International Association of
Geomagnetism and Aeronomy

Draft Minutes of the Second IAGA Executive Committee Meeting in Sapporo, 4 July 2003

The President opened the meeting at 0900. (The agenda is in Appendix 1.)

The first agenda point dealt with was no 9: IGY+50. The President reported from the discussion of this matter in the IUGG Executive Committee, where the plans of the IUGS for an International Year of the Planet Earth (IYPE) 2005-2007 had been presented by the IUGS President. The IUGG Executive Committee had decided that IUGG should join the IYPE as a full partner, while developing its own programme under the title IGY+50.

C. Barton reported that an informal "IGY+50 Task Force" had been formed after the first IAGA Conference of Delegates, consisting of one member from each division plus a small number of additional interested scientists. The Task Force had met three times and had produced a proposal for IAGA Plans for IGY+50 (see Appendix 2). A major point there is to establish an e-GY programme, exploiting the possibilities that modern information technology offers, to carry out concrete research programmes. The Task Force proposal also included recommendations for some form of participation by IAGA in the various international programmes planned by other bodies (International Polar Year, International Heliospheric Year etc.) and for IAGA support of SCOSTEP's CAWSES programme.

The next Agenda item considered was no 15: Reports from Divisions and Commissions. Such reports had been invited by the President to assist in preparation of his scientific report to the IAGA Conference of Delegates, and he suggested that similar reports should be required in the future* for the information of the IAGA Executive Committee.

1. The matter of the decision of the Inter-Divisional Commission on History to not organise a symposium in Sapporo was dealt with under this item. There was a broad discussion and the EC decided the following:
2. The terms as Chair and Vice-Chair would end, as normal, at the end of the Sapporo Assembly.
3. The IDCH would be "put on ice" until the Toulouse Assembly in 2005.
4. A business meeting with scientists interested in history would be organised at the Toulouse Assembly, and chaired by a member of the EC. The EC will provide guidance for the meeting and will require consideration of the fundamental question of the need for a body on history in the IAGA structure.
5. Assuming that it is concluded that a distinct IAGA body on history was necessary, those attending the meeting will be invited to formulate a plan of action and a leadership structure for consideration by the EC.
6. If the plan and leadership structure were approved by the EC then, to keep in line with the other IAGA bodies, the leadership will be elected for two years initially, and will be eligible for re-election for a further term of four years in 2007.
7. Dr. W. Schroeder was invited to convene a symposium on history at the IAGA Scientific Assembly in Toulouse in 2005.

Finally, under point 15, the President said that the new leadership of IAGA may wish to consider asking the Division Leaders to present their reports at the first meeting of the Conference of Delegates, and suggested that holding a welcome reception afterwards may improve the present poor attendance by IAGA scientists at the Conference of Delegate meetings.

Agenda point no 2: Matters arising from the Prague meeting.

1. IAGA representation in the Committee on Mathematical Geophysics (CMG). The President reported on the unsuccessful attempts to find an IAGA scientist interested in being the contact person with CMG. The Secretary General was asked to write to the CMG Secretary General to request regular updates on the CMG activities.
2. The new IAGA Brochure had been distributed to all participants in IUGG 2003. It would be translated into French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian and distributed in those regions in the near future.
3. Medals for long service. In Prague it was agreed to try to actively find good candidates for the long service medal, particularly Russian operators of geomagnetic observatories in Siberia. It turned out, however, that many of the old observatory operators in Russia had now left the field. The EC decided to seek nominations from all over the world and to invite the National member bodies to propose names.
4. IAGA and ISO. The President reported that ISO had decided to proceed along the lines recommended by IAGA and not specify a standard magnetosphere at the present time.

Agenda point no 17: IAGA sponsorship of future scientific activities.

The Executive Committee discussed the applications for support and decided to allocate the following amounts to the meetings under points 17a) to g):

1. 2^nd IAGA/ICMA workshop on vertical atmospheric coupling: USD 1000
2. XI^th IAGA WS on geomagnetic observatory instruments: USD 3000
3. 3^rd IAGA/ICMA WS on long-term trends: USD 1000
4. 9^th meeting on paleo-, rock-, and environmental magnetism: USD 1000
5. 3^rd General Assembly of SPARC: USD 500
6. 35^th General Assembly of COSPAR: USD 500
7. WS to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the EBRO geomagnetic observatory: USD1000

The EC also decided to sponsor the 17^th electromagnetic induction workshop, with an amount of 1500 USD, provided that an acceptable application was received (a very preliminary application had been submitted at the Sapporo Assembly). A complete application was received after the meeting.

To accommodate the allocations made, the EC decided to raise the figure for support of meetings in the budget for 2004 from USD 8000 to USD 15000.

Agenda point no 5: IAGA accounts for 2002. The audited accounts submitted to the IUGG (Appendix 3) were noted. There were some questions about the translation of those accounts into the IAGA format showing actual expenses. (To answer the points raised, the account of actual expenses was reworked and presented and accepted at the following EC meeting).

Agenda point no 6: IAGA budgets for 2003-2005. Because of earlier EC decisions to change some figures in the draft budgets, amended budgets were worked out, presented and accepted.

The Executive Committee agreed to hold its third meeting on Thursday 10th July at 1300 in Crystal Room D, Royton Hotel.

Bengt Hultqvist
Secretary General

*Action items for the future are in bold print.