Meeting held
Tuesday, 25th June 1996, 7:00 p.m.
Galveston Room, Marriott Hotel,
Houston, Texas

Those Present: Ian Campbell (President), Rob Fensome (President Elect; Recording Secretary), Martin Head (Secretary-Treasurer), Jan Jansonius, David Jarzen (outgoing IFPS Councillor), Susan Jarzen, Arun Kumar, Jocelyne Legault, Fabienne Marret, Rolf Mathewes, Colin McGregor, Geoff Norris, Christine Rogers and Julian Szeicz (incoming IFPS Councillor)

1. Opening
The president, Ian Campbell, called the meeting to order and, since not everyone was mutually acquainted, invited all present to introduce themselves. Martin Head distributed the meeting agenda and ancillary documents.

2. Minutes of 1995 Annual General Meeting
The 1995 AGM was at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa in conjunction with the AASP Meeting. The minutes were tabled and accepted.

3. President's Report
Ian Campbell noted that at this point, since he had been in office for only a short period (taking the helm after previous President Glen MacDonald's move to the United States and consequent resignation), there was nothing substantive for him to report. He noted, however, that he was pleased to see that the society was further in the black. Also that Julian Szeicz's department has agreed to mail Palynos and that his own office will mail the CAP Newsletter.

[There was some discussion regarding the current status of the Presidency and confusion as to whether: 1) Ian's term should end in 1996, since he was made interim president upon the resignation of Glen MacDonald, this appointment cancelling his President-Elect status; or 2) he should continue now with his statutory term of two years, having completed the last few months as "emergency" interim president. The by-laws are not explicit on this point. The consensus was that a fair compromise would be for Ian to continue in office for one more year and then for current President-Elect, Rob Fensome, to take over.]

4. Secretary/Treasurer's Report
i) Membership Report.
Martin Head reported that, as of 27th April 1996, CAP had a total of 52 members in good standing, comprising 41 full members, 10 correspondents and 1 institutional member. This compares with a total membership of 46 for the same time last year. It is too early to say how many members in good standing we will have for 1996, but it would appear that the several-year decline in membership has begun to level out.

ii) Financial Report.
Martin concluded that the Association's finances are in good shape and likely to remain so given the mailing arrangements mentioned above. With regard to the cost of mailing Palynos, the question was raised of duplication of effort of other societies mailings. Several members present confirmed that they receive more than one copy of Palynos. However, it was generally viewed that it was not worthwhile trying to rationalize the situation for the benefit of minimal savings. A motion was passed unanimously recommending that CAP members receiving extra copies of Palynos should pass the duplicates on to students if possible.

iii) Auditor's Report.
Geoff Norris again acted as auditor and has officially signed his name to a statement to the effect that the Association's books are in good order. This audited statement is included as part of these minutes on p. 8.

5. Review of dues structure
No review was considered necessary at this time.

6. Newsletter and Web Site report
Since Alwynne Beaudoin was not able to be present, her report was tabled and duly accepted. It was moved that Alwynne should be encouraged to carry on her good work as Newsletter Editor and Web Site manager, and a vote of appreciation of her efforts was proposed, seconded and carried unanimously. Her report is as follows:

The CAP Newsletter continues in a healthy state with two substantial issues since the last AGM. I thank all the contributors to these issues. I would like to encourage all CAP members to consider submitting articles and material to future Newsletters, including research notes, essays, announcements, thesis abstracts, [news of] publications, reports from departments, and other news of palynologists and palynology.

A number of suggestions from the last AGM, mainly dealing with production cost reductions, have been pursued in the last year. Members whose dues were significantly in arrears received a reminder letter instead of the December 1995 issue. This was quite successful and resulted in several renewals. I am continuing to explore other methods of mailing and producing the Newsletter although I have not yet come up with anything that I consider to be satisfactory or an improvement on the present system. However, judicious editing and layout controls have ensured that the Newsletter stays within the weight limit of the 100 g postal rate without, I hope, sacrificing content. I propose therefore, finances permitting, to continue with the current Newsletter style and production system.

The CAP World Wide Web page also continues in a healthy state, registering around 200 "hits" each month. One suggestion from the last AGM, the compilation of a list of Canadian palynology theses, has been pursued. This thesis listing is now a component of the CAP Library. I would be grateful for any further citations to add to this list. I have also included a section of book reviews, the Internet Discussion List listing has expanded considerably, and I have added another article to the "Recent Articles" segment. I have several other items I am intending to add to the page as time permits. Suggestions from the membership for additional material would be welcome.

If there are no objections, I would be happy to continue as CAP Newsletter and Web Page Editor for another year.

7. IFPS Councillor's report
In tabling his report, Dave Jarzen especially noted his thanks to Susan Jarzen and the Canadian Museum of Nature. His report reads as follows:

As I write this, my final IFPS Report, the IX IPC at Houston is only weeks away. I am looking forward to these meetings on several accounts, one of which is that after eight years as CAP Councillor, I can now see that CAP is indeed an active organization, not only within the boundaries of Canada, but also in the international aspects of its activities. We can be proud of our history in the IFPS, including our active membership in the IFPS Executive, hosting the 6th IPC in Calgary, and always, yes always, supporting the IFPS in its role as the umbrella organization for the world palynological community.

As most of you will already know by the time you read this message, Dr Owen Kent Davis (University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona) has been elected as the sixth and next President of the IFPS for the term 1996-2000. He has appointed Dr Scott Anderson (Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona) as Secretary-Treasurer for the same term. The position of Newsletter Editor remains to be announced. [After Dave had submitted this report, it was announced that Dr Frederick Rich of Georgia Southern College, Statesboro, Georgia, has accepted the position of IFPS Newsletter Editor.] With this change in IFPS Executive, I will also step down as IFPS Vice-President representing Actuopalynology. After the Houston meeting, President Davis will appoint three new Vice-Presidents (two representing paleopalynology and one to represent actuopalynology).

The Houston meeting promises to be one of the best in many years. The organizing team has worked long and hard to insure a diverse and challenging program. The Second Edition of the World Directory of Palynologists will be distributed free to registered participants at the IX IPC. The task of assembling and editing this valuable reference source was that of Owen Davis, the current IFPS Secretary-Treasurer. Owen is to be congratulated for this onerous undertaking.

Martin Head (University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario), CAP Secretary-Treasurer, has maintained up to date and clean records of our dues and membership to the IFPS. Our most current dues payment was made on 27 April 1996 in the amount of $126.48 Cdn which at the then exchange rate of 1.36 is equivalent to $93 US. This covers CAP dues at $1.50/member/year and includes current paid members and a few late paying members for 1995. It is the opinion of this retiring Councillor that the $1.50 dues per member is excellent value for membership in the IFPS. The two annual issues of Palynos alone make the dues amount a real bargain.

Julian Szeicz (Queens University, Kingston, Ontario), is the newly elected Councillor to the IFPS for the term 1996-2000. Julian, like all past CAP Councillors, will need your help to keep CAP an active participant in the international scene. We must keep Julian informed of our activities, major publications, field work, visitations and other CAP events so that he may report this information to the Palynos Editor for dissemination. It is often difficult for us as Canadians to brag about our work or accomplishments; however, today with increasing layoffs and changes in career paths, it has become necessary to place our positive offerings in the 'store window'. By providing Julian with news items of our many accomplishments (e.g., "NEWS FLASH: CAP Members Are Editors of AASP Mammoth Tome in Three Volumes") we will remain an active society and will better inform the world palynological community of our needs and accomplishments.

Thank you for the support all of you have shown me over the past eight years. It has been enjoyable and never a bore being your CAP Councillor. I have tried to attend all CAP AGM's, only missing a few now and again. Susan Jarzen (Unofficial Assistant CAP Councillor, and Official CAP Photographer) has been, of course, my greatest source of support and help. Thanks are also due to Martin Head for "keepin' the books" and to Alwynne Beaudoin for providing me with many news items which I supplied to the IFPS and Palynos as an information source and for publication.

Thanks to all of CAP .... As Davey Crocket once said to Sam Houston, "hope to see you in Texas ...."

Thanks to Dave for his good work as CAP IFPS Councillor were proposed, seconded and carried unanimously.

The meeting then discussed publication of the World Directory, the second edition of which was published at the Houston IPC. The IFPS President has already made it known that the World Directory was able to be published (at least to acceptable quality) only because of a private donation from Dr Lucy Cranwell. The implication was that future Directory's would need a similar influx of additional funds. Geoff Norris pointed out that publishing the Directory on the World Wide Web would cut costs considerably: palynologists from less developed countries might still need paper copies, but printing and mailing costs could be substantially reduced. The meeting authorized incoming Councillor Julian Szeicz to investigate the possibilities and ramifications of producing an electronic version of the World Directory.

8. Appointment of Auditor and Nominating Committee
Since Martin Head has stated his intention to step down as CAP Secretary-Treasurer, it was decided that appointment of CAP Auditor should wait until a new Secretary-Treasurer has been elected - until the start of 1997.

The task of seeking out a nomination for a new Secretary-Treasurer goes to the Nominating Committee - Gail Chmura and Jocelyne Legault - who were duly appointed.

9. Location for the 1997 AGM
It was decided that the next CAP AGM would be held in conjunction with the 1997 AASP Meeting, which will take place at Woods Hole, Massachusetts between the 14th and 18th September, 1997.

10. Other business
There was a discussion about the use of profits from IPC Meetings. These have, apparently, been variously used in the past as, for example, seed money for the next IPC and funding for student travel to conferences. The meeting authorized Julian Szeicz to encourage the IFPS Council to persuade future IPC organizers to maintain an adequate and appropriate bookkeeping and show accountability.

11. Closing
As there was no other business the meeting was closed with unanimous assent.

Rob Fensome
CAP President-Elect
Geological Survey of Canada - Atlantic
P.O. Box 1006
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2Y 4A2

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This summary originally appeared in CAP Newsletter 19(2):4-8, 1996. It has been slightly edited for clarity.