AGM April 2022 (minutes)

Minutes for the YCG AGM 2022
11th April 2022, AGM

Attendance:

The meeting was held in person and had over 30 people in attendance, including: Tom Roseveare (TR), Natalie Pridmore (NP), Claire Hobday (CH), Natalie Johnson (NJ), Sam Horrell (SH), Aly Abdeldaim (AA), Dashnor Beqiri (DB), Anna Herlihy (AH), Anthony Blue Carter (ABC), Thomas Hitchings (TH), Josh Morris (JM), Ben Tragheim (BT), Phillippa Partridge (PP), Rebecca Clulow (RC), Lee Birchall (LB), Alex Campbell (AC), Julia Gasol (JG).

1. Formalities

1.1. Acceptance of Agenda

The agenda was proposed by TR, seconded by CH.

1.2. Apologies for Absence

Apologies were received from Charlie McMonagle and Stephen Dodsworth.

1.3. Acceptance of minutes from the AGM held on 23rd April 2021 (held virtually)

(Previous minutes can be found here: https://escg.crystallography.org.uk/agm-april-2021-minutes/ )

These were proposed by TR and seconded by NP.

1.4. Matters Arising

No matters arising were presented.

2. Reports

2.1. Chair’s Report

The YCG satellite meeting was held in person in Leeds with around 100 attendees. There was a positive abstract submission. Thanks to Natalie Pridmore and Ali Abdeldaim for being on the planning committee for the satellite meeting and bringing things together.

2.2. Secretary’s Report

NJ said there was not much to report.

  • No updates on access to banking. It is in the name of a previous treasurer and chair and making changes to this has been challenging due to COVID. The aim is to consolidate this account into the main BCA account – to provide easier access and wouldn’t be subject to name change issues when the committee changes.
  • As far as aware, YCG has not spent any money in the previous year.

(Notes: At the AGM last year, TR said YCG had about 500 pounds in bank account)

CH informed the meeting that because the banking wasn’t used for many years it had gone dormant and has been difficult to wake the account back up. Previous committee members were required to have signed a document to wake the account back up and then close it to consolidate the accounts with the BCA account. The document has now been signed and the process is ongoing with the bank.

3. Elections to Committee

TR expressed his thanks to all the outgoing committee members. He commented it had been an interesting two years and hoped the outgoing committee had enjoyed their time on the committee.

3.1 Election of Chair of YCG

TR is stepping down from the position after 2 years in the role. There were no nominations for chair prior to the meeting.

There was a discussion on what the responsibilities of the role entailed. The chair of the YCG is the head of the committee and also sits on the BCA council acting as the voice of the YCG. The responsibilities include being on the BCA council and attending meetings, chairing sessions within the YCG satellite meeting. Other potential responsibilities could include liaising with other YCG groups from Europe and beyond. TR commented that it was a bit of work, but it was really valuable and useful. The role of chair is a 2 year term.

CH stated that in the past the YCG had applied for bursaries to get more money to do things (such as outreach). The future committee could do something similar in the future.

There were two nominations at the meeting.

  1. Josh Morris, proposed by ABC, seconded by TR
  2. Anthony Carter, proposed by Olivia Breen, seconded by SH

The candidates both spoke and provided information about themselves and why they wanted to take on the role. A vote via show of hands was held. There were 10 votes for Josh Morrow and 22 votes for Anthony Carter.

The new chair of the YCG is Anthony Carter.

3.2 Election of Secretary/Treasurer

NJ is stepping down from the role after 2 years in the position. There was one nomination for the role.

  1. Alexander Campbell, proposed by TR, seconded by AH

The nomination was accepted with no objections.

3.3 Election of CCG (Chemical Crystallography Group) Representative

Stephen Dodsworth is stepping down from the role after 2 years in the position. There was one nomination for the role.

  1. Josh Morris, proposed by Ben Coulson, seconded by TR

The nomination was accepted with no objections.

3.4 Election of IG (Industrial Group) Representative

NJ is stepping down after 3 years in the position. There was one nomination for the role.

  1. Julia Gasol, proposed by TR, seconded by AC

The nomination was accepted with no objections.

3.5 PCG (Physical Crystallography Group) Representative

AA is stepping down from this position after 2 years in the role. There was one nomination for this role.

  1. Ben Tragheim, proposed AH, seconded AA

The nomination was accepted with no objections.

3.6 Election of Ordinary Member positions (2 positions available)

DB and Charlie McMonagle are stepping down from their roles after 2 years in the position.

There were two nominations for two positions as ordinary members.

  1. Phillippa Partridge, proposed by TR, seconded by DB
  2. Aly Abdeldaim, proposed by DB, seconded by TR

Both nominations were accepted with no objections.

The new YCG Committee is as follows:

  • Chairperson: Anthony Carter
  • Deputy Chairperson: Natalie Pridmore
  • Secretary/Treasurer: Alex Campbell
  • Webmaster: Anna Herlihy
  • Equality and Diversity Officer: Thomas Hitchings
  • BSG Rep: Rachael Wilkinson
  • CCG Rep: Josh Morris
  • IG Rep: Julia Gasol
  • PCG Rep: Ben Tragheim
  • Ordinary Members:
    • Phillippa Partridge
    • Aly Abdeldaim
    • Rebecca Clulow
    • Lee Birchall

4. Any other business

4.1

AH requested those present on the YCG Committee remain behind at the end of the AGM for a committee group photo. Committee Group Photo.

4.2 Range of talks at the YCG Satellite

  • SH commented that the programme of the YCG seemed skewed towards the chemical crystallography side. Enquired as to whether it was an issue with the number of abstracts submitted from the other sections (IG, PCG, BSG).
  • NP stated it was due to the smaller number of abstracts received for the other sections versus CCG. The number of applications from non-CCG groups varied year on year, depending on the number of PhD students and funding.
  • SH wondered if it was a problem with biological PIs not sending their students to the BCA, and instead sending them to other meetings.
  • TR wondered whether YCG needed to be more targeted towards attracting BSG PhD students/post-docs to submit abstracts. They were unsure if there was a more BSG specific meeting that would attract attendance instead of the BCA. This was definitely an issue to think about for next year as the number of BSG talks at the 2021 satellite meeting was also quite low.

4.3

DB requested anyone interested in participating in the Flash Poster Presentations session that followed the AGM to send them their slides.

4.4 Potential name change of YCG

At the meeting there was a discussion about a potential name change of the ‘young crystallographers group’. The main points of the discussion are paraphrased and captured below.

  • TR introduced the issue. The name ‘young crystallographer’ comes with assumptions about what ‘young’ is and who counts as a ‘young crystallographer’ which could result in some people not feeling they count, when they in fact did. As part of the 2019 AGM there was a discussion about a potential name change. The conclusion of the discussion was for the committee and others to go away and think about potential name change options that would be more encompassing and to present at the next AGM. A lot of the work was done by a previous committee member Natalie Tatum. The idea was then to present the options and discuss them at a future AGM. However, with the past 2 AGMs being online (with lower attendance than usual in person AGMs) voting on any decisions was postponed until an in-person AGM occurred, in order to canvass for a broader opinion.
  • NP commented that other names that were suggested during this time also had other assumptions. ‘Early Career’ may mean that masters and PhD students don’t feel like this group applies to them. We don’t want to exclude one group or another, we want to be more inclusive. Currently the majority of speakers at YCG satellite meetings are PhD students – is the YCG excluding post docs?
  • If a new name was decided it would need to be proposed to the BCA council. BCA council meetings happen 2-3 times a year (next one was immediately following the AGM, so the earliest this could be proposed to BCA Council would be September).
  • The discussion was opened for opinions from those in attendance.
  • ABC stated that he thought ‘early career’ would exclude a lot of PhD students (even though ‘young crystallographer’ felt strange as a post-doc). If it was a decision between excluding post-docs or PhDs, they felt that there were not enough places available for PhD students to give their first talk in a supportive atmosphere. They would suggest erring on the side of aiming a name to make more PhD students feel involved
  • SH said that as soon as someone started their bachelor’s degree, then that could be seen as them starting their career. Suggested publicising the criteria of what qualifies someone to be a ‘young crystallographer’ at the point they are looking at the group and having a definition directly under the name to clear up understanding.
  • TR left the meeting to attend the BCA Council meeting, NP began chairing the meeting.
  • NP stated that YCG does have a criteria definition, the issue was whether the name itself meant people didn’t feel they were able to be involved due to the perceptions of what a ‘young crystallographer’ would be.
  • TH commented that age is a protected characteristic under the equality act, and that we should be careful about excluding anyone because of the name we chose. The use of the word young is a reference to age.
  • A number of new names for the group were then suggested, including:
    • ‘Student and early career’ (JM)
    • ‘New crystallographers group’, for those new to crystallography (TH)
    • ‘Early stage crystallography group’ (CH)
  • SH asked if it was worth taking a list of names to the BCA council and asking them to weigh in.
  • NP said possibly but thought that the process would be that the YCG had to decide on a name and propose that to them, rather than giving the BCA council a list.
  • Lee Birchall said that communication is the most important thing and how the information is communicated so that people know who qualifies for the group.
  • No further comments were made, there was then a vote on people’s preferred names:
    • YCG (no name change): 10
    • Early career crystallographers group: 2
    • Early stage crystallographers group: 17
    • Student and early career crystallographers group: 2
    • New crystallographers group: 1
  • It was suggested to have a further vote with just the top two options (no name change or early stage crystallographers group)
    • YCG (no name change): 11
    • Early stage crystallographers group: 21
  • There was discussion over whether this was enough votes to take forward (and if a 2/3 majority was needed).

5. Close

NP called the meeting to a close. Those present were thanked for attending the YCG AGM.