Minutes for the YCG AGM 2018
26th March 2018, University of Warwick
Committee members present:
- Sam Horrell (SH)
- Matthew Dunstan (MD)
- Elliot Carrington (EC)
- Claire Hobday (CH)
- Natalie Tatum (NT)
- Charlie McMonagle (CM)
1. Formalities
1.1. Apologies for absence
These were from:
- Alex Cousen (IG Rep)
- Charlotte Kirk (PCG Rep)
- James Cumby (Ordinary Member)
- Genevieve Baker (Ordinary Member)
- Matt Reeves (Ordinary Member)
- Lucy Mapp (Ordinary Member)
1.2. Acceptance of agenda
This was presented by SH and accepted by CM and NT.
1.3. Minutes of the YCG AGM 2017
These were accepted by CM and NT.
1.4. Matters Arising
No Matters arising were presented
2. Reports
2.1. Chairman’s report (SH)
Over the past several years the YCG Spring meeting has developed into a well-established format, consisting of two Plenary speakers, typically one chemistry based and one biological based, and an educational session with a number of Keynote speakers which aims to be accessible and interesting to all knowledge levels and specialties. We hope these sessions can help bridge the gap between disciplines and encourage further cross talk and even collaboration.
This year’s meeting had Dr. Ivo Tews (Southampton) giving the biological Pleanry and Dr. Serena Corr (Glasgow) providing the Chemical plenary. This year’s educational session tomorrow will focus on a common enemy, misbehaving crystals, with Prof Elspeth Garman (Oxford) and Dr John Claridge (Liverpool) giving providing the macromolecular and small molecule perspectives, respectively.
This Year’s Lonsdale Lecture was awarded to Prof. Bill Clegg (Newcastle) who will talk us through reliability in Crystallography. The Parkin Lecture has been awarded to Dr. Michael Gaultois for his outreach work at the University of Cambridge where he helped develop various workshops and open day activities for crystallography and marterial science, as well as his work on usefulscience.org producing 5 second summaries of peer reviewed literature and the useful science podcast, which I hope there will be more of soon.
We have a number of committee positions opening up this year, including Chair (Sam Horrell), Secretary/treasurer (Elliot Carrington), CCG Rep )Claire Hobday), PCG rep (Charlotte Kirk), ICG rep (Alex Cousen) and some ordinary members (Genevieve Baker). We have had some nominations already but nominations are still open for all positions. I would like to thank them for their work organizing this meeting and all the work they have done for the YCG these past two years.
Education and outreach activities over the past year have proved difficult to orchestrate on behalf of the YCG as the BCA is focusing on putting on smaller local events, unlike previous years where the YCG has helped with The Big Bang Fair and the Cheltenham Science fair. These smaller events are typically planned and coordinated within their respective institutes with no need for external volunteers. If the YCG can’t act as a pool of volunteers as it has previously we hope that the YCG can instead act as a megaphone for your outreach activities, so please get in touch if you have participated in any outreach activities and we would be happy to post an article to the YCG website and social media. If you would like to get involved in any outreach activities outside the BCA various members of the committee have been involved with Café Scientifique, Pint of Science and I’m a scientist get me out of here at one point or another. I’m sure they would be happy to help you get involved.
We would like to acknowledge the Journal Crystals for their continued sponsorship of this meeting and our new sponsors this year “I’m A Scientist Get me Out of Here” who have provided us with a £50 Amazon voucher and an I’m a Scientist Mug to award as a Poster Prize. As in previous years, if anyone has any ideas for sponsorship opportunities please get in touch with a member of the committee.
As of writing this the YCG has 1169 likes on facebook (up from 1086 last year) with posts reaching 150-200 people on average. Our twitter following (@yYCG_BCA) has greatly increased from 192 this time last year to 279 this year. We hope to make these platforms, along with the YCG website, useful and interesting to the YCG members and the general public. So if you would like to get involved with producing content for the website please get in touch with a member of the committee. The YCG website also has a section to promote the work of YCG members, however it is largely unused by anyone other than the committee. This resource is here to help promote your work so if this is of interest to the community at large please get submitting those papers to us to publish on the website.
And finally we have a YCG mailing list which we use to keep members updated on any YCG activity or any opportunities to get involved with the YCG. If you aren’t already signed up we will have a signup sheet available throughout the meeting.
2.2. Secretary’s report (EH)
Instead of a report this section focused on a discussion about the YCG bank account. In particular the BCA had offered to hold the YCG funds (currently £537) in a restricted part of their account which will be reserved for YCG use only. This will mean that the YCG bank account doesn’t need to change hands every 2 years, which can cause significant problems due to the committee being spread around the country. It was also mentioned that it might be good for the YCG to maintain its independence with the bank account, so a vote was then taken. The outcome (see below) suggested we should try to keep hold of the bank account for now and then re-review this point in 1 year, unless we ran into significant problems.
Vote result:
- Wait 1 year to see if we can easily transfer the bank account to the new committee – 23
- Transfer control of the money to the main BCA now – 3
Therefore the YCG independent bank account is retained for 1 year and this will be reviewed at the next AGM.
3. Elections to the committee
3.1. Chair
SH steps down from the position of chair after his 2 year term. One nomination for this position was received:
- Elliot Carrington was nominated by CM seconded by CH
The nomination was accepted with no objections.
3.2. Secretary / Treasurer
EC finished his 2 year term as Secretary / Treasurer and moves into the position of Chair. One nomination for this position was received:
- Tom Roseveare was nominated by EC seconded by CM
The nomination was accepted with no objections.
3.3. CCG Representative
CH finished her 2 year term as CCG Rep. Two nominations for this position were received:
- Steven Dodsworth was nominated by Tom Roseveare seconded by EC
- Hamish Yeung was nominated by MD seconded by SH
A vote was taken and Hamish Yeung was nominated to the position.
3.4. PCG Representative
Charlotte Kirk finished her 2 year term as PCG Rep. Two nominations for this position were received:
- James Cumby was nominated by SH seconded by CM
- George Sackman was nominated by EC seconded by SH
A vote was taken and George Sackman was nominated to the position.
3.5. IG Representative
No nominations were received for this post.
3.6. Ordinary member
Genevieve Baker finished her 2 year term as Ordinary Member. Three nominations for this position were received:
- Salma Rehman was nominated by SH seconded by NT.
- Steven Dodsworth was nominated by EC seconded by CM.
- Rachel Wilkinson was nominated by NT seconded by SH.
A vote was taken and Steven Dodsworth was nominated to the position.
The new YCG committee is therefore comprised as follows:
- Chair: Elliot Carrington
- Vice Chair: Matthew Dunstan
- Secretary: Tom Roseveare
- Webmaster: Charlie McMonagle
- BSG Rep: Natalie Tatum
- CCG Rep: Hamish Yeung
- IG Rep: Too be filled.
- PSG Rep: George Sackman
- Ordinary Members:
- Matthew Reeves
- Lucy Mapp
- James Crumby
- Steven Dodsworth
4. Lonsdale lecture
Call for nominations: Gregor Kieslich from TUM Munich was nominated
5. YCG Website
5.1. Recent activities
CM gave and overview of the YCG website and discussed the “Meet the YCG” interviews he has been posting recently.
5.2. Future activities
EC talked about ideas for future YCG website posts. He explained an idea about describing the making of a Lego diffractometer, and encouraged people to get in contact with their own hands on experiences
6. YCG Outreach
EC encouraged people with ideas for outreach to get in contact with the YCG committee. £500 of funds are available for anyone who wants to get involved.
7. Date of YCG AGM 2019
Next YCG AGM to be held at the University of Nottingham on the first day of the BCA spring Meeting
8. Close of the AGM
The committee thank all members of both the BCA and YCG for attending the YCG AGM and thank everyone involved in organising the YCG satellite meeting. This marks the end of the satellite meeting and start of a productive BCA main spring meeting.