Newsletter #1. AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR BIOPHYSICS WELCOME to the first ASB electronic newsletter. I would like to invite you all to browse the ASB www page. Briefly there are two news items which I would like to raise for immediate "Discussion": ------------------------------------------------------- 1. The ASB is now on the www, please have a look at it. We welcomesuggestions for improvements. 2. A proposal has been sponsored by two past presidents of the society. It concerns argues that ASB meetings beyond 1996 may be held in conjunction with larger societies such as ASBMB. On THIS ITEM, please respond ASAP to me by email using the following address: (crisdos@anatomy.su.oz.au). ------------------------------------------------------- ITEM #1: The web address for the Society is: http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/ASB/ ASB 1995 Annual Conference, Sydney. In the web page you will find the program of the last meeting held in Sydney in July 21-23 of this year. The program was beautifully put together by Glenn King assisted by a group comprising Tony Collings, Cris dos Remedios, Mitch Guss, Brett Hambly, Philip Kuchel, Joel McKay and Frances Separovic. The meeting was held in conjunction with the big ASMAR meeting and in fact the ASB was a JOINT MEETING with the British Biophysical Society. Click on the speakers of interest and up should pop the abstract associated with that presentation. The Web page was constructed by Danny Yee who has agreed to maintain it in good running order for 12 months. The web page also contains the membership addresses as we currently know them. Please check that your details are correct. If changes are needed, please email me and I will see that the changes are made. You may also know the email addresses of colleagues who currently have no email address record. I would be very grateful if you would forward these to ASB. Its email address is: asb@anatomy.su.oz.au. ------------------------------------------------------- ITEM #2: Do we want to change the venue and format of the ABS annual meeting to coincide with a larger society? This is an important question for the membership to address. Two past-Presidents, Bill Sawyer and Philip Kuchel argue as follows: ------------------------------------------------------- LINKING ASB MEETINGS with THOSE of ANOTHER SOCIETY INTRODUCTION The number of biophysicists in Australia is small. It has been suggested that one way to improve the membership and the image of the Society is to hold joint meetings, either on a permanent, temporary or rotating basis, with a larger kindred society such as the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP), the Australian Society of Plant Physiologists (ASPP), or the Australian Society for Biochemistry or Molecular Biology (ASBMB). For the sake of argument, we shall examine the implications of interaction with the ASBMB which meets annually at a commercial venue. ADVANTAGES 1. Savings in the travel costs to members through attending one venue instead of two. 2. Access to lectures, thematic symposia and colloquia covering a broader area of science. 3. Improved publicity and image. 4. Greater opportunities to attract new members from related disciplines. 5. Opportunities to establish interdisciplinary collaborations. 6. Sharing the costs of overseas speakers, as occurred at the ASB-ASBMB Biomembranes meeting, December, 1990. 7. Convenience and comfort of modern conference facilities that normally would not be available to a small society. 8. Access to a professionally mounted trade exhibit. 9. Possible use of a professional conference organiser at an affordable price. 10. Access to science journalists during the conference period. 11. Possible savings in the costs of advertising, accommodation and travel. 12. Better communication with members via an exchange of information through the newsletters of each society. DISADVANTAGES 1. Commitment to commercial conference venues for several years in advance. 2. Higher cost of using a commercial venue. 3. Loss of small meeting atmosphere. 4. Possibility of being overshadowed by a larger society. 5. The timing of the larger ASBMB conferences (September) may be inconvenient for some Members of ASB. THE CASE FOR ASBMB The ASBMB has set in place a flexible organisational structure to allow the involvement of other scientific groups in its annual conference. The involvement may be either: (a) By Affiliation. The By-Laws of ASBMB now allow for affiliation of Societies or Special Interest Groups which receive a subvention form the Society based on the number of ASBMB members in that group. Currently the subvention is $16.30 per member per annum to a maximum of $1086 per annum (currently under review by Council). Special Interest Groups may be regional or national in character. Six Special Interest Groups are currently active (Connective Tissue Society of Australia and New Zealand, Queensland Protein Group, Sydney Protein Group, Biochemical Education, Metabolism and Molecular Medicine group, Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology). The relevant By-Laws of ASBMB, formulated in consultation with prospective Special Interest Groups, ensure the autonomy and financial independence of each Group. Thus, affiliation of ASB with ASBMB would mean the preservation of ASB as an independent society in both name and management. Meetings of affiliated groups are covered by the Society's public liability insurance policy. Affiliated groups have access to ASBMB funds (up to $3,000 - under review) for the mounting of specialist meetings. Affiliated groups may meet at the same time as the Annual Conference of ASBMB or, if regionally based, may meet independently. (b) By Association. Commercial conference centres are large enough to accommodate the meeting of a kindred society in an additional lecture theatre. Such an arrangement, which also maintains the independence of the kindred society, permits its members to participate in the larger meeting if they so wish. There would be two categories of registration, one for the ASB meeting and one covering the combined ASB-ASBMB meeting. Such an arrangement also offers opportunities to share the cost of overseas speakers as occurred at the December, 1990 ASB-ASBMB Biomembranes Meeting and the Gold Coast Meeting in 1994. A certain integration of the programs would be desirable to allow the members of both societies to attend relevant plenary lectures. However, such integration need not be an obligation. Bill Sawyer and Philip Kuchel ASB MEMBERS: Please respond by email to me (crisdos@anatomy.su.oz.au) indicating whether you agree, disagree. Comment freely on this proposal. RESPOND ASAP. Our commitment (or lack of it) to meet with the ASBMB would not commence till 1997 and need not be open-ended. I will feed the responses of the membership back to you in the next Newsletter. Cris dos Remedios President ASB 1995-1996