IRGO Minutes 2 August 1985
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH GROUP ON OSTRACODA, ON AUGUST 2, 1985, HELD IN SHIZUOKA, JAPAN.
Dr. R.C. Whatley was in the Chair; Dr. P. De Deckker as Secretary took the minutes of the meeting. 82 members attended the afternoon session.
Dr. R.C. Whatley opened the meeting by asking to accept the minutes of the last meeting (copies of which were distributed at the meeting) as a true record. After Professor Hanai’s comment that the statement in item five in the last minutes regarding his original proposal to have the ostracod symposium held in Japan be amended, Dr. I.G. Sohn proposed that the minutes be accepted as a true record. Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise seconded it and it was passed unanimously by the assembly.
Regarding the fate of CYPRIS, Dr. Whatley read a letter from Dr. K. Wouters stating some of the difficulties met during the production of the newsletter; in it he said that editing the newsletter was very time-consuming and that the solution adopted for CYPRIS worked well, namely because of the active cooperation between the editor, printers and national correspondents. He also said he was happy to hand over the editorship if someone wanted it, but that he was prepared to carry on that task for an additional three years. He also stressed the fact that he was in no position to print or mail the newsletter and was seeking help regarding that matter. He also wished that Elly Brouwers, Rick Forester and Don Van Nieuwenhuise be thanked for all their active collaboration and that he was indebted to AMOCO Production Company for printing the 2nd and 3rd issues of CYPRIS.
Dr. Whatley thanked Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise and asked him to pass on his thanks to AMOCO. Then Dr. Whatley said that a letter from Dr. Wouters arrived that day accompanying a letter written to him by Dr. M. Kontrovitz (and supported by his Dean) making an offer to take on the editorship of CYPRIS. Dr. Whatley then said that this latest offer was to solve all the problems Dr. Wouters was facing and he then asked Dr. Kontrovitz to present his case. The latter person said that he was prepared to pay for all expenses incurred and that he and his wife would have access to a word processor to help in the production of CYPRIS. Dr. R. Kaesler proposed that the floor accept Dr. Kontrovitz’ offer, this was seconded by Dr. A. Lord and unanimously accepted by the assembly.
Regarding the next Symposium in 1988 Dr. Whatley reminded people that it had been decided in Houston that the next meeting be held in Aberystwyth. He then pointed out that it was necessary to plan the venue of future symposia six years in advance. He then asked where the 1991 venue ought to be. Dr. Van Harten proposed that Maastricht in The Netherlands be the place for the 1991 symposium because it is a pleasant city, that there are plenty of opportunities to sample the type locality of the Maastrichtian, also that there are excellent opportunities for field excursions including a sampling of Belgian Palaeozoic sections. He then said that he was hoping to have Belgian colleagues involved in the preparation of the symposium and that Dr. M. Bless, the Director of the Natural History Museum in Maastricht would be willing to participate in the organization. He finally commented that Maastricht is also the city where Bosquet worked and that again it was conveniently located, being very close to Germany too. Dr. Rosenfeld seconded the proposal.
Later on, Dr. J.-P. Peypouquet suggested that Bordeaux be the site of the 1991 Symposium, especially since it would be 20 years after the Pau Symposium was held. He then said that it would not be until early 1986 that he could put a firm commitment to his offer for circumstances beyond his control. He suggested that his proposal be rated behind the Dutch offer and be kept as a proposal on "reserve". This was seconded by Dr. J.-P. Colin.
Dr. N. Krstic suggested that future meeting be held every four years instead of three. This was not seconded nor further discussed.
Dr. A. Lord asked why Naples could not be considered and people responded that Dr. Bonaduce had withdrawn his original offer.
Dr. B. Scharf then commended that it was a pity to have two succeeding meetings in Europe.
Forty-six members voted to have the 1991 Symposium in Maastricht while 15 voted to have it in Bordeaux. It was then decided that Maastricht be the location of the 1991 Symposium.
Regarding the Treatise, Dr. Whatley asked Dr. Siveter to report on the progress of the Palaeozoic Working Group. Dr. Siveter summarized the decisions made at the meeting of the Palaeozoic Workers held the day before. He said that invitations had already been issued for people to work on about 80% of the ostracod groups and that cooperation was running high. He said that it was hoped for collaborators of the Palaeozoic part of the Treatise to meet in 1986 in Maastricht. He also reminded people that it was important for cooperation to operate between Palaeozoic and Post-Palaeozoic working groups because only one classification has to exist and not two to suit separate treatise volumes (Palaeozoc and Post-Palaeozoic).
Dr. Whatley talked about the Post-Palaeozoic part of the Treatise and said that a working group had met the day before in Shizuoka. He said that he remained in close contact with Dr. Siveter and that also Chinese workers had been approached as potential authors.
The International Research Group on Palaeozoic Ostracoda reported that Dr. Siveter had been elected as President and that Dr. R. Lundin had accepted the nominations for Vice President and Treasurer. Dr. Whatley was requested by that Group that a portion of the time for the Aberystwyth Symposium be set aside for Group activities.
Dr. K.G. McKenzie reported on the progress of the Atlas of Asian Ostracoda. He said that a series of volumes were planned and that Ellis Horwood had agreed to publish them as for the British Atlas. He then commented that for the Indian volume Neale, Khosla, Singh and Siddiqui were involved and that Hanai was involved with the Japanese volume. He said that two volumes were perhaps planned for China and that Hou was interested in cooperating with their production. McKenzie himself was dealing with the Australian volume and Al-Furaih was to coordinate the Middle East volume. He also said that more volumes would come on stream later on and that cooperative efforts would be necessary to describe the S.W. Pacific area. The time schedule was 1988/89 for the Indian volume and that other volumes would follow on later.
Dr. A. Lord said that he was willing to give information on the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary International Stratigraphical Group but that he would place information about it in the next issue of CYPRIS.
Dr. Whatley then presented the Past Chairman’s statement and said that Dr. M. Cropland helped a lot and so had Drs. R. Kaiser and P. De Deckker. He said that he had written to Dr. E. Ger. regarding the future of the newsletter and the decision on its fate made in Houston. He had later received a letter of support from Dr. Ger. for the new newsletter (CYPRIS). Dr. Whatley also thanked Dr. Overtly for his "diplomatic" skills in handling the difficult task of negotiating the future of the newsletter.
Dr. Whatley said that he had written to Drs. Wouters, Brouwers and Forester praising them for their efforts in producing CYPRIS. He also said that he had written to Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise thanking him and his superior for financing the production of CYPRIS. He had written to Dr. Kesling and Keij on their retirements and to Dr. Hazel at the time of his change of position, but said that he was pleased to see that he had "bounced back".
Dr. Whatley advised that he had reported to the PI concerning all matters of interest to our Research Group and that he would pass on to his successor all correspondence he exchanged while Chairman of the Research Group. He congratulated all Ostracoda workers who had come to Japan and showed his deep gratitude to Professor Hanai and Dr. Ikeya and all Japanese colleagues for organizing such a successful and happy 9th International Ostracoda Symposium. He then asked the floor to show a vote of thanks to all Japanese organizers.
Dr. Greg Sohn also spoke on behalf of the assembly to express their gratitude to Professor Hanai. Professor Hanai made a brief speech thanking all participants for making the Symposium a very successful one.
The election of the new Chairman of the International Research Group on Ostracoda then proceeded. Four people had been nominated during the Symposium for the position of Chairman (Hazel, Kaesler, Peypouquet and McKenzie). Eighty-two voted and Dr. J. Hazel was elected as Chairman. Drs. Kaesler and Hanai were elected as Vice-Chairmen and Dr. R Whatley as Counsellor.
The meeting was then closed.
Patrick DE DECKKER, Secretary.
(Thanks to Dick van Harten for retyping this from CYPRIS, International Ostracoda Newsletter, #4, 1986, p. 94-97.)