2020 CAP DNP Annual Business Meeting Minutes
The virtual meeting was called to order via Zoom by DNP Chair Corina Andreoiu (CA) at 13:02 PDT on Thursday, June 12th, 2020. Twenty seven DNP members were present at the online meeting.
Secretary-Treasurer Barry Davids (BD) moved that we approve the agenda, the motion was seconded by Zisis Papandreou (ZP), and in the absence of objections or additions the agenda was adopted. CA introduced the 2019-2021 CAP DNP Executive Committee:
Corina Andreoiu, Simon Fraser, Chair
Michael Gericke, Manitoba, Vice Chair
Gerald Gwinner, Manitoba, Past Chair
Barry Davids, TRIUMF, Secretary-Treasurer
CA then pointed out that the DNP website has moved and is now under the auspices of the CAP. She thanked ZP for his work administering and transitioning the site. ZP revealed the delightfully simple url of the site, https://dnp.cap.ca .
The Chair expressed some satisfaction with the strength of the Division’s finances, which she generously attributed to the long tenure of the Secretary-Treasurer. She then announced that the winner of the 2018-2019 Thesis Prize, Dr. Erich Leistenschneider, who was to speak at the 2020 Congress, will instead speak at the 2021 Congress and give a colloquium at TRIUMF. Dr. Leistenschneider was awarded his Ph.D. by the University of British Columbia in 2019 for his thesis “Dawning of nuclear magicity in N=32 seen through precision mass spectrometry”, under the supervision of Dr. Jens Dilling (TRIUMF & UBC). The chief judge was Michael Gericke. Details on the 2018-2019 competition can be found at the following link: https://dnp.cap.ca/index.php/home/prizes-and-awards/phd-thesis-prize/competition-2018-2019/ .
The chair presented a financial and membership report prepared by the Secretary-Treasurer that is summarized below.
The Division started the 2019 fiscal year with an opening bank balance of $1766. During the year we spent $350 on student prizes for the 2019 CAP Congress and received $2200 in membership dues, resulting in an operating surplus of $1850 and an ending balance of $3616. The Division agreed in 2016 that a bank balance of approximately $2000 should be maintained. Hence we have a surplus of ~$1600 that we can consider spending. The chair mentioned possibly sponsoring student meet-and-greet sessions at the Congress and solicited ideas for other initiatives.
Upcoming expenditures for fiscal year 2020 include a $1000 expenditure for the 2018-19 Thesis Prize and $250 for the 2020 Winter Nuclear and Particle Physics Conference student prizes.
As of June 8th, 2020 the DNP had 312 members, which is 1.6% more than last year’s 307. The numbers of full members, college and secondary school teacher members, and student members were not divulged to the Secretary-Treasurer by the CAP Executive before the Congress as they customarily are.
CA reminded members that annual membership dues are $15 for full members and free for students; she stressed that we ought to encourage students to join.
The Chair summarized the Division’s participation at the virtual 2020 Congress, after expressing some regret over not pushing the virtual meeting harder. 9 DNP students entered the competition for best DNP student talks that was adjudicated by C. Andreoiu, M. Gericke (MG), and G. Grinyer. The plenary speaker sponsored by the Division, Dave Jenkins of York, elected not to appear virtually.
DNP Chair CA described plans for the 2021 Congress. On Tuesday it is planned to devote most of the day to various symposia. CAP Director of International Affairs Ritu Kanungo has signed agreements with Australia and Japan to facilitate collaboration. The usual solo and joint sessions with other divisions are envisioned and ideas for symposia (e.g., in honour of a retiring colleague) were sought by the Chair. She emphasized that proposals for student events and professional development were also welcome.
A question period ensued. ZP asked the Secretary-Treasurer to assess the division’s financial position, which BD briefly did.
DNP Past-Chair GG brought up the fact that holding symposia during the regular congress schedule reduces the amount of time available for parallel sessions, thereby causing DNP parallel sessions to conflict. He emphasized that there must be a platform for students outside of the parallel sessions, for prize judging purposes and that the symposia put a lot of pressure on the DNP program. He recommended that symposia not occupy a whole day of the congress. CA solicited proposals from the membership.
Jens Lassen raised the point that the COVID-19 pandemic has made meetings better in some ways. In person conferences can be too expensive to send many students to attend, so virtual meetings can help to increase communication across Canada. Remote contributions ought to be encouraged at physical meetings as well in the future, he said.
MG argued that the social interactions of in-person meetings are hard to match in virtual settings. Beatrice Franke pointed to the advantages of both kinds of meetings; she mentioned that we ought to be aware of the danger of creating a two-tiered experience, one for those who attend and one for those who don’t attend meetings in person and thereby run the risk of elitism.
CA pointed out that 460 people connected to the CAP anti-racism discussion and asked that any members with suggestions send them to the executive.
There being no further business, BD moved the meeting be adjourned at 13:36.