ann15002 — Announcement

Division A Commission Reform votes (final results)
9 January 2015
Expression of Interest for New Commissions III: Final Results

Electronic voting for the expression of interest for new commissions, based on the letters of intent submitted on 15 October 2014, closed on 31 December 2014, following the posting of the intermediate results.

The total number of members who participated in the voting was 2029. Since the number of voting members listed in the IAU Directory is currently 9194, the global participation in the vote works out at 22%.

However, this fraction does not accurately reflect overall participation when the results are considered by division, because of multiple division affiliation, and because proposed commissions may appear in more than one division if the proposers have requested cross-division status. Only the primary division has been taken into account for the inter-division status. (Details can be found in the Letters of Intent and the List of Proposals). The number of votes for "0 Commission" is 43.

Participation in the voting by division is given in each graph, and has been be compiled in the following table:

Division Name Number of Commissions Proposed Members Voting Participation
A Fundamental Astronomy 9 1236 778 62.9%
B Facilities, Technologies & Data Science 14 2678 1560 58.3%
C Education, Outreach & Heritage 6 1522 547 35.9%
D High Energy Phenomena 4 1581 332 21.0%
E Sun & Heliosphere 3 1145 372 32.5%
F Planetary Systems 8 1711 673 39.3%
G Stars & Stellar Physics 8 2749 951 34.6%
H Interstellar Medium & Local Universe 6 2229 551 24.7%
J Galaxies & Cosmology 4 2646 380 14.4%

These numbers, and the total number of votes, will be used by the Division Presidents and Vice-Presidents in their selection of commissions, but in no way will they be the main factor. Scientific and/or social interest, as well as innovation, will be the priorities. The number of votes may be used in particular by the proposers to estimate the size of the organising committees envisioned in the full proposals, since it is likely that this number will be a preview of the membership of the approved commissions.

What’s next?

Here is a reminder of the next milestones on the road to establishing the new commission structure at the end of the next General Assembly in Honolulu.

  • 31 January: Deadline for full proposals
  • 31 March: Recommendations sent to the Executive Committee
  • 20 April: Approval of commissions announced by the Executive Committee
  • 30 April: Opening of sign-up for the approved commissions
  • 15 May: End of sign-up for the approved commissions

Elections will then be organised to establish the respective organising committees (see http://www.iau.org/administration/events/). More details will be communicated along with the Executive Committee decisions in April.

Links

Contacts

Thierry Montmerle
IAU General Secretary / Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 43 25 83 58
Email: montmerle@iap.fr

Madeleine Smith-Spanier
IAU Database Manager/Assistant
Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 43 25 83 58
Email: smith@iap.fr

About the Announcement

Id:
ann15002

Images

Division A Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division B Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division C Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division D Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division E Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division F Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division G Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division H Commission Reform votes (final results)
Division J Commission Reform votes (final results)