written permits that person to remain on the Board for the two years preceding the beginning of the presidency. Arnfield suggested modifying C1 in the Procedures to clarify that, upon election, the President-Elect remains on the Board for two years and then serves for four years, however long he/she has been on the Board at the time of election.

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to add to C1 in the Procedures the words “The President-Elect remains on the Board until his/her term as President begins, however long he/she has been on the Board”.

 

There is an asymmetry in E2 of the Procedures as pointed out by John Arnfield. If a person is nominated by someone else, two e-mails of support are required to complete the nomination process. However, if a person is self-nominated, he/she also needs only two e-mails of support.

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board to change E2 for all nominees to require three independent support e-mails.

 

John Arnfield noted that the Board should try to prevent people from signing up as members after the beginning of the voting period. After a brief discussion the following motion was accepted:

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board that the Secretary draft a statement, to be vetted by the Board, the object of which is to modify the Call for Nominations in future elections to include the phrase “members as of this moment can vote”.

 

5.         ICUC-5: Update on the conference

 

Kazimierz Klysik reported that preparations for the conference went smoothly and the conference venue and seminar rooms are in good condition. 230 papers will be presented, of which more than 100 are oral presentations. Over 150 people have paid registration fees. Klysik gave a brief overview over the various social events which include the ice-breaker, a visit to the historical museum and to an operetta and the possibility of a barbeque.

 

Klysik proposed to share the account between Lodz University and SJS University. Funds will be needed to produce the post-conference proceedings which he proposed should come from the SJS account. Tim Oke added that the financial situation regarding conference funds looks healthy and seed money for ICUC-6 should be available.

 

In the following discussion James Voogt suggested marking the way to the lecture halls with arrows. Various ways of evaluating the 4-page submissions were considered. Tim Oke thanked Klysik and Fortuniak for the smooth conduct of the preparations.

 

6.         Business arising from last meeting

 

6.1             IAUC logo

 

Matthias Roth presented a number of different designs for the logo. It was decided to cut down the number to a few samples and send the selection to the membership for a vote.

 

6.2             Website issues

 

John Arnfield mentioned in his Secretary’s report two websites related to urban climate. http://www.geography.ohio-state.edu/UrbanClimate/ is hosted by Ohio State University and there are no issues related to its operation. http://urbanclimate.org belongs to Benjamin Herzberg who is willing to let IAUC take over the name when it expires. Arnfield suggested that the most logical plan appears to be for IAUC to take over the http://urbanclimate.org domain name and run the administrative and procedural objectives of IAUC and the original contents of http://urbanclimate.org under this domain name. He noted however, that (i) a non-Ohio State domain name without .edu ending may not qualify to be hosted by Ohio State University; (ii) although all original web pages of http://urbanclimate.org have been saved the interactive functions were lost during the transfer; (iii) much of the material on http://urbanclimate.org is outdated primarily because it has not been maintained for a couple of years and (iv) in light of (ii) and (iii) considerable amount of time and expertise would have to be invested to get the original part of http://urbanclimate.org working again.

 

James Voogt recounted what was decided during the previous Board meeting in Norfolk. The Board agreed to consolidate the two websites under http://urbanclimate.org.

 

·        It was then moved, seconded and carried unanimously by members of the Board that IAUC buy the domain name urbanclimate.org.

 

It was decided that Board members would investigate the possibility of hosting this website at their home institutions. Voogt offered to be a sub-webmaster. It was agreed that John Arnfield keeps the urbclim e-mail list monitoring traffic in combination with the chair of the membership committee.

 

7.         New business

 

7.1       ICUC-6

 

James Voogt leaves the room.

 

(i)         Presentation by potential candidate sites

 

Sue Grimmond introduced the three proposals obtained so far and their proponents/representatives at the meeting:

 

1)                 Porto Allegre: (Dr. Degrazia represented by Tiziano Tiribassi)

2)                 Phoenix: Joint AMS Urban Environment – IAUC meeting (James Voogt)

3)                 Phoenix: Arizona State University (Tony Brazel)

 

Brief presentations by the proponents/representatives followed:

 

1) Tiziano Tiribassi introduced the Porto Allegre organization and venue. In response to Board member’s questions Tiribassi noted that (i) the time of the conference could be moved from the proposed spring/autumn periods to other dates more favourable for northern hemisphere colleagues; (ii) the group has organized other conferences in the past, not in urban climatology but rather on urban air pollution, chemistry and modelling; (iii) a private organizer would be involved (ULBRA, SIEMPICO); and (iv) visa restrictions for foreign delegates should not be an issue.

 

2) James Voogt presented the joint AMS-IAUC proposal. Tony Brazel, as a member of the AMS Board on the Urban Environment, would probably be the organizer and the venue would be Phoenix. Voogt noted that the AMS Board has agreed to be the co-sponsor and there would be no concurrent AMS Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Air Pollution Meteorology or Biometeorology and Aerobiology meetings. The proposed dates are either May or October. AMS would probably be the main organizer without sharing of revenues with IAUC. In response to questions, Voogt noted that a joint proposal would have the advantage of not having to actually organize the conference since AMS would be in charge and Phoenix was chosen because of the strength and efforts of the local urban climate community and its attractiveness as a location. Concerns were raised regarding visa restrictions which could negatively affect delegates from certain countries.

 

3) Sue Grimmond briefly introduced the Phoenix proposal because Tony Brazel had not arrived at that point. She noted that no formal document was available yet. This would probably be a stand-alone proposal and Arizona State University with five urban climatologists was an appropriate venue.

 

Given the advanced time the meeting was adjourned at 17:00 to be continued on Monday, 1 September 2003, after the ice-breaker.

 

______________________________________________________________________

The Board re-convened on 1 September 2003 at 20:50.

 

Present:          Barlow, Bitan, Bornstein, Fortuniak, Grimmond, Klysik (organizer ICUC-5), Mills, Nakamura, Oke (Pres.), Roth and Voogt

Excused:        Eliasson

Absent:           Arnfield (Sec.), De Dear, Mayer

______________________________________________________________________

 

 

3) Tony Brazel presented the ASU proposal. The meeting would be held at ASU with strong backing from the University. Seed money of 20,000-25,000 US$ has been promised and the University could handle PR, website development, etc. Other agencies would probably provide additional funding. Brazel suggested the cooler winter months (beginning of December when hotel rates are still low) or early-mid May as conference periods. In response to questions Brazel commented that profit sharing was a possibility and that it would not be necessary to hire a private organizer because the University would handle administrative matters.

 

Tony Brazel and James Voogt as the proponents of two of the proposals, leave the room at 21:15 for the ensuing discussion.

 

(ii)        Discussion and possible selection of candidate sites

 

Sue Grimmond noted that no decision is necessary at this point considering that ICUC-6 is not until 2006. Grimmond suggested that each Board member present indicates his/her preference as the host of ICUC-6. After a split vote (5:5) and discussion the Board decided not to proceed with the joint AMS-IAUC application.

 

Because the applications did not include all necessary facts it was decided to ask the remaining candidates to submit more detailed proposals and at the same time invite new submissions. Grimmond asked the Board members to actively approach suitable locations/institutions.

 

7.2       Conduct of first IAUC business meeting

 

Tim Oke mentioned that an Open Forum Meeting will take place on Thursday evening to discuss any IAUC and ICUC business issues with the general membership.

 

7.3       Future development of IAUC

 

i.          Newsletter

 

Sue Grimmond proposed that we develop a regular Newsletter to be distributed via the web. There was consensus that this was worth pursuing. She said that she would contact people to help get this initiated.

 

ii.         Committees

 

Sue Grimmond suggested the establishment of two committees (see also item 4.1). Janet Barlow agreed to chair the Membership Committee and Gerald Mills the Teaching Resources Committee.

 

8.         Treasurer’s report: The SJSU bank account

 

Bob Bornstein reported that the SJUS account currently holds 20,425 US$ which is income from registration fees, the WMO contribution and a grant from the IUGG. Bornstein noted that 5% overhead is charged by SJSU for each transfer.

 

Tim Oke thanked Bornstein for setting up and looking after the account.

 

9.         Other business

 

There being no other business the meeting adjourned at 22:30.

 

Tim Oke thanked the Board members for their support during his tenure as President.

 

The Board thanked the outgoing Board members, Secretary and President for their many contributions during the important initial period of the Association.

 

 

 

Submitted by Matthias Roth (Secretary)