REPORT TO UIC CHAPTER ON ANNUAL MEETING OF SIGMA XI

NOVEMBER 20-23, 1997,  WASHINGTON, D.C.

Charles Woodbury, President-Elect

     I attended the Annual Meeting as our chapter's delegate, flying in to the  meeting on Thursday, November 20, and leaving after the concluding session on Sunday, November 23. All-in-all, this was a worthwhile experience, with a higher level of useful and stimulating content than many scientific meetings I have attended. There were three general types of activities:  (1) the three sessions of the Assembly of Delegates, where the general business of the Society was formally carried out;  (2) three Regional Meetings of Delegates (I attended the North Central Regional Meetings);  and (3) Workshops on various topics. There was in addition a banquet on Saturday night, where two prizes were awarded, Honorary Members were initiated, and the Procter Prize Address was delivered.
 
 

Assembly of Delegates

        The principal actions of the Assembly of Delegates were:
(1) to receive reports from the President, the Treasurer, the Executive  Director, the Board of  Directors, and various ommittees.  I have copies for those interested.
(2)  to elect Officers and Directors-at-Large.  Our new President-elect is  Peggie J. Hollingsworth, from the University of Michigan Chapter; our new (continuing)  Treasurer is John W. Prados, from the University of Tennessee; and our new Directors-at-Large  are Elizabeth Ambos, from California State University at Long Beach, and Jaleh Daie,  from Rutgers University.
(3)  to set the membership dues for next year.  This was a complicated  eight-part motion, with some amendments from the floor.  The gist of it is that next year, there  will be an increase in the dues, pegged to the rise in the Consumer Price Index.  You can  expect the dues to rise to about $48, from the present $45.
(4)  to change the Constitution and Bylaws, to eliminate provisional chapters  and create only chapters in Sigma Xi.
     Additionally, next year the Assembly will consider a motion to reduce the size of the Board of Directors from 32 to 20.
 

North Central Regional Meetings

     In our first session (Thursday night), we approved the minutes of the March 1997 Regional Assembly Meeting, developed a list of nominees for the North Central  Regional Director, nominated new members for the Nominating Committee, discussed the development of a Regional Web Page, discussed the motions concerning dues and  changes to the Bylaws and Constitution, and heard short introductions from several  candidates for the various National Offices.  We then broke out to prepare posters on Chapter  activities, for display during Breaks and Mixers.  I prepared a brief one on our Graduate  Student Research
Forum.  In our second session (Friday night) we discussed various Community  Outreach activities undertaken by Chapters, particularly those that assist with K-12  education.  We then broke out into groups by state, to get to know each other better.  In the  third session (Sunday morning), we elected the Regional Nominating Committee, the Director for  the North Central Region (Cathy Manduca, Carleton College), and discussed contacting  and "educating" (though not exactly lobbying) our congressional representatives. This has been done very successfully by an alliance of Chapters in Michigan.
 

Workshops

     There were concurrent workshops throughout the meeting.  I attended four:
( 1) an orientation for new chapter officers and delegates (very useful);
(2) how to contact and
educate members of Congress to support research and development (interesting,  but could be quite time-consuming if you try to do it right);
(3) ethics in science (not much new here); and
(4) issues in scientific communication, mainly problems with and extensions to electronic scientific journals (copyright issues, responsibilities of authors, electronic  enhancements to publications).
 
 

Banquet, Honorary Members, Awards, and Procter Prize Address

     The banquet was the usual average hotel fare (dried-out chicken, frozen  salmon, broccoli, etc., but a better-than-average dessert).  Two new Honorary Members  were initiated:  David Ansley, the science editor of Consumer Reports, and Bill
Kurtis, producerand host of several TV programs, notably The New Explorers, and of course a former news anchor here in Chicago on channel 2.  William Lesame of the University of South Africa, Pretoria, received the Procter Fund Grant-in-Aid of Research Award; he is working on his Ph.D. thesis in astrophysics.  Dr. Philip Morrison, of MIT, gave the Procter Prize Address, concerning his predictions of future developments in science and technology.