North American Radio Science Meeting

Queen Elizabeth Hotel

Montreal Canada

14 July 1997

1. Chairman Wolf Vogel called the meeting to order at 1730. It was moved and seconded that the minutes from the 10 January 1996 meeting be approved. The motion was passed unanimously.

2. Election of Membership Committee Chair.

Wolf Vogel announced that Al Gasiewski's term as Membership Committee Chair has expired and requested nominations for the position. Julius Goldhirsh nominated Charlie Mayer who declined due to conflicting scheduling problems. Ed Westwater nominated Stephen Sekelsky. Kenn Anderson nominated Rich Paulus. Wolf Vogel asked Stephen and Rich to leave the room during the discussions and vote. Rich Paulus was elected Membership Committee Chair by a one vote margin. Wolf Vogel asked both to return and congratulated Rich on his election. In addition, Wolf Vogel thanked Al Gasiewski for the excellent job that he has done as Membership Committee Chair.

3. Membership Committee Report.

Al Gasiewski reported that the Membership Committee had received 5 nominations.

The nominees and their sponsors are

Al Gasiewski reviewed each nominee's qualifications; a motion to accept the entire slate was put forth and seconded. The entire slate was accepted by unanimous vote. Wolf Vogel asked all Commission F members to continue nominating high quality candidates for membership.

4. Items raised at the USNC URSI Business Meeting of 13 July 1997.

A. Status of the USNC URSI Office of Vice Chair.

Wolf Vogel stated that the USNC URSI Office of Vice Chair is vacant and that the Executive Committee wants input from the different commissions on whether or not to retain the office of USNC Vice Chair. USNC URSI officers are Past Chair (David Chang), Chair, (Susan Avery), Vice Chair (vacant), and Secretary (Gary Brown). The USNC URSI Executive Committee consists of the USNC URSI officers, Chairs of International URSI Commissions residing in the US, and presidents of URSI (Tom Senior, current president, and Bill Gordon, past president). Wolf Vogel explained that eliminating the USNC URSI Vice Chair position would reduce a person's commitment to serve as a USNC URSI officer from 12 years to 9 years (each office is a three year term). Wolf Vogel observed that eliminating the USNC URSI Vice Chair office might impact the expertise of the USNC URSI Chair in dealings with International URSI. After some discussion a motion was put forth that Commission F supports elimination of the USNC URSI Vice Chair office. The motion was seconded and passed without objection.

B. USNC URSI Financial Summary Report.

Wolf Vogel reviewed the USNC URSI Financial Summary Report that was presented at the USNC URSI Business Meeting by Roc Reimer. The current balance is in excess of $74,000.

C. USNC URSI & IEEE AP-S Joint Meeting Committee.

Wolf Vogel reported that the USNC URSI & IEEE AP-S Joint Meeting Committee (JMC) consists of three USNC URSI members and three IEEE AP-S members. The JMC members are Gary Brown, Chalmers Butler, and Don Wilton. The JMC Chair is Jon Moellers who was the Chair of the 1996 USNC URSI & IEEE AP-S meeting in Baltimore, which was an unqualified scientific and financial success.

Wolf Vogel announced that it is necessary to replace Gary Brown as a JMC member and asked for nominations of candidates to be put forth to the USNC URSI Executive Committee for a position on the JMC. Kenn Anderson nominated Al Gasiewski. Gary Brown nominated Julius Goldhirsh who declined. Al Gasiewski was unanimously confirmed as the Commission F candidate for assignment to JMC.

D. USNC URSI National Radio Science Meeting in Boulder, CO (5-9 Jan 98).

Wolf Vogel stated that the next USNC URSI National Radio Science Meeting will be held in Boulder, CO, 5-9 January 1998. Wolf Vogel also stated that he is soliciting suggestions for session and joint session topics as well as volunteers for session organizers. Abstracts for this meeting are due by 19 September. Check out the web site http://cires.colorado.edu/ursi/rfp.html for more information.

E. Is the winter Boulder meeting needed?

Wolf Vogel reported that the question of "Is the winter Boulder meeting needed?" came up again at the USNC URSI Business Meeting. The consensus of the members present is that the winter Boulder meeting is needed. The discussion centered on that if there were no winter Boulder meeting, Commission F interests would fragment into two sections; those concerned about remote sensing would gravitate to IGARSS meetings while the "point-to-point" propagation people would align with IEEE AP-S. The consensus was that the winter Boulder meeting provides a forum where both interests of Commission F can come together.

Wolf Vogel asked for Commission F's position on the question "Should we encourage using the winter Boulder meeting every few years as a North American URSI meeting where the Canadian National Committee for URSI and the Mexican National Committee for URSI are invited to participate?" The members were unanimously in favor of using the winter Boulder meeting as a North American URSI meeting.

F. Recommendation for Member at Large.

Wolf Vogel announced that Ed Westwater's term as Member at Large has expired; Al Gasiewski's term expires December 1997. Wolf Vogel asked for names of people to recommend to USNC URSI as Member at Large (There are six Members at Large, each one serves a three year term, so two positions need to be filled each year). Ed Westwater nominated Russ Chadwick. Gary Brown nominated Bob McIntosh. Both nominees were unanimously approved as recommendations to USNC URSI for Member at Large. Wolf Vogel congratulated both Ed Westwater and Al Gasiewski for their contributions as Member at Large.

G. Other Society representatives.

Wolf Vogel stated USNC URSI bylaws specify that a maximum of six technical societies can have a representative at USNC URSI Business meetings. The societies and their representatives are

Wolf Vogel requested that members propose names of people to act as other society representatives. Bob Kropfli and Dusan Zrnic were proposed as AMS representatives. Bill Plant was proposed as AGU representative. These names will be presented at the USNC Executive & Commission Chair Business Meeting.

5. Commission F representation at the USNC URSI winter meeting.

Wolf Vogel presented a slide illustrating Commission F representation at the USNC URSI National Radio Science meetings. The data are

In addition Wolf Vogel thanked the 1996 Session Organizers (F. Davarian, K. Anderson, Dan Dockery, W. Vogel, D. Thompson, E. Westwater, A. Gasiewski, and D. Zrnic) for their efforts.

6. Commission F gets $2K per triennium from USNC URSI.

Wolf Vogel announced that Commission F gets $2,000 every three years from USNC URSI. In the past few years, Commission F has not used these funds. Wolf Vogel suggested that these funds be used to create and maintain a Web page for Commission F. The idea was unanimously accepted. Stephen Sekelsky indicated that he had Web creation and maintenance experience and, through a show of hands, was elected "Commission F Webmaster." Julius Goldhirsh suggested that the position be entitled "Web Committee Chair," and further suggested that the Chair make a report of Web status at each business meeting. A motion was made and seconded to elect Stephen Sekelsky as Web Committee Chair. Through a show of hands, Stephen Sekelsky was unanimously elected as Web Committee Chair. Wolf Vogel congratulated Stephen Sekelsky on his new position within Commission F.

7. New Business.

Wolf Vogel asked if there were any new or other business items of interest. No issues or items were raised. A motion to adjourn was made and seconded. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 1835.

Submitted by

Kenneth D. Anderson

USNC URSI Commission F Secretary