Newsletter #2.      AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR BIOPHYSICS www address:
http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/ASB/

Item (1) To AFFILIATE or to ASSOCIATE - that was the question

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EMAIL ASSESSMENT OF VOTING ON THE QUESTION of whether the ASB should:
*AFFILIATE ie meet regularly with ASBMB (or some other society), or
*ASSOCIATE with the ASBMB (or some other society) but have no formal
ties with them, or *REMAIN ENTIRELY INDEPENDENT, and not meet with
other societies.

Currently 188 members are on the membership list of the ASB. Of these
98 have provided email addresses.  In the electronic Newsletter #1,
Professor Kuchel and Sawyer provided arguments for and against the
affiliate of the ASB with the ASBMB. In essence, this would have tied
our meetings to the ASBMB. The fine details and consequences of an
affiliation were not clear but there was a perceived danger that we
might lose some of our independence. Phillip Kuchel and Bill Sawyer
were clearly in favour of the AFFILIATION while others such as Alex
Hope were less so inclined.

In the interests of economy, speed and convenience, I polled all 98
members with email addresses to ask for their opinion on AFFILIATION,
ASSOCIATION or COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE of other societies.  I received 71
replies (an 72% response rate) as follows:

AFFILIATE - 28 (39% of the total vote) ASSOCIATE - 32 (45% of the total
vote) NEITHER - 11 (15% of the total vote)

Thus, it is clear to me at least that, there is a strong feeling that
the ASB should REMAIN ENTIRELY INDEPENDENT (that not be subject to the
influence of larger societies such as the ASBMB) but will continue to
Associate by meeting with kindred societies. Indeed, this is what the
Society has done over recent years. Several members gave lengthy
replies which included arguments such as "There are no free rides"
(referring to possible increased costs associated with affiliation and
other possible losses of independence), and "I like the small, friendly
atmosphere of the ASB meetings, away from the major conference centres
where it is difficult to meeting and communicate with other ASB
members".

Finally, I would like to thank the seventy odd members who responded to
this question.

SUMMARY of the poll: The ASB will continue to meet in association with
kindred societies. For the near future, ASB will not formally affiliate
with ASBMB or any other society.

Cris dos Remedios

President

URL:http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/~mru