| THE
MINUTES OF FACS COUNCIL MEETING Singapore,
RELC International Hotel
December 6, 1998, 09.20-17.00
1 Opening Remarks by President
Prof. Ohtaki, the President, declared
the opening of the meeting with special thanks to the Singapore Chemical Society for their
kindest hospitality, which was followed by a brief self-introduction by all attendants.
The President added that in view of the number of national delegates, the meeting could
not be a formal Council Meeting and that the meeting will necessarily be informal. It was
understood, however, that any decision made by this informal Council Meeting will be
approved by the following procedure. The minutes will be sent to all
member societies, and if there is no objection , the decision is regarded formally
approved one by the Council Meeting. Matters raised will be approved at the General
Assembly. Apologies from Prof. Sevilla, III and some national delegates
were reported.
2 Approval of Minutes of 32nd, 33rd and 34th EXCO
The Minutes of 32nd and 33rd EXCO meetings were regarded
approved since there has been no objection from the member societies. A few amendments of
the Minutes of 34th EXCO meeting were suggested:
Item 11: The President advised that he received incorrect information
concerning the progress of Safety in Chemical Industry Project. The President stated that
Dr. Fukusaki, the organizer of the project, and the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) cannot
initiate the project at the moment because of the financial difficulty encountered by
chemical industry of Japan. It was suggested that some kind of participation into 8ACC by
this project is desirable.
Item 17 iii): An amount of US$ 1000 to ACGC
Chemical Research Communications for 1998/1999 was approved.
Item 17 vi): Discussion on Laboratory Excellence
Award should be quoted.
Item 17 vii) Details of discussion on Past-Presidents
Committee should be quoted.
3 Report of President
There was no special report from the
President.
4 Report of President-Elect
There was no special report from the
President-Elect.
5 Report of Secretary General
There was no special report from the
Secretary-General
6 Report of Treasurer
The Treasurer submitted an annual
report of finance and reported that the exchange rate of
Malaysian Ringgit is now fixed and somewhat stable.
The President proposed a solution to the proposal from Iraq Chemical
Society which did not pay their annual fee (category 3) from 1987. The President propose
to waive the fee from 1987 to 1997 if an appropriate letter will be submitted, and ask
them to pay the fee for 1998 (category 3). The category may be changed to a lower one from
1999 if they pay the 1998 fee.
The steps proposed by the President were generally approved but there
was some argument
concerning the extent of FACSs patience with nonpayment of annual fees. It was suggested
that this
case is somewhat special since Iraq is one of the founding societies of FACS and had been
active for many years. There was some opinion to the effect that any nonpayment of annual
fee should
necessarily result in the loss of membership.
It was proposed that the Treasurer would prepare the draft to change
the statutes to reflect non-
paying members. The proposal would be Considered at the 35th EXCO and be subsequently put
to the next General Assembly.
Moved; Noller. Seconded; Lim. All in favour.
7 Report of Coordinator of Projects
The Coordinator submitted the report of
activities of Projects together with those of related
organizations such as ACGC. It was understood that many new activities were planned and
initiated to make FACS active. Such has included:
1st International Conference Chemistry and Internet (October 15, 1998)
Fourth Asia Pacific Food Analysis Conference (November 16, 1998)
ASOMPS X(November 19-23, 2000)
8 Report on Cleaner Production Conference
Dr. Lee explained that the
International Conference on Cleaner Production and Sustainable
Development 99, which was discussed at Hanoi EXCO meeting, had no relation with FACS. Dr
Noller would contact Dr Su about this.
9 Report of Chairman of the Publications Committee
The Chairman reported that the newly
issued News Letter is A4 in size, and he added that the next issue would be prepared just
before 8ACC. It was understood that if necessary the New Publishing Committee (from
November 1999) would prepare the 2nd issue for 1999.
10 Discussion on FACS News Letter
It was discussed that the News Letter
should be loaded on the WWW page of FACS, and that Dr. Noller would discuss the matter
with Dr. Winkler. It was understood that in the first instance the text part of the News
Letter might be incorporated with the WWW page.
11 Proposal for Establishment of Past-President
Committee of FACS
It was agreed that the establishment of a Past Presidents
committee was not necessary and that Past
Presidents would be invited to attend General Assemblies as observers. This invitation did
not extend to EXCO meetings.
12 Proposal for a New Member Societies(Mendeleev
Russian Chemical Society)
It was originally intended that the
membership of Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society (MRCS) would be approved by this Council
Meeting. Since the meeting is informal, it turned out impossible to take this
procedure. The President therefore proposed that the meeting recommend that MRCS be a new
member so that they can participate in 8ACC and that this decision would be approved by
the General Assembly. The meeting suggested a membership fee in the 2nd category, payable
from 2000.
13. Report on a New Project of Safety in Chemical
Industry
The President explained that the
project had not yet been started since CSJ failed to raise fund. The President would
advise Dr. Fukusaki, the director of the project, to participate in 8ACC by some means.
14 Announcement of FACS Awards
The Secretary-General reported that the
form for calling for FACS Awards application had been sent to member societies.
Based on the understanding made at Hanoi EXCO meeting, Dr. Noller
requested to finalize the
rules for FACS Laboratory Excellence Award. During the discussion on the procedures of
selecting laboratories to be awarded, and especially on the appropriateness of such an
award itself, however, it turned out that the proposers have intended to delineate the
scope of the award within analytical laboratories.
Almost all attendants failed to find any justification for that.
It was decided after some discussion that the Secretary-General would
send the proposal for this award to be prepared by Dr. Noller to member societies to
gather their opinion by the end of April, 1999, so that it will be possible to discuss
further at the next EXCO meeting. It must be added, however, that almost all attendants
are against the proposal for various reasons. The main reason for objection is that it
seems utterly impossible to judge whether one laboratory is excellent or not by a few
photographs and written documents.
15 Venues of 36th EXCO
The President reported that the
Chemical Society of the Philippines kindly agreed to host the 36th EXCO meeting on May 25
prior to their 15th National Chemical Congress(May 26-29, 1999) to be held in Cebu. It is
advised that EXCO members preferably participate in their Chemical Congress as active
participants.
16 Preparation of 8ACC
With the aid of draft for 2nd circular,
Dr. Lee explained the progress of preparation of 8ACC. It
was pointed out the activity of ChIN is not included and Dr. Noller promised to contact
with Dr.
Winkler about this. It was suggested that ACEN had already contacted with Prof. Mou, the
organizer of chemical education symposium for cooperation. The President mentioned that
Dr. Fukusaki and his project, Safety in Chemical Industry, would also be involved.
Dr. Lee promised that the usual local hospitality would be provided to
EXCO members, national delegates(one for each society) and project directors for which the
President expressed his thanks. It was generally understood that the preparation was in a
good progress, and a successful Congress can be expected.
17 Preparation of 9ACC in conjunction with IUPAC
Congress 2001
The 9ACC will be held in Brisbane,
Australia in conjunction with the IUPAC Congress and
General Assembly. It is already understood that Dr. Noller would act as the liaison
officer between IUPAC and FACS.
Dr. Noller explained the present state of preparation of the joint
project. It turned out, however,
that the joint venture is planned under the name of the World Chemical Congress, but the
name of
IUPAC was only shown and FACS was completely absorbed in the shade of IUPAC, and even the
existence of FACS is not indicated in the official document. For instance, the structure
map of the
whole organization lacks FACS.
There were many other practical problems.
i) There is no schedule for the General Assembly of FACS.
ii) The registration fee for ACC has a limit of US$ 200. Nothing is
mentioned on this point which would cause some problem since the registration fee for
IUPAC Congress will be much higher.
iii) No names of FACS officers are shown in the list of the advisory
board of World Chemical
Congress.
iv) FACS General Assembly usually features the event by a banquet. There
is no room for that in the World Chemical Congress.
The general opinion is that FACS is completely overshadowed by IUPAC,
and there seems no
advantage for FACS to have a Joint Congress with IUPAC.
It was expected that Dr Noller would insist the existence of FACS more
clearly and he promised to make as much efforts as possible to improve the situation.
18 New Old projects
i) Two Proposals made by Chemical
Society of Pakistan
The issuse weres again postponed since no further details of the
projects was sent to the Secretary-General.
19 Others
i) Proposal for Raising Fund for FACS
Instituit Kimia Malaysia proposed a process to raise some fund for
FACS, which is essentially
request of overhead from the organizers of the events under the name of FACS, and some 2%
charge is suggested. The fund is to be used to encourage chemists from less developed
counties to participate in such events. It was understood that the issue will be discussed
in future since there are so many ambiguities in idea and in practice.
The President adjourned the informal Council Meeting with thanks to all
EXCO members, national delegates and observers, and expressed his particular thanks to
Chemical Society of Singapore for their hospitality shown to the FACS.
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