Meeting held
12:00 p.m., May 29, 2001
Rm. AA1045, Memorial University
St. John's, Newfoundland

Present: R. Mathewes, J. Macpherson, J.-N. Haas, F. McCarthy.

Attendance at the AGM was poor again, although those present (from as far away as Austria!) accepted the President's, Secretary-Treasurer's, Newsletter Editor's, and Website Manager's Reports as circulated and discussed the matters on the agenda.

CAP-sponsored symposium/location of next AGM
We discussed the proposal by Alwynne Beaudoin for a special CAP-sponsored session at next year's GAC meeting in Saskatoon. There was unanimous approval for the concept and for the suggested theme "The Palynology of Boundaries", but it was agreed that a meeting with a stronger Quaternary focus might be a better venue to attract existing (and hopefully new) CAP members. It was noted that many of our members are non-geologists, but rather geographer, botanists, archeologists, etc., who are more likely to attend CANQUA or other Quaternary meetings. The upcoming INQUA meeting to be held in Reno was mentioned as a possible venue.

Future of CAP
The problem of low and dwindling CAP membership was discussed, and an attempt to contact new potential members (including institutional members) via e-mail was suggested.

New Secretary-Treasurer
Marlow Pellatt was approved to succeed Francine McCarthy as Secretary-Treasurer.

Proposed President-Elect
Pierre Richard was suggested as President-Elect. Jean-Nicholas Haas was to approach him on this matter during a visit to Pierre's lab in Montréal. There were no suggestions for the newsletter editor's or website manager's positions.

The meeting was adjourned.

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President's Report

The President, Martin Head, was not present at the meeting. His report is reproduced below:

My activities as President this year have focused on the CAP-sponsored publication New frontiers and applications in palynology and micropaleontology: a Canadian perspective, which I am co-editing with Alwynne Beaudoin as a planned special issue of the Elsevier journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. We've had some very good manuscripts submitted, covering most microfossil groups and ranging from Silurian to the present day. This special issue is based on the CAP-sponsored symposium at last year's GeoCanada 2000 meeting in Calgary. CAP is hoping to build upon this success by sponsoring another symposium in the near future. See inside this Newsletter for details.

Onto more central matters, Gail Chmura last year completed her 4-year term as Councillor to the International Federation of Palynological Societies (IFPS). Gail has been our voice at the IFPS and has arranged the mailing of Palynos to our members. In this latter regard she has been helped by Victor Pospelov, and both deserve our sincere thanks for their services.

It is a pleasure to welcome Rolf Mathewes as CAP's new IFPS Councillor. Rolf will serve in this position until the end of the next International Palynology Congress, to be held three years from now in Granada, Spain. Rolf is a former president of CAP, and brings a wealth of experience to the executive. We are delighted to have him onboard.

Francine McCarthy has asked to step down as Secretary-Treasurer. Francine has done a excellent job of keeping CAP's finances and membership matters in good order over the past three years. Her presence will be greatly missed by the Executive. As a former Secretary-Treasurer myself, I know how important this position is to the smooth running of the Association. I wish Francine's successor, Marlow Pellatt, every success, but meanwhile I'm sure you will join me in thanking Francine for her time and enthusiasm in the service of CAP.

It is always extremely gratifying to learn of CAP members being honoured for their services to palynology. I am pleased therefore to report that Graham Williams (GSC­Atlantic) was recently elected an honorary member of the Palaeobotanical and Palynological Society of Utrecht (see the interview under "People" in this Newsletter). Graham is in good company, as previous recipients include W. R. Evitt and J. Jansonius.

Once again I'd like to end my President's message by thanking members of the CAP executive for their part in making the association run smoothly, including Alwynne Beaudoin for maintaining CAP's excellent website and Mary Vetter for the long hours she has put into this Newsletter.

Finally, I'd like to thank the GAC-MAC organizing committee, and particularly Elliott Burden, for facilitating CAP's use of this meeting room at no cost to the association. Enjoy the rest of the conference, and I hope to see you at next year's AGM.

Respectfully submitted
Martin J. Head
President, CAP

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Secretary-Treasurer's Report

i) Membership Report
As of May 15, 2001, CAP had a total of 45 members in good standing. Although this number is probably slightly low, since we routinely receive a small flurry of renewals following the May Newsletter, CAP's low current membership may be a cause for concern. Over the last 5 years (1996-2000 inclusive) our membership averaged ~70, but we have been losing more long-time members than we are recruiting, and this number is less than 85% of the average membership over the previous 10 years (1986-1995 inclusive). While this trend appears to mirror the number of employed palynologists, we should examine whether we are serving our membership as well as we can.

ii) Financial Report
The balance in the CAP account was $2408.25. The balance remains healthy, and the cost of membership continues to cover our modest costs – newsletter production (thanks to Rob Fensome at the GSC-Atlantic) and mailing, IFPS dues, and bank service charges (see Financial Statement). Note, however, that the balance is $13.32 lower than the balance forward (from last year's AGM May 31, 2000). It is critical for the long-term viability of CAP that we attract and retain more members.

Respectfully submitted
Francine McCarthy
CAP Secretary-Treasurer

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Newsletter Editor's Report

We continue to publish two newsletters per year, in May and December. In general, the December newsletter is a larger issue with conference reports, but there is good response to the call for items for both newsletters. Special thanks to those members who contribute both regularly and irregularly! Also, special thanks to Rob Fensome, Nellie Koziel, and Francine McCarthy, who continue to maintain the newsletter mailing list, and duplicate and mail the newsletters. It was agreed at the last Annual Meeting that the costs associated with duplicating and mailing the newsletter should be covered out of membership fees, and those costs brought forward to the next Annual Meeting. It costs approximately $160 to mail out each newsletter issue. Rob Fensome said that his office is willing to continue to duplicate the newsletter without cost to CAP. Therefore, the average cost per member for the newsletter on an annual basis (two issues) is around $5.00. Finally, this is my third year as newsletter editor, and if anyone is interested in taking this over in 2002 I would be happy to pass the task on!

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Vetter
CAP Newsletter Editor
Mary.vetter@uregina.ca
May 16, 2001

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Website Editor's Report 2001

I have continued to act as Editor for the CAP Website since the last AGM. The website provides a broad array of useful resources and information about CAP to the palynological community. Over the last year, it has received a steady "hit rate" of around 300 accesses each month.

I have not yet been able to make arrangements to have the website hosted at another location, as I suggested at the last AGM. Space restrictions have precluded the addition of much new material in recent months. I am still planning to move the web presentation so that it can be expanded more easily. I hope to have more positive news to report on this item at the next AGM.

I would like to ask all CAP members to make suggestions for useful material that could be included in the web presentation. I welcome contributions to the website and suggestions for new components.

Respectfully submitted
Alwynne B. Beaudoin
CAP Website Editor
bluebulrush@gmail.com
May 16 2001

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This summary originally appeared in CAP Newsletter 24(1):1, 3-6, 2001. It has been slightly edited for clarity and to remove stale information.