Minutes of the 1998 USNC URSI Commission F Business Meeting

National Radio Science Meeting

University of Colorado

Boulder, CO

6 January 1998

1. Vice-Chairman Ed Westwater called the meeting to order at 1754. It was moved and seconded that the minutes from the 14 July 1997 meeting be approved. The motion was passed unanimously.

2. Membership Committee Report.

Rich Paulus reported that the Membership Committee had received 5 nominations.

The nominees and their sponsors are

Rich Paulus 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. Ed Westwater asked all Commission F members to continue nominating high quality candidates for membership.

3. WWW Status Report.

Steve Sekelsky reviewed the USNC URSI web page that was discussed at the Business Meeting of 5 January 1998. Steve announced that USNC URSI has authorized the creation of a web site (www.usnc-ursi.org) and he will apply for InterNic registration of the domain name. Steve pointed out that all USNC URSI Commissions will share the site and that he will be the focal point for the Commissions – Each Commission is to elect its own 'webmaster' who will coordinate with Steve (Steve is the Commission F 'webmaster'). It is anticipated that the web site will be operational within a few months. Ed Westwater congratulated Steve on providing the leadership for such an important task.

4. Items raised at the USNC URSI Business Meeting of 5 January 1998.

A. Format for the 1999 Boulder Meeting (4-8 Jan 1999)

Ed Westwater announced that USNC URSI needs to receive any new ideas for joint session and tutorials by the end of February. Any new ideas for joint sessions and tutorials should be passed to Wolf Vogel.

Ed Westwater asked the attending members if, in the 1999 Plenary Session, each Commission should provide a review of significant trends and accomplishments of the past three years. By a show of hands, the attending members indicated support for the review.

A point-of-contact in Commission F was requested by Ed Westwater for an all Commission joint session on Signal Processing & Applications organized by Commission D. Steve Sekelsky nominated Steve Frasier, the motion was seconded, and Steve Frasier was elected unanimously.

The role of teaching and education in Radio Science was discussed by Ed Westwater. Ed Westwater requested that ideas for improving teaching and education be passed to Chalmers Butler.

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

Ed Westwater reported that the USNC URSI & IEEE AP-S Joint Meeting Committee Chair, Jon Moellers, reviewed the status of future AP-S/URSI meetings. The schedule of meetings is attached separately.

Ed Westwater pointed out that the URSI General Assembly is scheduled for August 1999 and that a joint AP-S/URSI meeting is scheduled for the prior month in Orlando, FL. Ed Westwater asked the attending members whether or not Commission F would provide support for the Orlando meeting. A motion to support the Orlando meeting without an organized Commission F business meeting was made and seconded. The attending members unanimously agreed to the motion.

C. Recommendation for Member at Large.

Ed Westwater 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). In the following discussion, it was pointed out that Commission F has two members who are currently serving as Members at Large to USNC URSI (Bob McIntosh and Ross Stone). A motion was made, seconded and passed that Commission F put no nominees forward at this time for consideration as Member at Large to USNC URSI.

D. Meteor Radar.

Ed Westwater commented that John Mathews requested anyone interested in Meteor Radar contact him for possible joint efforts.

E. International URSI General Assembly

The International URSI General Assembly will be held in Toronto, CA, Aug 13-21, 1999. Ed Westwater requested that any ideas for sessions be passed to Wolf Vogel (the organizing committee for the GA is meeting this coming April).

Nominations for International Senior Awards (Delinger & Van der Pol) should be forwarded to Wolf Vogel.

Anyone who wishes to be a 'Participant' (there is a travel stipend of about $800.00 available to participants) for the Toronto General Assembly is requested to contact Kenn Anderson who will organize the list of names and submit this list to Wolf Vogel. USNC URSI needs to have the names of participants from all Commissions by January 1999.

Ed Westwater pointed out that USNC URSI is willing to sponsor URSI Correspondents; these correspondents will receive the Radio Science Bulletin, which reviews International URSI sponsored events and meetings as well as providing topical, peer-reviewed papers.

F. Other USNC URSI Business

Ed Westwater announced that Al Gasiewski is the Student Paper Competition Committee Chair. Ed Westwater also announced that Susan Avery has been elected a Fellow of IEEE. The attending members roundly congratulated Susan on her election.

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

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

In addition Ed Westwater thanked the 1998 Session Organizers (H. Bertoni, J.Shaw, K. St. Germain, J. Beaver, A. Barrios, and D. Thiel) for their efforts.

6. New Business.

Ed Westwater asked if there were any new or other business items of interest. Geoffrey Hyde indicated that he proposes to organize a joint session (for Boulder '99) with B, C and D on optical communication where F involvement would be with the space-earth RF link.. The proposal met with general approval, although no formal vote was deemed necessary. George Hagn noted that the program for the Toronto General Assembly in 1999 would be discussed in April 98, and that it is timely for the U.S. Com. F chair to provide inputs regarding any possible U.S. speakers for the Com. F tutorial lecture (or the 3 general lectures) to the International Com. F chair prior to the April meeting. Candidate speakers should let U.S. Chair Wolf Vogel know of their interest, topic, etc.. No other 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