Minutes of the AsCA Council Meeting 2017
Date and time:

Saturday, August 26th, 2017: 1:30 – 2:45

Location:

MR 2.01, Hyderabad International Conference Centre

IN ATTENDANCE
Executive Council Members
Jennifer L. Martin (President) {JLM}
Xiao-Dong Su (Vice-President) {XDS}
Pinak Chakrabarti (Past-President) {PC}
Edward R.T. Tiekink (Secretary/Treasurer) {ERTT}Councillors (up to X votes)
Australia (X = 4): Chris Ling; Rachel Williamson
Bangladesh (1): Altaf Hussain
China, People’s Republic (4): Xiao-Dong Su; Da-Chuan Yin
China, Taipei (3): Chun-Jung Chen; Chih-Hao Lee; Hwo-Shum Sheu
India (4): R. Boomi Shankar; P. Gayathri
Japan (4): Genji Kurisu; Eiji Nishibori; T. Kamiyama
New Zealand (2): Kurt Krause; Chris Squire
Singapore (1): JJ Vittal
Thailand (1): Kittipong Chainok
The Philippines (1): Manuel Jospeh Loquias
Vietnam (1): Duong Ngoc Huyen
By invitation
Cambodia: Bun Kim Ngun
Myanmar: Sann Htoo
Observers
Ted Baker (NZ) IPC Co-Chair, AsCA2018
Jim Simpson (NZ)
Apologies
Maqsood Ahmed (Pakistan); Champila V. Hettiarachchi (Sri Lanka); Sheena McGowan(Australia), Dhananjai Pandey (India); Yessi Permana (Indonesia); Rajan Sankaranarayanan(India)
1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
The meeting commenced at 1:30 pm. Jenny Martin {JLM} welcomed all to the meeting andestablished there was a quorum. The meeting agenda was coordinated and run by ERTT andminutes were taken by JLM.

1

Minutes of the AsCA Council Meeting 2017
2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETINGThe minutes of the previous meeting held on Monday, December 6th, 2016, 12:30 – 13:150,Room 702, Ta Quang Buu Library, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi,
Vietnam and circulated by e-mail by the Secretary/Treasurer, J J Vittal, were approved. Theapproval was proposed by Kurt Krause, seconded by Atlaf Hussain and passed by Council.
3. AsCA FINANCIAL REPORTThe statement of finances was prepared by Mark Spackman on behalf of the AsCA trustees,
Mark Spackman, Alice Vrielink and Charlie Bond, all based at the University of Western
Australia, and presented to Council:
Acceptance of the report was moved by JJ Vittal, seconded by Kurt Krause and accepted byCouncil.
Subscription update: Australia and Japan have not yet paid their subscriptions. Chris Ling(SCANZ) and Genji Kurisu (CSJ) to follow up.
Subscriptions for category B members: Kurt Krause moved that Category B members should
pay the fee if they were able, but could retain membership if they made the case that they
were unable to pay. Seconded by Jenny Martin. This motion was approved by Council.
4. PROPOSAL FOR CAMBODIA TO JOIN ASCA
Bun Kim Ngun (Cambodia) made a case to join AsCA as a category B member, and made thecase that they would be unable to pay the Category membership fee. Membership wasapproved by Council and the inability to pay the fee was noted. Cambodia would benominated in the IUCr regional committee from Asia (fees paid by AsCA) now that
Bangladesh and Singapore have become full members of IUCr.
5. PROGRESS REPORT FOR AsCA 2018 (15TH AsCA CONFERENCE, AUCKLAND, NEWZEALAND)
Chris Squire LOC chair and Ted Baker IPC chair presented the progress report and noted
potential competition for delegates with a MOF conference scheduled soon after. Genderequity update: Program committee has 6/15 women. Workshops will be included in theprogram. Conference website: http://asca2018.org/
6. PROGRESS REPORT FOR AsCA 2019 (16TH AsCA CONFERENCE, SINGAPORE)JJ Vittal, the Local Chair of AsCA 2019 to be held in Singapore gave a brief update. Conference
website:http://www.chemistry.nus.edu.sg/events/CommunityOutreach/asca2019/asca19.htm
7. ASCA WEBSITE
Suggestions/updates for the AsCA website are welcome. Requests for information will bemade by Edward Tiekink in the near future.
8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS2Minutes of the AsCA Council Meeting 2017a)
Future meetings of AsCA – 2022 {JLM} – AsCA Council members are encouraged tobid for the 2022 conference, at the next AsCA council meeting to be held in NZ in Dec 2018b)
World Directory of Crystallographers {JLM} – IUCr strongly urges memberorganisations to encourage their members and colleagues to sign up to this directory tohelp organisers of AsCA and IUCr conferences to identify potential speakers, committee
members etc.
c)
Adherence to IUCr policy of broad representation {JLM} – IUCr has
strengthened its policy on representation and urges its member organisations toimplement actions to address diversity - especially gender equity - in conferences. This wasdiscussed, and a first step is to define the conference policy and make the policy public on
the conference website, and report on the data, e.g. number of women and men attendees,
number of women and men members of LOC and IPC committees, number of women andmen invited KN and PL speakers, MS chair and MS speakers. The Program chair of the next
AsCA meetings (NZ and Singapore) were encouraged to follow the lead of the recent SCANZ
conferences that make their policy public and report diversity data on the website.
d)An interim report of 14th AsCA (Hanoi) was presented to the Council byDuong Ngoc Huyen. The conference is close to break even.
e)Societies/countries wishing to propose to host an AsCA meeting in 2022 orbeyond are invited to do so during AsCA 2018.
The next Council meeting will be held during AsCA 2018 in Auckland.
The meeting adjourned at 13:50.
Minutes prepared by Jenny Martin/Edward Tiekink and vetted by the Executive Committee3