Meeting held
Tuesday, October 28 1999, 12:00 pm
Coastal Georgia Center,
Savannah, Georgia, USA

Present: R. Mathewes, T. Demchuk, S. Tiffin, F. McCarthy

Given the very small attendance at this year's AGM, formal minutes were not kept, but th President's and Secretary-Treasurer's reports were circulated and accepted. Thomas Demchuk agreed to act as Auditor for this year (see his signed report appended to the Financial Statement), and the following matters were briefly discussed>

1. Future of CAP
Tom Demchuk suggested that discussion of this important matter should be postponed until next year's AGM at the Geoscience Canada 2000 Meeting when a larger number of CAP members should be present. This suggestion was unanimously accepted.

2. Central repository for membership information/addresses at Bedford Institute of Oceanography
F. McCarthy reported that Rob Fensome arranged for a central repository for CAP information at BIO where he can rely on administrative assistance.

3. Location of the next CAP Annual General Meeting
It was agreed that the obvious location for the next CAP AGM is in conjunction with the special CAP session at the Geoscience Canada 2000 meeting in Calgary in May-June 2000.

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned.

The President, Rob Fensome, was not present at the meeting. His report was tabled and is reproduced below. The Secretary-Treasurer's Report and the Financial Report follow.

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President's Report

I have the honour of presenting the final CAP President's Report of the millennium (notwithstanding arcane arguments to the contrary - the number is the thing, surely). This has been a more momentous year for CAP than usual. Our by-laws were emended for the first time since they were formulated, ovr 10 years ago. One of the results is that CAP now has an additional member of the executive, a Website Director, currently in the guise of Alwynne Beaudoin. Many thanks, Alwynne, for agreeing to take up that position officially after years of doing it unofficially, as well as outting in sterling service as CAP Newsletter Editor.

Another result of the by-law changes is that CAP is now truly an international organization, with non-Canadian residents/citizens being welcomed into full membership. Previously they were considered as "correspondents". I strongly believe that this is a forward step for the association, and that we can rest assured that sinister foreign interests will not compromise our Canadian essence. Obviously, the vast majority of the members that cast a ballot agreed with me.

This is perhaps the appropriate point in which to congratulate President-Elect Martin Head, who as of 1st January 2000 will move to Cambridge University to take up a research position there. In a recent e-mail to the executive, I'm delighted to report that Martin agreed "... that CAP's interests would be served better if I didn't resign from the Executive, but continue as President-Elect and then as President. Ironically, I will be more able to serve CAP from a funded position in Cambridge that an unfunded one here. Therefore, I look forward to continue working with you all on the CAP Executive. As a Canadian citizen, with .... family in Toronto, and with many ongoing research projects [at the University of Toronto], and with your help, I should have no difficulty keeping in touch with the Canadian scene. We ... hope to be able to return permanently to Canada in a few years".

Another very positive event was the recruitement of Mary Vetter of the University of Regina as CAP's new Newsletter editor. Mary did a great job with the May issue, and we can rest assured that the Newsletter has once again fallen into very capable hands. Msny thanks for volunteering, Mary - and not least from saving me from having to produce this year's newsletters.

On yet another positive note, under the guidance of Alwynne Beaudoin and Martin Head, CAP will be convening a session at next year's Geoscience Canada 2000 meeting. This will bring attention to Canadian palynology and related subjects to a much broader field than is usually the case, a factor which can only be good. Perhaps CAP should consider sponsoring symposia at larger conferences on a more regular basis. Let's see how this one goes first though.

CAP is clearly not among the most active of organizations. We are primarily a newsletter ad website association and, despite the fact that these communications aspects are among the best in the business, the viability of CAP has from time to time been questioned. In my view, the existence of CAP provides a necessary focus for palynologists in Canada - not merely another society to belong to, but a network of like minds that can be potentially tapped into. It also makes possible the sponsoring of symposia at meetings such as Geoscience Canada 2000 and even the hosting of entire conferences, such as the 1984 International Palynological Congress. CAP may be low key, but its existence gives us Canadian Palynologists the corporate identity that is much needed in the modern world. I predict that CAP will be a survivor in the new millennium.

Rob Fensome

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Secretary-Treasurer's Report

Membership Report

As of October 27, 1999, CAP had a total of 58 members in good standing. As usual, this number is probably slightly low, since it is expected that several long-standing members who have lapsed will eventually send in their dues. CAP's membership has hovered around 70 since declining from ca. 90 during the late 1980s and early 1990s, but the relatively low current membership may be cause for concern.

Financial Report

The balance in the CAP acocount was $2410.57, which is an increase of $736.22 over the balance at the last AGM. Our healthy balance is due in part of prepaid memberships (see Financial Statement). The main reason fo CAP's good financial positionthis year, howeber, is the absence of production costs for the two issues of the newsletted since Rob Fensome and Mary Vetter have taken over production. Whether the production costs will continue to be absorbed by their institutions is unclear at present. Another substantial expenditure is the annual fee whichwe pay the IFPS, at $1.50 US/full member, a fee not helped by our weak dollar. The only other routine fee is to the Registry of Joint Stock Companies, which more than doubled in 1997 to $25.00. We incurred $25.60 in service charges, even though no changes were made to our bank account; I will speak to the bank manager to see whether we can negotiate this, and will "shop around" if I cannot get a break from the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Thomas Demchuk acted as auditor for this fiscal year, since Jan Jansonius did not attend the AASP Meeting this year; many thanks for his able assistance in this matter. The audited financial statement is included with this report (see page 7).

Francine McCarthy

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This summary originally appeared in CAP Newsletter 22(2):5-6, 1999. It has been slightly edited for clarity. The financial statement and auditor's report are not reproduced here.