The Secretary General has made a suggestion that any items/issues would like to be put on the Agenda for future meetings can be done via a form (electronic word document) which will be sent out prior to each EXCO meetings to all the EXCO Members and from that a working Agenda can be instructed properly. Below is a revised 40th EXCO meeting Agenda.

Revised Agenda 

• Opening Remarks by President FACS
• Approval of Minutes of 39th EXCO meeting
• Report of President
• Report on 9ACC
• Report of President-Elect
• Report on 10ACC and 12th GA Progress
• Report by Secretary-General
• Report by Treasurer
• Report by Chairman of Publications
• Report by Coordinator of Projects
• Review of Projects Proposal
• FACS Website
• FACS Function 
• Review on FACS Foundation Guidelines
• Future EXCO meetings/Council Meeting
• Other Business
• 11th GA minutes
• Report of the IUPAC/World Chemistry Leadership Meeting 
• RACI proposal 
• The Israel Chemical Society
• Conferences for endorsements
• North Korean initiatives 

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2. Approval of Minutes of 39th EXCO meeting 

The drafted minutes of the 39th EXCO meeting held in Brisbane, Australia on July 3rd, 2001 was accepted by all members provided that some minor corrections are made. It was moved by Datuk Dr. Ting-Kueh Soon (Malaysia) and seconded by Prof. Tahsin J Chow (Taiwan).

Matters arising out of the minutes: 

- On page 2 under item 2, 39th EXCO Meeting: Action is completed for bearing the cost of 1000 USD in maintaining FACS Web server. The cost of Newsletter, 500 USD for 2001 has been paid to Prof. Chow for FACS Newsletter production

- Item 4, page 3: In term of classical contact, with myself as President, there is my regular email address (b.noller@mailbox.uq.edu.au) and my local work address in Brisbane that can be used. However, in relation to the official contact with the President, all correspondences should go via the address of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and the email address of facs@raci.org.au for all FACS secretariat matters. There is a need to have an updated contact details for all Member Societies; the Treasurer urges the Secretary General to undertake this particular task of updating.

- Page 4, Item 6: Prof. Ho Sy Thoang is interested to receive any suggestions of speakers for the10ACC. For better advertising the conference, Prof. Noller has scanned the 10ACC brochure electronically and turned it into a pdf file. A copy of this pdf file had sent to Prof. Xiaoxia Li to put on our FACS website to begin our advertising of the event.

- Page 5 under the Report of Secretary General: with the available of website, the FACS Newsletters will be placed on the web page. 

- Page 5 under the Report of Treasurer: Confirmed that 500USD each was made available to Projects AFPAN, ChIN, ANEC and ANAIC. The Treasurer also confirmed that 1000USD was made available to the Website project instead of 500USD. In addition, the Treasurer raised a question that Dr David Winkler needed to respond his email so that the amount can be paid to project ChIN. For project fund that has not been used, e.g., ‘Marine Toxins’ in 2001 shall be used in 2002. For other projects in 2000, all payments have been made according to the Treasurer. 

- Page 5 under the Report of Treasurer: Treasurer has confirmed that two payments of 120USD were received from the Bangladesh Chemical Society (BCS) for 2000 and 2001 dues; In regards to the Indian Chemical Society (ICS) arrear dues and current due, Prof. Noller has suggested that Dr. Soon needs to take action and write to the ICS. The Treasurer said that this matter bring up again in today’s Agenda item 8. 

- Page 6, Dr Paul Haddad’s expense: Has this been paid (asked by the President)? Mr. Treasurer has been asked to check this matter with Mr. Lim Teck Thai, Past Treasurer. On the same matter, the President said that he was able to pay half of the accommodation expenses for Dr Paul Haddad and Prof. Tahsin J. Chow from the conference budget (paid by RACI). For the record, the Secretary General then handed a check of 500 Australian Dollars to Prof. Chow.

- Page 6 item 9: The proposal for restructuring of Projects will be discussed further in today’s Agenda item 11. The ‘Medicinal Chemistry’ as a new project, as well as further defining project of ‘Green Chemistry’ will be discussed also in today’s Agenda item 11 under the new projects.

- Page 7, in item 11: the use of the domain page of www.facs-as.org is well established and if any issues related to this let us discuss it later in item 12 when we talk about the operation of FACS website. 

- Page 7, under item 13: the proposal on FACS Foundation Guidelines will be discussed under item 13 later today. 

- Page 8: FACS Function will be further discussed later under today’s Agenda item 14.

- Item 15: Dr Soon raised the correction that the Institut Kimia Malaysia (IKM) did not bid for the 13th GA, and in fact, at the 11th GA, it was approved that the Korean Chemical Society (KCS) will be the host for the 13th GA and 12ACC. The Secretary General then reminded all members that there is an outstanding issue regarding the registration fee set too high for 12ACC by the KCS. This needs to be resolved by FACS EXCO together with the KCS. Dr Soon continued to say that the IKM will compete with the Bangladesh Chemical Society and the Chinese Chemical Society for hosting the 14th GA and the 13ACC. Of course, the bid for hosting these events is not close at this point in time as suggested by Dr Mohinder Singh and Prof. Noller.

- Under item16 on Page 8: Regarding to ACGC, Prof. Noller proposed that the matter be discussed later today under item 10. 

- Page 8, under item 17 about Future EXCO meetings, this will be discussed later in today’s Agenda item 15.

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3. Report of the President

This is a verbal report. I have already expressed my thanks to our hosts, the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry. Perhaps it is appropriate that I give my report on 9ACC first and then reach to the report of the President.

From July 2001 until now, there was a period of difficult time to deal with all matters prior to this EXCO meeting; and now it is the time to tighten up all the lose end at this EXCO and the next EXCO will allow FACS in advancing our core activities such as streamline FACS activities and function; electronic outreach to all our Members; and effectively run the Federation the form it should be in the period that RACI hold Secretariat. We will discuss later our newly accepted member, the Israel Chemical Society but now let us acknowledged their acceptance of membership. 

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4. Report on 9ACC

As we all aware, we held the 9th Asian Chemical Congress (9ACC) in Brisbane in associating with the World Chemical Congress (WCC). This is collectively a successful conference which is a different track for the traditional Asian Chemical Congress and we knew that from the start they were difficulties and they were opportunities, and particularly in the interaction with the IUPAC itself. It is acknowledged that this was a different conference to a normal ACC. There were 1100 delegates to the whole of WCC in that 150 attendees were specifically designated in attending the ACC. The strong feature for us in FACS came out of the 9ACC and the WCC is that we have very strong representation of our Member Societies (up to 80%). In terms of activities during the 9ACC, there were 7 parallel sessions with a total of 72 oral presentations in that three were the Awards lectures: Foundation Lectureship given by Professor P. Haddad (Australia); Distinguished Young Chemist by Prof. Margaret Anne Brimble (New Zealand); Distinguished Contribution to Economic Advancement by Dr. Jong-Kee Yeo (Korea). All lectures were well attended and received by 9ACC participants as well as WCC attendees. The banquet on Tuesday night went well with the folk singing entertainment. The poster session on the last day was also a successful event. 

After Prof Noller delivered his President report and the report on 9ACC (item 4), Dr Mohinder Singh then gave a passing comment. First of all, Dr Singh echoes on the report on 9ACC by the President and said that it was some administration problems came about at the beginning due to the registration fee being set too high compared with our requirement. It finally turned out well, but it must be put in writing to members in the future and given to the Organizers so that these problems could be avoided. Second point Dr Singh made was that it did appear that some Societies have fallen back away from the FACS; Thailand is one of them, Dr Singh is glad that the Thailand Chemical Society is back now and same as the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry. Then, Dr Singh went on to suggest that some efforts are needed to make sure the FACS President is known in all major regional conferences and if possible, members of the Executive Council should also go and represent FACS as well. Prof. Noller then responded by saying that as the President, in the past six months, he had attended the conference of IKM in Kuching of Sarawak where he participated in the opening of the conference and met with the Chief Minister of Sarawak … and he was also asked to go to the APFAN, the Asia Pacific Food Analysis Network Conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in November 2001, although Prof. Noller did not end up going but a welcome message to the conference was sent and was read out at that conference.

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5. Report of President-Elect

Prof Ho Sy Thoang was representing by Prof Huynh Van Trung. Prof. Huynh Van Trung, on behalf of the President-Elect, read out a report that was primarily summarized the progress of the preparation of 10ACC and 12th GA (see item 6 below).

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6. Report on 10ACC and 12th GA Progress

Regarding the activities on the preparation of 10ACC and 12th GA from early 2000 to June 2001 have already been reported by Prof. Ho Sy Thoang at the 39th EXCO Meeting in Brisbane. 

The following was reporting about the activities after Brisbane Meeting (July 2001) up to now. The CSV has considered the 10ACC and the 8th Eurasia Conference on Chemical Sciences (EuAsC2S-8) are the great events in the chemical life of Vietnam. This would be the first time for Vietnam to organize such two big international conferences at the same time. In order to successfully organizing the conferences, Vietnam has an intention to mobilize many famous chemists around the World to contribute and participate the conferences. 

After the 39th EXCO meeting in Brisbane in July 2001, a National Advisory Committee (comprised of Government Ministers and Vice-Ministers) and a National Organizing Committee (comprised of Profs. Ho Sy Thoang, Dang Vu Minh, Hoang Van Huay, Nguyen Xuan Thuy, Le Quoc Khanh, Quach Dang Trieu, Hoang Trong Yem, Le Van Nguyen, Huynh Van Trung, Chu Dinh Kinh and Nguyen Nhu Thinh) were formed and met in Hanoi in October 2001. The National Organizing Committee reviewed and assigned responsibility to each of the members of the Committee and the following sub-committees were proposed and established:

• Scientific Program Sub-Committee
• Finance and Budget Sub-Committee
• Publications Sub-Committee
• Sponsorship and Exhibition Sub-Committee
• Venues and Accommodation Sub-Committee
• International relation Sub-Committee

A subsequent meeting of all the members of Scientific Program Sub-Committee and the National Organizing Committee was held to review the all Sessions and propose names of chairman for each Sessions.

Regarding finance, which is a very important matter, and that a meeting was held and directed by Mr Le Quoc Khanh, Vice-Chairman of the National Organizing Committee, was a former Vice-Minister of Industry together with Directors General of Companies in chemical industry. 

At these meetings, there were many activities have been identified and actions have been taken. 

For example:

• Formalities and procedures for donors from UNESCO and IUPAC were being sought. 
• English language courses being set up for local participants to learn about presenting scientific reports.
• Seeking sponsorship for the conference from foreign-invested companies in Vietnam such as Unilever, Heineken, P&G, etc…
• Invitations for scientific instrument companies to exhibit at the conference have been sent out.

In addition to the above, the CSV also established an Organizing Committee for the 4th Nation-wide Chemical Conference of Vietnam and this conference is to be held one-day prior to the 10ACC. The language use for this National Chemistry Congress will be in Vietnamese, whereas the official language for the subsequent 10ACC and the Eurasia-8 will be in English. For those important plenary lectures given by the Nobel laureates, the Organizer is thinking to have a simultaneous translation. Prof. Jean Marie Lehn of France and Prof Yuan T. Lee of Taiwan are currently both agreed to attend and be the plenary speakers at the 10ACC.

Dr Soon raised a concern about Eurasia and stated that the Eurasia is more or less organized by individuals, not by institution or organization such as FACS. This concern also echoed by Dr. Mohinder Singh and he said that only those individuals will have 100% say and perhaps the hosting country might have a bit to say regarding how to run and organize the conference of Eurasia, therefore, suggesting that FACS should concentrate on its own ACC and not be involved with Eurasia. 

However, Prof. Noller then said that there should be some mutual benefit to have the interaction of both ACC and Eurasia conferences hold together provided that the profile of our ACC can be maintained at its highest level and the ACC has the equal weighting in organizing the conferences.

Prof. Matsumoto raised a question about the General Assembly and its program. Prof. Huynh Van Trung replied that there will be a General Assembly meeting and the program will be different for sure. 

There was a question raised regarding the venue and accommodation for the 10ACC. Prof. Noller said that there should be no problems based on his experience of the Daewoo Hotel, the proposed venue and hotel for the conferences and that he said he came to Hanoi for one of the previous EXCO meeting in 2000 and also the 1997 National Chemical Congress of Vietnam were held at the Daewoo Hotel. 

There was a concern raised by Dr Singh regarding the current intension of the Chemical Society of Vietnam wanting to have its National Congress for the local participants (for Vietnamese speaking only) a day prior to the ACC, according to Dr Singh, this might not be the best interest for the ACC.

The issue of ‘separate’ registration fee for the ACC and Eurasia also brought up by Dr. Mohinder Singh. The answer from Prof. Huynh Van Trung was that only one registration fee for participant to attend both Conferences.

The UNESCO participation program: need to contact and apply through the UNESCO National Commission in Hanoi now and ask for the country participation program grant that the UNESCO might provide 20,000-30,000 USD to assist the conference. The application should normally come from the Government Minister level.

The 10ACC and the Eurasia-8 brochures, so far only hard copies are available. Prof. Noller has scanned the 10ACC brochure and turned it into a pdf file prior to this EXCO meeting. The quality was not very good. Prof. Noller suggested to Prof Huynh Van Trung to get the original brochure, scan it again and then send to Prof. Xiaoxia Li to put on our FACS website. 

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7. Report by Secretary-General
 
This is an oral report. First of all, the Secretary General apologized for his inaction from mid October 2001 for few weeks due to his computer problems not one, but several crashes. However, the email address of facs@raci.org.au based at the RACI is fully operational. The Secretary General urges all members should use this email address for their correspondence to the FACS Secretariat despite that he receives only once a week back from the RACI of these correspondences. 

The draft Minutes of the 39th FACS EXCO Meeting July 3rd, 2001 was completed and has been circulated to all EXCO members prior to this EXCO Meeting. 

Regarding the FACS Newsletter sponsorship from Australia, after received an email from FACS Coordinator of Publications, Prof T J Chow in August 2001, the Secretary General was able to raise a possible 1,000 USD sponsorship per issue from the Australian Journal of Chemistry and CSIRO Publishing provided that a one-page coverage of advertisement was allowed to be put on the sponsored issue.

Some new initiatives from the Secretary General:

• The Secretary General then circulated a form of items to be placed on the agenda and asked all members to consider using this form so that our future meetings’ Agenda are more realistic. 
• Electronic journal of Chemistry in Asia (or Chemistry in Australasia) was presented. Background: The ‘Chemistry in Australia’ a monthly publication from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) distributed to all RACI members was about to go electronic. CSIRO Publishing is going to tender the right of producing the printed version as well as the electronic version. Printed copies are currently available to all members. CSIRO Publishing is willing to undertake the editorial role in producing the electronic version of ‘Chemistry in Australasia’ if all members are agreed favorably. 

Some actions that the Secretary General needed to do: 

• Updating the list of EXCO members
• Updating the Member Society Directories 
• Updating a list of Delegates, FACS Fellows, Life Members, FACS Awardees
• Circulate electronically them to all EXCO members

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8. Report of the Treasurer

The Treasurer has circulated a FACS ‘Receipts and Payment’ statement covering the period of January 1st 2001 up to October 30th 2001 (based on the Malaysian account) to all members at the meeting. The Treasurer then elaborated the contents in his statement. The final balance as per bank statement as of 31/10/2001 is 17,585.83 Ringgit currency. 

It was noted that there were two lots of the subscription fees received in July at the Brisbane meeting from the Integrated Chemists of the Philippines for two years and the Bangladesh Chemical Society for two years. According to the Treasurer, he believed the money is still with Mr. Lim, the Past Treasurer. Then, the Treasurer said about the interest earned from the Multi Purpose Bank and about the loan stocks investments, the latter will mature in May/2002 and that all our shares would become one Ringgit per share, i.e., a total of 25,000 Ringgit.

It was noted that there is no change in the account kept in Australia informed by the President. The Secretary General needed to contact the RACI, in particular, Dr Robert Barnes and the Treasurer of RACI, Dr Andrew Smallridge to forward a statement of the FACS account kept in Australia to our FACS Treasurer.

The report had a few minor typos and they were identified as: On the first page, change ‘Brimb’ to ‘Brimble’; also on the first page, 4th line from bottom , change ‘01’ to ‘00’; on the third page, item number ‘6’ change to number ‘5’. The Treasurer report then was moved by Dr Thang and seconded by Prof. Chow with all favor in accepting the report.

There were matters discussed relating to the Treasurer portfolio:

• The Israel Chemical Society – what subscription fee should the FACS ask the Israel Chemical Society to pay? At the 11th GA, there was no decision regarding this matter, so, this EXCO needed to make a recommendation. A decision was reached and recommended at the level of 300 USD for a new Member. Action: Treasurer to contact the Israel Chemical Society (ICS) and advise that the USD 300 be the subscription fee for the ICS to pay.
• Regarding the Indian Society of Analytical Chemists: This particular Society had not paid their subscription fees for a number of years. Prof. Noller said that in one of the previous EXCO meetings (37th?), FACS had developed a procedure for ‘Society’ not paying their membership fee. However, in this case, because of no contact details of this particular Society and the action we need to take is that the Treasurer and the Secretary General to seek the contact details from the Indian Chemical Society about this Indian Society of Analytical Chemists, and make sure to include Prof. Krishna Sane as an alternative source.
• The Secretary General will secure the financial statement from RACI regarding the FACS account kept in Australia and send it to the Treasurer prior to each EXCO meeting.

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9. Report of Chairman of Publications

Prof. Tahsin J. Chow, Chairman of Publications reported that in the past two years, Dr Huey-Huey Lo and Dr Jer-Young Chen, both from Union Chemical Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan have done excellent jobs as the Executive Editors. Prof. Chow would like to invite both of them stay on the same position for another term of two years as Executive Editors. Prof. Chow then went on to say that the first issue of FACS Newsletter is soon to be released on Feb 2002. 

The contents have been outlined on a handout that contains basically the followings: 

• Message from the FACS President; 
• Introduction of new EXCO members; 
• Introduction on the achievements of Prof. Noyori (Current Nobel Laureate); 
• Award Lecture by Prof. Margaret Brimble; 
• Announcement from Coordinator of Project Director and Progress Report of ACEN;
• Summary of FACS activities during 9ACC (and WCC 2001); 
• Introduction of new FACS Member Society – Israel Chemical Society; 
• Minutes of 38th EXCO Meeting in Vietnam;
• Prominent research institute in Asia; 
• Hot research topics in Asia – Nanotechnologies. 

The estimated cost for printing is USD 1800, along with mailing cost of USD 700, for 1000 copies. We received two advertisements with total amount of USD 800 (Wiley USD 500 and ChemEdit USD 300). 

We would like this Committee to approve a support of USD 500 per issue from our Treasurer. The Chemical Society located in Taipei may subsidize the rest. The complete contents of Newsletters in 2000 and 2001 (three issues) were already posted on our website (http://www.facs-as.org/index-facs-newsletter.htm). Thanks to Prof. Xiaoxia Li (Director of project ChIN) for the outstanding works. 

FACS Newsletter provided a good (and free!) medium for Member Societies to publicize their activities (organizations and industries as well) to other Countries in Asia. All member societies therefore were encouraged to make use of this medium.

It was some discussion on the budget matter of producing the FACS Newsletters in Taiwan. In summary, the printing cost for 1000 copies would be 1800 USD; and the mailing would cost about 700 USD. Dr. Thang said he has secured a sponsorship of 1000 USD per issue from the Australian Journal of Chemistry and CSIRO Publishing to offset some of the above cost. The Treasurer has confirmed a total of 500 USD is allocated for the Newsletters production in 2002. Prof. Chow also said that each Society would receive up to 25 copies of the Newsletter.

There was some discussion whether this year would have two issues or one issue of FACS Newsletter produced, however, the President said that there are plenty of materials for us to produce two issues for 2002 and he allows the next EXCO meeting to decide this matter.

Actions:

• The Secretary General will collect a short statement each of our new EXCO Members for the Introduction part of new EXCO Members in the coming Newsletter issue 1/2002.
• Prof. Noller will supply a one-page report on the Global Forum on the Safety of Herbal Medicine, a conference held after the WCC, July 2001.
• The Secretary General will write to Drs. Huey-Huey Lo and Jer-Young Chen individually to offer both of them officially the title of ‘FACS Executive Editor’.
• The President will write to Dr John Jost, and ask for the FACS website be linked to the IUPAC.
• The Secretary General writes to all Chemical Societies in the Federation and ask them to provide all their upcoming conference events be made available electronically and also be allowed to put into our Newsletter as well as our FACS website. 

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10. Report by Coordinator of Projects

Prof. Masato Ito, the Coordinator of Projects, presented a lengthy and yet comprehensive report of FACS Projects at the meeting. 

Of that, the contents covered :

• Projects and Directors; 
• Proposals for 2001-2003 Activities and Request for Funds in 2001, Proposal for Low Cost Educational Publications Project, Proposal for ACEN; 
• Reorganization of Sub-project Low Cost Instrumentation;
• Cooperation with IUPAC, UNESCO, UNIDO Safety Training Program; and
• Items Discussed in the 11th GA and the 39th EXCO Meeting in Brisbane and the View of the Coordinator of Projects Announced to Directors Thereafter. The report also included three appendix: 
• Revised Guidelines for Use of FACS See Money; 
• Duties of Project Coordinator and Directors; and 
• Addresses of FACS Directors and Co-Directors.

Matters discussed relating to the Report of Coordinator of Projects:

• Projects and Directors (page 1);
  • Due to Dr David Winkler moves from the position of Co-Director of ChIN to the Director of Medicinal Chemistry (the new name replaced our previous ‘Natural Products’), the Co-Directorship of ChIN is replaced by Prof. Yoshimasa Takahashi.
  • A nomination of Co-Director of Medicinal Chemistry is still needed. Prof. Yodhathai Thebtaranonth of Thailand as Co-Director has been suggested. Prof. Piniti Ratananukul will talk to Prof. Yodhathai Thebtaranonth about his nomination. Dr Winkler needs to produce a plan of Asian Network Function of the activity on Medicinal Chemistry by next EXCO.
  • Regarding the ‘Green Chemistry’, the President said that Dr. Chris Strauss needs to come up with a name as his Co-Director. Dr. Strauss could use the Japanese speaker at the 9ACC that he knew or he could choose someone from Prof. Ito’s list.
    The EXCO endorsed the names changed.
• Proposal for 2001-2003 Activities and Request for Fund in 2001
  • Prof. Ito gone through his Report (page 2) and said that, there were Projects such as ANAIC, Asian Network for Green Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and the sub-Project of Asian Network for Research on Anti-Diabetic Plants have not requested Funds.
  • Dr Soon suggested that Director and Co-Director should work together rather than proposed separately, in this instance, he specifically singled out the two proposals from the ACEN/CREN project from Dr. Ross Sadler and Datuk Dr. Singh. Subsequently, Dr. Singh withdrew his proposal in favor of Dr. Sadler’s proposal.
  • The Treasurer, Datuk Dr. Soon further said that in 2002, if Director and Co-Director come back and ask to use the 2001 fund, in his opinion, would be inappropriate and not be accepted. 
  • Prof. Ito said the Green Chemistry, Dr. Strauss needs to propose activities in order to obtain fund.
  • APFAN: there was a report supplied by Dr. Pieter Scheelings (absent), Prof. Noller asked EXCO to approve this report. 
  • Asian Chemical Education Network (ACEN): Proposal has received from Director, Prof. Fernando of Sri Lanka for 2001-2003. It was decided previously that, while Dr Singh was the Coordinator of Projects and Prof. Ito was the Director of ACEN, the Regional Symposium on Information Technology in Chemistry and Chemical Education in Malaysia in March 2002 was decided to be the project get ACEN funding of 2001. For 2002 and 2003, Prof. Noller said that Prof. Ito needed to communicate with Prof. Fernando and discussed with him and advised him what agreement was in place for the 2001 funding for ACEN.
  • Sub-Project of Low Cost Instrumentation (including World Bank supported Low Cost Publication Program): Prof. Krishna Sane reported that the low cost educational publications program has made a steady progress as a part of Project SITA sponsored by InfoDev and World Bank. He then qualified to say that SITA is training socially disabled women in computer skills who are then processing useful educational manuscripts at low cost. 

With the Seed Money it has produced four publications, their titles are: Experiments for Introductory Chemistry; Modern Experiments for Introductory Chemistry; a German Book after translation titled Environmental Chemistry in Classroom Experiments; and Stereochemical Models from Folded Envelopes. Prof. Sane requested a grant of 300 USD as funding for the low cost educational publications sub-project. EXCO recommended 200 USD and said that it could offer additional 100 USD after some consideration. 

Action: 

A list of low cost educational publications in electronic form put on FACS website. Prof. Sane send it to Prof. Xiaoxia Li.

There was discussion of separating the Low Cost Educational Publications and the Low Cost Instrumentation as two Sub-Projects. Prof. Sane then said that he will retire and would like Prof. Monica Dutta to take over and Prof. Dutta is currently working in SITA. Prof. Ito then presented a proposal by Prof. Wing Hong Chan, Baptist University in the microscale chemistry as the Sub-Project of Low Cost Instrumentation. 
No decision made in this EXCO regarding the Hong Kong initiative. Prof. Ito needs to write back to Prof. Chan of Hong Kong with some details of Prof. Sane’s group activities.

• Medicinal Chemistry: The Secretary General will contact Dr. David Winkler upon his return to CSIRO and ask Dr Winkler to provide a proposal about his Medicinal Chemistry program. Funding will approve subject to receiving his proposal.

The Treasurer made a summary of all projects and sub-project funding:

• ANAIC: No request.
• ChIN: 2000-2001, 1000 USD paid to Dr. David Winkler.
• ANEC: Proposal by Dr. Sadler will get funding.
• ANGC: No proposal at this stage.
• APFAN: 500 USD go to Dr. Pieter Scheelings.
• ACEN: Between Prof. Ito, Prof. Fernando and the Treasurer to work out.
• Subproject: 200 USD go to the low cost educational publications.
• MC: subject to Dr. david Winkler’s proposal.
• ANRAP: sub-project funding.

The President then confirmed the names of Directors and Co-Directors of all Projects as listed on page 1 of the Coordinator of Projects report with the except of: 

• Swap the Director and Co-Director names in ANEC/CREN project, Dr. Ross Sadler and Datuk Dr. Mohinder Singh are now the Director and Co-Director of ANEC/CREN respectively.
• There was discussion on what do we need to address the program of ChIN since the FACS website activity out of the ChIN project? 

Prof. Takahashi, a newly appointed Co-Director presented his own thinking about the future of ChIN project in two directions:

• providing useful information to member of FACS by internet, electronic media, website and website maintenance;
• helping each Chemical Society and chemical industry to have their activities information available through the information network. 

Software developed (for things can’t buy) could be considered as another practical activities of ChIN. Prof. Noller suggested that a proposal of ChIN activities be tabled for the next EXCO to consider.

Action: 

The Secretary General needs to search and establish any of our Member Chemical societies do not have web page. As well as put our FACS URL website address (http://www.facs-as.org) on our letterhead.

• Chemical Weapon Convention: Prof. Noller mentioned about Prof. John Webb ‘s new project proposal of the Chemical Weapon Convention. If Prof. Webb wanted to do it, he should do it.
• Asian Coordinating Group for Chemistry (ACGC): Prof. Noller told EXCO members that ACGC is a UNESCO group; FACS was a member of ACGC. ACGC has its journal run under the editorial by Prof. Steve Pyne. 

The support from FACS to ACGC is given periodically, not regularly in the past, and the support is always done on a request base and on a case-by-case base through a FACS project for funding in the past. So, we should consider ACGC as a FACS Function. Prof. Noller said that the Editor of ACGC could use the FACS Fund to attend ACC, General Assembly and EXCO meeting. Prof. Pyne could be asked to supply a statement, ACGC journal samples to EXCO members. 

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11. Review of Projects Proposal

Prof. Ito said that there were problems with existing Guidelines for using FACS Seed money. Therefore, the guidelines (approved at the 37th EXCO in Hanoi, 11th GA, plus some further brief discussion at the 39th EXCO) shown in Appendix 1 (Page 12 of the Report of Coordinator of Projects) are reviewed again at this EXCO meeting. To use Prof. Ito words, the Guidelines are too restrictive for the Project Directors to use their Seed money! 

Below are some changes in the Guidelines:

•  All Project Directors shall within ‘3 months’ of their appointments submit a proposal for use of the Seed money. The word ‘3 months’ seemed a bit short and too restrictive.
  • The Treasurer proposed the new change as: For 2002, Project Directors must submit their proposals for 2002 within their first 6 months (ie. June of 2002), and from 2003 onward, they have to submit the proposal one year early by the end of December 31, 2002 for 2003 funding. 
• This point remains but make sure funding does not accumulate for more than two years and Project Directors should always inform Coordinator of Projects.
• Seed funds shall only be used for the following purposes:
  • Change ‘developing countries’ to ‘countries of the region’
  • Change ‘Not more than’ to ‘Up to’
  • Change ‘Not more than’ to ‘Up to’
  • Change ‘Not more than’ to ‘Up to’

Action:

Prof. Ito will correct the Guidelines and circulate to all EXCO members.

Appendix 2 (Page 13 of the Report of Coordinator of Projects) 

• Item 3 of Project Coordinator: A typo found. Change ‘don tot’ to ‘do not’.
• Add ‘item 7: To present a program of activities to EXCO’ in the section of Project Directors.
• Add a new section of ‘Project Co-Directors’ as follows:

Project Co-Directors

• Each to assist Project Directors in their respective network of projects.
• To monitor specific program/project assigned by Project Directors or initiated by Co-Directors.

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12. FACS Website

Prof. Xiaoxia Li presented the FACS website activities in her usual style using a computer driven presentation. In her presentation, Prof. Li told us why there is a need of having a website for FACS? It is primarily for promoting our FACS. It also allows all the information quickly disseminate to others wanting to know about the FACS, in particular, regarding the information of meetings, conference calendars… these activities normally would have the highest access rate. 

In addition, it is a necessity for all FACS members because of its searching ability and some of the valuable database available for access. Prof. Li then further showed us a set of very impressive statistics for our FACS website usage, e.g., there were 22,738 hits since the operation of our website, and last week alone, there were 1,787 hits. On a successful day, an average of 119-255 accessed through our website. 

Currently, the contents on our FACS Home Page are:

The full texts of our last FACS Newsletter (issue 2/2001) as well as two previous Newsletters are all available on this site.

Action: 

The Secretary General needs to coordinate and provide a current list of Life Member of FACS. The Treasurer, Dr Soon needs to create a form for Life/Individual membership application. All these need to forward to Prof. Li once become available.

The issue of costs associated to maintain the FACS website has been brought up: Image files can be a heavy burden. For example, the 10ACC brochure (>3.14Mb file) would cost the site about 1.00 USD to run whenever people download this file. In addition, Prof. Li raised a request asking for support from FACS: 500 USD per year to cover the manpower and additional funds to cover the traffic cost (the later based on the usage statistics). So, a question for us is that how do we do to reduce cost? 

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13. Report on FACS Function

The issue of FACS Function was brought up at the 38th EXCO meeting and also at the 11th GA to look at the re-construction of FACS, recruiting extra members in additional to the original member societies, reviewing the current FACS projects, reconsidering the whole project direction on communications, environment and focusing on the mission and the function of FACS also include the ChIN role with other groups,… At this EXCO, it was suggested that a task force or a key group be set up. 

The group will comprise of Prof. Barry Noller, FACS President; Dr. Johnsee Lee, Past President; Prof. Ho Sy Thoang, President-Elect; Dr San Thang, FACS Secretary General; Dr. Tom Spurling, Dr. Mohinder Singh; Datuk Dr. Ting-Kueh Soon, Treasurer; Prof. Tahsin J. Chow, Chairman of Publications. 

The terms of references will need to come out first from the task force, and the process will go through steps like the initial draft be approved by the EXCO and then circulate to all member societies for recommendation and further comments. 

Action: 

Prof. Noller will have a draft and outline the terms of references ready and get some comments/suggestions from the key group before the next EXCO meeting. 

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14. Review on FACS Foundation Guidelines

The purpose of establishing a FACS Foundation is to get financial contributions from outside to FACS and allow FACS to be viably and efficiently functioned. Proposal(s) on FACS Foundation Guidelines (between Prof. Noller and Dr. Singh respectively) still need more time to further develop. 

Once these notes and details are compared, the next step is for the President to make a recommendation to the EXCO for consideration. Dr. Singh said that Datuk Dr Soon has someone already assigned to the matter of Foundation so, we will work together. One of the major problems could be the different tax laws operated in different countries. 

There were questions raised regarding the FACS Foundation:

• What is the Foundation for?
• Management of the Foundation?
• How do we put a value on our FACS so that people could judge us and would come to put some of their charity money into the FACS Foundation? 

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15. Future EXCO Meetings/Council Meeting

A schedule listed below has been planned for future EXCO meetings. 

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16. Other Business

- The 11th GA Minutes: All EXCO members need to have a read of the minutes and get back to the Secretary General of any corrections. The 11th GA Minutes will be approved at the next GA. 

- The World Chemistry Leadership Meeting: A report issued by Dr. Jost of IUPAC has been circulated and it can be downloaded from the website: 
http://www.iupac.org/news/archives/2001/WCLM_report.html
Because of the length of the report (81 pages), all EXCO members should have a read of the report at the later day and to make any recommendations and to following this up at the next EXCO meeting.

- The 11ACC and the 13th GA: The Secretary General should contact the Korean Chemical Society to determine/clarify the exact date, month and year for holding the proposed 11ACC and 13th GA. Dr Soon quoted from the 11th GA Minutes that two set of dates have been proposed by the KCS: June 26-30, 2005 or August 28 to September 1, 2005 (?)

- The World Chemistry Leadership Meeting on July 9, 2001: the President said that he just attended the meeting with no prior knowledge that there was no official report from the FACS (initiatives from FACS would or could make in relation to IUPAC function). The reason was not known, it could perhaps due to the FACS Secretary General (from Taiwan) at the time did not supply one. 

- IUPAC: Should FACS formally be joining IUPAC? There was discussion regarding the fee simply too high for individual Chemical Society to join IUPAC as a member. The President, Prof. Noller said that he is willing to write a letter to IUPAC and ask this specific question about the fee appears to be too high (10,000 USD!) that the IUPAC is charging their members.

- RACI Initiatives: A report authored by Dr Robert Barnes of RACI has been circulated to all EXCO members. The report was given when Dr Barnes presented it at the World Chemistry Leadership meeting in Brisbane in July 2001. The President suggested the EXCO consider this document with the view to supporting the initiatives, not necessary supporting financially, just to support by being involved with it. Next EXCO meeting will consider this matter fully.

- The Israel Chemical Society: There was a welcome letter sent to Prof. Shani of the Israel Chemical Society. Prof. Noller then read out a reply sent back from Prof Shani to all EXCO Members. 

- Conferences seeking endorsement of the FACS: 

• Asia Pacific Conference on Analytical Sciences, Manila, February 19-21, 2002
• Asia Analysis-7, Co-chair by Dr Huie Wah Kit of HongKong Baptish University, August 2003
• IKM Asia Pacific Symposium ICTinCERD 2002, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 28-30, 2002
• PACCON 2002 – International Conference and Exhibition on Pure and Applied Chemistry 2002, Amari Watergate Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, May 29-31, 2002 

- North Korean Initiative: will try to get a North Korean scientist to attend the next 10ACC as well as to have a North Korean representative as an observer at the 44th EXCO meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam.

- Call for papers to be published in a special issue of Chemical Science in the Australian Journal of Chemistry from all FACS member societies. In this instance, the Secretary General will serve as the Special Editor for that particular issue.

- A brochure of the 17th International Conference on Chemical Education, Beijing, August 18-23, 2002 has been circulated. Prof. Noller said that he would like to attend and make the President of FACS be known at this conference.

- FACS Awards: Within 2002, the Secretary General needs to check and advise the next EXCO what is the schedule, timetable for the FACS awards and also follow the procedure of establishing nominations of the awardees. 

Prof. Noller, the President adjourned the 40th EXCO meeting at 6:00PM.

40th EXCO meeting

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