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Notes from the SCAR President, number 47 (9 May 2012)
Update – Various Important Items
Colleagues,
I have been deeply involved in preparations for the ATCM meeting next month in Hobart, Tasmania thus my note is a little late (and excessively long but important!)! While each year I say it seems the workload coming out of the ATCM is beginning to ease somewhat as we deal with major issues, I am proven wrong by the time and effort by many to prepare for the next ACTM! SCAR will be presenting a range of exciting and informative papers in June that are vital to setting a course for SCAR's scientific advisory role for the next decade or more. I outlined the many issues we are dealing with in my last Note and it has only been possible with the dedicated assistance of many: Phil O'Brien (Australia) assisting us in dealing with an update on anthropogenic noise issues in the Southern Ocean; John Turner (UK) and his able Expert Group developing a comprehensive update on the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) seminal report; Steven Chown (South Africa) describing the first steps and future directions for an Antarctic Conservation Strategy for the 21st century; Louise Newman and Mike Sparrow reporting progress on the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) that is rapidly gaining momentum in the community (some exciting news about funding will soon be announced); Mike Sparrow and several product leaders developing a very useful summary of SCAR derived information products that is quite impressive and will improve visibility of the many programs SCAR manages that have great potential to support CEP work on a number of issues; an update and revision jointly with COMNAP on risks associated with tsunamis managed by Michelle Rogan-Finnemore (COMNAP) and assisted by Sergio Marensii (Argentina); Phil O'Brien (Australia), Steven Chown (South Africa) and Aleks Terauds (Australia) will jointly present the SCAR lecture summarizing the seminal work on invasive species in Antarctica in a supporting paper; a paper about an exciting new effort to create an environmental data portal assisted by Neil Gilbert (NZ) and Jana Newman (NZ); a revised paper after extensive comment and an ATS ICG on fresh food as a vector for introducing alien species, led by Kevin Hughes (UK); a draft Climate Communications Plan being developed by Eoghan Griffin and Mike Sparrow (financially supported by Norway, the UK, and ASOC); and a joint Australia/SCAR paper on Antarctic Biogeographic areas led by Steven Chown (South Africa) and Ewan McIvor (Australia). As always, all of this work is orchestrated and managed by our SCATS leadership Steven Chown and Kevin Hughes. It tired me out just listing the ATCM initiatives, so much for a slow year at the ATCM!
Shortly, the 4th Muse Prize winner will be announced and I think everyone will be very pleased when they hear of the recipient who is someone well-deserving and significantly expands the disciplinary and geographic ranges of current Muse Scholars. The formal announcement of the Prize winner each year is a great chance for publicity and creates great excitement in the community! I also hope by Portland we will be in a position to share some very exciting news about the Muse Prize and some new associated activities relating to SCAR's first Horizons Scanning event in a few years' time. As always we are indebted to the Tinker Foundation and their Chairman and President Renate Rennie for their visionary leadership in establishing and funding what I am sure will be one of the top IPY legacies. Renuka Badhe has done an excellent job of managing this project and we owe current and past members of the Selection committee a debt of gratitude for their excellent work (currently very ably chaired by Ian Allison [Australia]).
Planning for the Portland biennial meetings is moving apace and the OSC Science Program will be shortly announced. It is quite expansive and presents the best that Antarctic science and scientific advice has to offer (the new innovation of three Mini-Symposia looks excellent!). A very exciting Science-Arts program parallel to the SCAR meetings, led by Alan Cooper, is coming together nicely with a photo exhibition and contest (jointly supported by COMNAP); Antarctic-book author presentations; a three-evening series of science-arts rendezvous featuring pub science presentations that will highlight "Scientists share their stories" with books, music, narratives, art, poetry, films, videos, stories/books, historic Antarctic music, films and photography (where better to learn about Antarctic science than a pub!); an arts display in the Portland airport (you can view it coming and going!); and local displays of art by artists/scientists teams. The schedule for all of these events will be announced shortly. This is an experiment to see how we might increase the local impact of SCAR meetings and reach the general public as we travel the world! As you might remember we are also opening the first morning plenary session of keynote addresses to the public as well. Our first offer of free registration to the first 200 students with accepted abstracts has been a great success with more applicants (I think 260?) than we could fund, significantly increasing student participation (ably assisted by APECS and the offer of inexpensive student housing on campus, $25/night double occupancy by our hosts Portland State University managed by Christina Hulbe). For the first time we have private donations from the Tinker Foundation and the International Glaciological Society (Secretary General Magnus Magnusson) and corporate supporters such as Google to underwrite the cost of staging and hosting the OSC. We also for the first time have been using social media to advertise the OSC with over 1100 members that have joined the OSC Facebook page. And finally, the COMNAP Symposium Sustainable Solutions to Antarctic Challenges: Supporting Polar Research in the 21st Century that is open to both SCAR and COMNAP participants will be on Sunday prior to the OCS. It is shaping up to be a very busy two weeks and we expect well over 1000 attendees, our best participation yet for Antarctic only biennial meetings! I particularly thank the Local Organizing Committee led by Christian Hulbe and Andrew Fountain, the 30+ member International Scientific Organizing Committee co-chaired by Rasik Ravindra and Pete Convey, and the Secretariat staff Mike Sparrow, Renuka Badhe, Rosemary Nash and Eoghan Griffin whose hard work and dedication have been critical to the success of the planning for meetings.
I was going to begin briefing you on agenda items that we will be considering at the Delegates meeting but you are probably already tired reading this long email so I will only briefly mention a few! The supporting papers for the Delegates meetings will soon begin to appear on the Members Only pages of the SCAR website so you should be checking these pages regularly as we make our way to the Portland. It is extremely important that you carefully read these materials prior to the meetings so you are prepared to make a series of critical decisions when we gather, as we only meet once every two years and we will be approving the biennial SCAR budget for 2013 and 2014.
First, we had a successful 'Meeting on Meetings' (yes!) that was intended to lay out a ten-year strategic plan to better organize and plan the myriad of meetings that support SCAR activities: while it is still being finalized, I attach the meeting report and draw your attention to a series of recommendations you will be asked to consider in Portland. The most important being:
- Recommendation #1: Calendars - The SCAR website should include two types of meeting calendar: A"SCAR Meeting/Events Calendar" that includes all meetings/events should be maintained by the Secretariat with input from the community (i.e., open posting). A "SCAR Planning Calendar" should be created on a managed web page based on a matrix of priority meetings maintained by the Secretariat. This 10-year Planning Calendar should color code meetings by priority and include short descriptions of each meeting's focus/topic. Once instituted, the Planning Calendar should be used to develop materials that can be widely circulated using social media, emailing, and the website to promote and advertise SCAR's portfolio of scientific meetings.
- Recommendation #2: Non-SCAR Meetings - SCAR should schedule its meetings in juxtaposition to other major meetings that have an established periodicity and timing, avoiding conflicts in timing. SCAR should explore ways to cooperate with major scientific meetings with significant polar components to complement and create synergy with its meetings. Opportunities for co-scheduling meetings at these major events should be used to leverage resources and broaden impact. The presence and visibility of SCAR at major scientific meetings should be increased. A cost-effective approach is to utilize SCAR people already attending these meetings.
- Recommendation #6: SCAR/COMNAP - SCAR and COMNAP should continue the practice of biennial joint meetings to the benefit of both organizations. SCAR should explore ways to make the biennial joint meetings more integrated and increase synergy. The SCAR/COMNAP Executive Committees should continue the practice of joint meetings when possible. The SCAR Executive Committee, on occasion, should consider meeting in conjunction with major SCAR meetings to improve interactions and communications.
- Recommendation #7: SCAR/IASC - SCAR and IASC should plan for a joint Arctic and Antarctic meeting every 4 or 5 years. SCAR should utilize BiPAG to facilitate and plan these events. The SCAR/IASC Executive Committees should continue joint meetings of opportunity.
- Recommendation #8: Biennial Meetings Structure and Schedule - The current schedule of 2 days of satellite meetings/2 days of SSG Business Meetings/4 days of OSC/3 days of Delegates Meeting within a two week period should be retained until there is compelling evidence that a change is needed or desirable. The Delegates may choose to consider the advantages and disadvantages of a return to separating the biennial meetings into two meetings, two-months apart. The internal structure of the OSC should continue to evolve and new and innovative approaches considered, encouraging interdisciplinary interactions and thinking. Poster sessions should be planned and staged to optimize impact and create value.
- Recommendation #9: Biennial Meeting Finances and Management - Delegates should decide if they wish to further explore "surplus generating" models for the biennial meetings. If yes, the Secretariat and the Finance Committee should be tasked with providing more robust financial analyses of possible scenarios. The ideal model is a low risk, sustainable financial and management system for planning and staging the biennial meetings that allows all SCAR members to host the meetings if they wish to.
- Recommendation #10: The Costs of Biennial Meetings - SCAR should continue to search for and adopt practices that reduce the overall cost of the biennial meetings, as well as those costs borne by the host, by maximizing cost recovery through fees, building meeting support capacity in the Secretariat, outsourcing services and staging trade shows. SCAR, in partnership with COMNAP, should work with hosts to recruit sponsors from the private sector.
Please refer to the meeting report for details. I thank the Action Group for engaged and thoughtful discussions. If implemented, I am convinced we will create a harmonized, strategic approach to meetings that will improve impact and participation, improve efficiency in planning and costs, and serve as a management and advertising tool that will serve SCAR well.
Secondly, proposals for five new Scientific Research Programs have now been posted and circulated for wide review and open comment. SCAR Scientific Research Programs (SRPs) are transformative scientific initiatives that address compelling issues and emerging frontiers in Antarctic or Southern Ocean science of regional and global importance. SRPs are SCAR's highest level of investment in science. SRPs are meant to advance scientific questions that are expected to require sustained efforts by international teams of scientists and researchers for six to eight years. External reviews from individuals and organizations have been solicited, as have comments from SCAR groups and committees. Comments are to be sent to the Secretariat (mds68@cam.ac.uk) by the 31st of May. The five proposed programs, as well as an evaluation form (used by the external reviewers, but feel free to fully review the proposals if you wish) are available on the SRP Proposals page. It is critical that each of you, as Delegates, review and are familiar with the proposals before the Delegates meeting. This will be the first transition to a new set of SRPs from the original five created in SCAR's restructuring. I cannot over-emphasize how important this decision will be as it sets the course for SCAR science for the next decade. Review is intended to improve (what I think are already excellent proposals), allow for wide comment and buy-in by the community, and fine-tune plans for the next portfolio of SCAR science, especially given the current financial situation. By agreement of the proponents, you will be asked to approve this as a package of closely interconnected programs, unless concerns are identified about one or more programs during review that require additional work. The proponents agreed it was better to fund all programs, if they pass review, than to pick and choose amongst them, even though this will result in reduced budgets per program if the membership fee increase is not improved. As you know, we will also be re-considering the resolution from 2010 that a fee increase was necessary in 2103 and it will be a referendum on how much members wish to invest in SCAR science. Therefore, it will be essential that you are fully conversant with each program when we meet and be ready to raise any issue you may identify with individual programs. Please take the opportunity beforehand to review the proposals using the form provided so we will be prepared to address any issues as we will have to make a decision in order to set priorities for the biennial budgets in Portland. We must come away from Portland with the next generation of SRPs fully approved and ready to start January 1, 2013.
In closing I note (in their spare time!); Mike, Renuka, and Rosemary have dealt with a detailed audit of the SCAR's finances as required by SCAR's status as a Charity. These annual audits are laborious and time consuming but are essential for maintaining SCAR's status as a Charity. I am pleased to report the audit was uneventful and SCAR's finances were judged to be in good order requiring only a few minor adjustments!
All for now!
Chuck K.,
President of SCAR
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