Business Meeting 2011

2011 CAP Congress DNP Business Meeting Minutes
Barry Davids

Note that the slides presented by Kumar Sharma are appended at the end of this page.

The meeting was called to order by DNP Chair Kumar Sharma (KS) circa 12:25 on Tuesday 15 June 2011. Following the approval of the agenda, he introduced Secretary-Treasurer Barry Davids (BD), who presented the results of the election. BD ran unopposed for secretary-treasurer. The vote for chair-elect was very close, with 12 votes for Svetlana Barkanova, 10 votes for Ritu Kanungo, and 13 votes for the winner, Zisis Papandreou. The 2011-2013 DNP executive is listed below.

Chair: Jens Dilling (TRIUMF) jdilling (at) triumf (dot) ca
Chair-Elect: Zisis Papandreou (Regina) zisis (at) uregina (dot) ca
Secretary-Treasurer: Barry Davids (TRIUMF) davids (at) triumf (dot) ca
Past Chair: Kumar Sharma (Manitoba) sharma (at) physics (dot) umanitoba (dot) ca

Elections will be held in two years, just prior to the CAP Congress.

Secretary-Treasurer BD presented a brief financial and membership report, summarized below.

1. Financial state

In the year from Apr. 30 2010 – Apr 30 2011, we ran an operating surplus of $530,
leaving our balance at $10 024. Our expenses during that period included two $355 registration fees for invited speakers at the 2010 congress. Offsetting this $710 expenditure was $1240 in revenues from 124 full memberships at $10 each.

2. Membership

As of June 2011, we have 126 full members and 91 student members, for a total of 217 members. This represents a small decrease from 2009’s 132 full members.

3. Financial outlook

If membership remains roughly constant as it has recently, we can expect to be able to spend ~$1300 per year without diminishing our cash reserves. With the usual annual expenditures of $1000 DNP thesis prize and $250 for WNPPC student prizes, we don’t really have any money left over for extras such as registration fee waivers for invited speakers. Given the fact that the DNP has a large cash surplus on which we earn no interest, it would be in our interest to spend money on such worthy expenditures without increasing our revenues.

KS asked chair-elect Jens Dilling (JD) to report on the 2010-2011 DNP Thesis Prize. JD informed the community that no prize was awarded this year because there were insufficient entries. Next year there will be a competition that includes this year’s entries. KS encouraged submissions.

KS described the recently established DNP-TRIUMF-CAP Vogt medal for subatomic physics and congratulated the inaugural winner, Prof. David Sinclair of Carleton and TRIUMF.

KS introduced CAP-NSERC Liaison Committee member Prof. Shelley Page. KS noted that scientists within 7 years of earning a PhD are eligible for the IUPAP Young Scientist Award.

BD moved that the DNP spend $250 annually on student prizes for the WNPPC. Wim van Oers seconded. Mike Hassinoff amended the motion to apply only if there were 3 or more students. The motion was carried unanimously.

KS described the plans for advocacy based on the SAP LRP. The LRP committee chair Malcolm Butler has engaged a publicist to assist. KS mentioned that PPD, TRIUMF, Perimeter, CINP, and IPP had all agreed to support this effort monetarily and suggested that ~$2k would be sought from the DNP. BD moved to appropriate up to $2500 for this purpose. Wim van Oers seconded and the motion was carried unanimously.

An ad hoc committee on governance was established, chaired by Svetlana Barkanova and including BD. This is required because BD’s efforts to locate DNP bylaws have been unsuccessful. The committee will seek existing bylaws until August 1 and if none are found, will develop new bylaws.

The 2012 CAP Congress will be in Calgary and KS sought suggestions for session chairs and sessions. JD suggested a joint SNOLAB session with PPD. Greg Hackman suggested a joint session on medical physics and instrumentation.

KS asked what further the DNP should do in general. Shelley Page suggested developing the website and it was pointed out that Zisis Papandreou is in charge of the site. He suggested creating a library of images for community use. Ed Mathie noted that the CAP student affairs division is revamping and will seek input from the divisions; DNP should respond.

Rene Roy proposed we thank KS, which we did.

KS thanked the session chairs and BD moved to adjourn the meeting circa 13:30.

CAP – DNP Annual Business Meeting_2011-2_notes