IAU e-Newsletter - Volume 2013 n°1

Sent electronically to Individual Members on March 22, 2013
by Thierry Montmerle, General Secretary

1. IB111 is now online
2. Changes in the Secretariat
3. Elections of the Division Steering Committees
4. Next Executive Committee meeting
5. A reminder of other forthcoming Dates & Deadlines

1. IB111 is now online at https://www.iau.org/static/publications/IB111.pdf

This new issue contains in particular the detailed structure of the new Divisions, including how Commissions and Working Groups have been reassigned, as well as the results of the all-member vote to join new Divisions. It also contains reports on actions having taken place during the XXVIIIth IAU General Assembly in Beijing, as well as an extended section on Educational and Outreach initiatives (Office of Astronomy for Development, Office for Astronomy Outreach).

2. Changes in the Secretariat.

A new team has taken charge of the IAU Secretariat in Paris:

• Head of Administration: Muriel Besson
• Assistant & Database manager: Julia Nauer

New, generic e-mail addresses have been introduced for correspondence with IAU members, institutions, etc., and the public, press, etc.

https://www.iau.org/administration/secretariat/

Archiving of IAU publications and documents remains the responsibility of Ginette Rude, who is also investigating how to digitize these archives.

3. Elections of the Division Steering Committees

Following the adoption of the Resolution proposed by the Executive Committee about the new IAU Divisional structure, discussions have been conducted on how to establish the corresponding "Division Steering Committees" (DSC), set to replace the former "Organizing Committees" of the previous Divisional structure.

It has been decided that the DSCs would be composed of:

• ex officio: the Presidents of the Commissions belonging to a given Division
• candidates elected by all Division members: six "open" names, chosen from a slate of 10-20 candidates proposed by the Division Presidents.

At the time of writing, these elections, conducted electronically with the help of the Secretariat, are almost completed.

This is the first time in the history of the IAU that such wide consultations, regarding several thousand members (vote on Divisions, vote on DSCs) are being organized.

4. Next Executive Committee meeting

The next Executive Committee meeting (EC93) will take place in Nara, Japan (May 7-10), at the invitation of Norio Kaifu, IAU President.

This will be the first meeting of the newly elected Executive Committee members. See the EC composition at:
https://www.iau.org/administration/executive_bodies/executive_committee/

In addition, an important feature of this meeting is that, as part of the implementation of the new Divisional structure, the Division Presidents have been invited to participate in this meeting. They will discuss directly with EC members about their strategy for Commission and Working Group evolution, as recommended by their DSCs.

5. A reminder of forthcoming Dates & Deadlines (2013)

• The dates and details of the next eight IAU Symposia and of the Latin-American IAU Regional Meeting (LARIM) can be found at:
  https://www.iau.org/science/meetings/future/
• 15 Sep
  Deadline for submitting Letters of Intent for 2015 IAU Symposia.
  Note that 2015 is the year of the next IAU GA in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
  Symposia may be proposed for inclusion in the GA program, and six will be selected among them.
• 4-8 Nov
  COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop on Atmospheric Correction of Earth Observation Data for Environmental Monitoring: Theory and Best Practices.
  (This meeting is co-sponsored by the IAU.)
  Gistda, Bangkok, Thailand
  Contact: cospar2013@gistda.or.th
  URL: www.cospar2013.gistda.or.th
• 30 Nov
  Deadline for application to the Gruber Fellowships
  See: https://www.iau.org/grants_prizes/gruber_foundation/fellowships/
• 15 Dec
  Deadline for submission of full proposals for 2015 IAU Symposia
• 15 Dec
  Deadline for nominations to the Gruber Cosmology Prize
  See: http://www.gruberprizes.org/Nominations/Cosmology.php

Thierry Montmerle
IAU General Secretary  
March 22, 2013