IAL Council meeting (Venezia, May 27-28^th 2000)

Saturday 27^th May, Pasquali's house in Corte del Capeler (S. Marco) - The session opened at 9.00 am - Those present: M. Jahns (President, member of the Constitution Committee), E. Farkas (Treasurer), F. Lutzoni (Assistant Treasurer), P.L. Nimis (Editor), D. Triebel (Secretary), X. Llimona (member-at-large, Organizer of IAL4).

a) Announcements by the President - The President opened the session.

b) Acharius Medal - The Secretary reported that there were seven proposals. The Council agreed that all nominees thoroughly deserved the medal, but only three persons received unanimous approval. The Council recommended the renomination of the others for the next Congress. The Vice-President and the members-at-large will be informed and asked for their endorsement of the choices.

c) Mason Hale Award - The Secretary reported that there were five candidates. Their curricula were presented and their research discussed. The next recipient of the Award was selected unanimously. The Vice-President and the members-at-large will be informed and asked for their agreement on the choice.

d) Proposals for IAL5, 2004 - As reported by the Secretary, at the moment there is only one proposal for the venue of the IAL5 Congress. This one proposal was positively commented on, but further proposals were sought. However, further information on local capacities, accomodation, etc. need to be provided before a final decision can be made.

e) Nominations for Council members - At the moment there are only two proposals for President 2000-2004, and no formal proposals for other officers have been made. Further nominations from the membership are urgently needed.

f) Financial affairs - The Treasurer reported on the financial status of IAL. She recommended that members be asked for a single payment only once for the 4-year-period and to encourage them to pay at the Congress. A number of members have still not paid for the last period. They will be reminded once more and removed from membership if they do not pay by a specified date. The request by one Council member for support from IAL funds to cover the IAL4 Congress fees was approved. The President stated that the IAL should be able to accept donations. One of the Treasurers could work as "donation manager". The Assistant Treasurer suggested that the next Council could consider whether the Treasurer could go on the money market to earn money for the IAL. It was agreed to propose that the membership fee should stay the same for the next period. (Most of the expenses related to this Council meeting were covered by anonymous sources, and not by IAL funds).

g) Editorial affairs - The Editor stated that he is willing to assist the next Editor in editorial and technical affairs, if requested. The President and the Editor proposed that the IAL could produce special issues on certain topics, e.g. one on the history of the IAL. The Editor proposed to send bound volumes of back issues of the IAL to relevant institutional libraries.

h) Other matters - The Council discussed several alternatives for the election of officers, and also emphasized that the President together with the Secretary and Editor should form a strong team. It was suggested that the Council should not exceed the number of 10 persons including only two or three members-at-large, and that advisory board and special committees should be elected by the Council. Problems in the transition between the old and new Constitution need to be discussed. The morning session closed at 1.00 pm.

Saturday 27^th May, Pasquali's house in Corte del Capeler - The afternoon session opened at 3 pm - Those present: M. Jahns, E. Farkas, F. Lutzoni, P.L. Nimis, D. Triebel, X. Llimona, M. Wedin (member of the Constitution Committee)

a) Problems related to IAL4 - The Organizer of IAL4 presented a preliminary schedule of the congress and reported on technical and financial matters related to its organization. Meanwhile the organizing committee of IAL4 has accepted 216 summaries of oral and poster presentations. The congress will have 12 subject sections with oral presentations. The posters will be presented in 5 to 6 poster sessions. The Council suggested that each poster session should start with a 10-minute introduction to all posters by the convenor. The IAL Council intends to have a meeting of c. 2 hours before the general meeting. The organizing committee will be asked for an appropriate room, possibly on Monday or Tuesday afternoon. The general meeting of the IAL should not - as originally scheduled - be on the same day as the IAL dinner, but one or two days earlier, in order to provide time for adequate discussion of matters brought before the membership. Participants to IAL4 will be encouraged to pay their IAL fees for the next 4 years in US dollars (40 US$) or pesetas. No other currencies will be accepted. In this context the Council asked the local organizer for technical and personal help in collecting this money in Barcelona.

b) Towards a new Constitution - The second draft of a revised Constitution, prepared by the Constitution Committee (IAL Newsletter, 32, 2: 61-63), was discussed.

In general: The Editor and the members of the Constitution Committee directed the discussion to the procedures for elections, the number of Council officers including members-at-large, and their duties. It was suggested that a new Constitution should be practicable and not too complicated or lengthy. The former Constitution mainly reflects the British tradition, and this can cause difficulties of interpretation, because of different traditions in other countries. According to information presented by the President and the other member of the Constitution Committee the worldwide registration of an international society like the IAL is not possible. Only local registration in certain countries for consideration for tax reduction is feasible. It was suggested that M. Wedin should report the points under discussion to the other members of the Committee for eventual further amendments to the Constitution.

Nomination of Officers - Difficulties arise when only one - or even no - nominations for a post are received, a not uncommon event within the IAL. After discussing the pros and cons all agreed that Council members should not propose nominations for officers of the next Council but simply gather them from the membership. If no nominations for certain posts were available until a certain date, e.g. six months before the next IAL Congress, the elected members-at-large could form a nomination committee that will request nominations. If they are unsuccessful, nominations could be allowed from the floor at the general meeting. The President and the Editor emphasized that a society such as IAL should have a single elected body with clear limitations of rights and no independent bodies which might compete.

Composition of the Council - All agreed that the Council should not include too many officers (no more than 10), but could invite persons to give advice on certain matters. A permanent advisory board could be helpful to link the international association with the local lichenological societies and to improve communication. The past-President should not be automatically an officer of the next Council as he/she may have too much influence. The role of the Auditor was discussed. It was agreed that he/she should not be a member of Council but would be nominated and elected by the membership. The Auditor's role is to report to the next General Meeting on the financial affairs of the IAL.

Council meetings - Physical meetings are not easy to organize in an international association. Therefore e-mail contacts should be improved and online-discussion groups should be established among the officers. Decisions could be taken during "online-meetings", provided that all officers have been contacted, and that at least a given quorum has expressed a vote.

Newsletter and awards - The Newsletter as well as the already existing awards should be explicitly cited in the new Constitution. A certain freedom should be left to the Editor about the content and style of the Newsletter. The Constitution should give the IAL the possibility to establish additional awards in future.

Transition between the old and new Constitution - Problems might arise if the next general meeting does not accept the newly proposed Constitution. The old Constitution would then continue to be valid, but some articles at least might require modification. This is why it is very important to find a broadly acceptable proposal for a new Constitution which must be published in the next issue of the Newsletter.

Voting systems - Several methods of voting were discussed. It was agreed that balloting by mail was unacceptable. Furthermore, nominees to the presidency should not be allowed to nominate officers with whom they would like to work as a team: it was felt that this proposal is not likely to be approved by the IAL membership, although it would increase the efficiency of the Council. IAL members at the Congress will be provided with the list of nominees for the new officers together with the registration package. This voting formular will have one box for each person, with members marking their approved candidate in the appropriate box. Further nominations from the floor could be added manually at the beginning of the general meeting, and an overhead slide should explain the procedure.

Financial affairs - Both Treasurers stated that donations should be held in the same account as the fees, but that they should be kept separate in the bookkeeping. Members from individual countries should decide whether they would like to have additional "local" accounts. The value of the Mason Hale Award (currently US$ 500) should be left open to modification. The afternoon session closed at 6.00 pm.

Sunday 28^th May, Pasquali's house in Corte del Capeler - The session opened at 1.00 pm - Those present: M. Jahns, F. Lutzoni, P.L. Nimis, D. Triebel, M. Wedin.

Discussion and optimization of an emended proposal for the Constitution - The new suggestions which arose on Saturday were entered into the computer. Mats Wedin was invited to discuss the new inputs with the Constitution Committee which is expected to present a final proposal to the membership in time to have it published in the next issue of the Newsletter (deadline: July 1^st 2000). The session closed at 2.30 pm.

The Secretary, Dagmar Triebel

A more detailed financial report is necessary before IAL4, giving a statement of the IAL accounts between 1996 and 2000. This report will be presented during the General Meeeting in Barcelona:

* originates mainly from the Cambridge University Press (4% royalty on each copy sold of Lichen Biology by T. H. Nash III).

According to a decision of Council, in order to support participants of IAL4 (incl. the Treasurer of the IAL) a transfer of US$ 3,000 has been arranged from the USA account by the Deputy Treasurer already at the end of last year, and US$ 1,350 were sent to the organizers from the Hungarian account a few days ago. Further costs related to IAL4 are those for awards. The mailing costs of ILN 32(2) and 33 (1) are c. US$ 1,000. Those of ILN 33(2) must also be planned. The present balance of the two IAL accounts is US$ 9,265. This amount allows us to cover all the coming costs and gives us a possibility for publishing and mailing the International Lichenological Newsletter even without the donation from the University of Trieste in the coming years.

Former members who have received issues of the Newsletter during the last years, are kindly requested to pay the membership fee of US$ 40 for 1997-2000. Members who joined the Association at any time during 1997 or 1998, have already received all issues from 1997 (Vol.30, nrs 1, 2, 1997; Vol. 31, nrs 1, 2, 1998; Vol. 32, nrs 1, 2, 1999). Please, let me know if you have not received them! Lichenologists who have decided to join the Association and chosen to pay in full (US$ 40 for the entire 4 years period - 1997-2000), receive also the back issues. If they choose becoming a member only from 1 January 1999, the fee is of US$ 20 for 1999-2000. New members should contact the Treasurer to be registered. We need your name, institution, street, town, country, fax, e-mail and telephone. Please send any changes as soon as possible. This time a report of payment is sent only to those members who have not paid completely until 2000. The payment of other members is registered until December 31^th 2000. Submit all unpaid membership fee now or during IAL4! In Barcelona a new membership period (2001-2004) will start. Membership will be valid until December 2004.

The following options are available now:

1) Edit Farkas, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary - cheques should be made payable to Hungarian Foreign Trade Bank, H-1051 Budapest, Szent István tér 11, Acc. no.: 501-00047-2100-4019 MTA TUDOMANY (the account holder is the Dept. International Relations, Hungarian Academy of Sciences), as remark please add "IAL membership fee for 1997-2000 (or 1999-2000)" The S.W.I.F.T. code fo the bank is: MKKB-HU-HB - All fees should be paid in US dollars! You are kindly requested to add US$ 5 for bank charges if you send a cheque, or, in case of bank transfer, to pay all bank fees. Please, inform me directly if a bank transfer has been taken place!

2) IAL dues can be also paid to: Francois Lutzoni, Deputy Treasurer, Center for Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, Dept. of Botany, The Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA. In this case there is no bank service charge.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs Marika Huber (Dept. of International Relations, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest) for managing the IAL account in Hungary, to F. Lutzoni, Deputy Treasurer. for handling the IAL account in the United States and to Julianna Forro (Inst. of Ecology and Botany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Vacratot) for her kind assistance in mailing the newletters.

The Treasurer, E. Farkas, Budapest/Vacratot

By June, 29^th the IAL Secretary received the following proposals for Council officers 2000-2004 (deadline, July 1^st). All candidates accepted the nomination.

President: P. DePriest, P.L. Nimis.

Vice-President: I. Brodo

Secretary: E. Farkas, S. Ott, L. Sancho.

Treasurer: F. Lutzoni.

Assistant Treasurer: E. Farkas, C. Scheidegger.

Editor: M. Grube.

Members-at-large: D. Armaleo, J. Elix, R. Honegger, R. Lücking, T. Lumbsch, G. Kantvilas, T. Randlane, M. Zhurbenko.

If you know appropriate candidates for the organization of IAL5 in 2004 please inform the Secretary. We already have one serious candidate: Tartu, Estland, where is a very active lichenological group with T. Randlane as the head.

The Secretary, Dagmar Triebel

The lichenological group of the Institute of Botany & Ecology, University of Tartu is willing to be a candidate for organizing IAL5 in 2004. - Tartu is situated in the south-eastern part of the Republic of Estonia, on the banks of the River Emajõgi. With 110,000 residents, Tartu is Estonia's second largest city. It is above all a university-town, a national education and research center. Tartu is, in terms of written mention (in 1030), the oldest city in the Baltic States. Because of its favorable position, Tartu developed into a prominent commercial center and Hanseatic City in the Middle Ages. In the 17^th century Tartu became one of Sweden's administrative centers in the Baltic Provinces. In 1632, during the reign of Gustavus II Adolphus, Academia Dorpatensis, the University of Tartu was established as the second university in the Swedish Empire. After the wars and great fires in the 18^th century, Tartu became a part of the Russian Empire. Soon afterwards, the reconstruction of Tartu began. Most of the sites of architectural importance are in the classical style. As a result, Tartu is known as the Athens on the River Emajõgi. In 1802 the University of Tartu was re-opened. The University's belle époque was in the 19^th century. World-renowned scholars such as the founder of embryology K.E. v. Baer, the founder of physical chemistry W. Ostwald, physicists H.F.E. Lenz, M. H. Jacobi and others studied and worked at the University. Since then, Tartu has been a city of students and science. In 2000, the University has 10 faculties and 3 colleges with c. 70 departments, institutes and clinics where almost 10,000 under- and post-graduates are involved. More information about the Institute of Botany and Ecology of the University of Tartu and Estonian lichenology can be obtained from the home pages (http://moritz.botany.ut.ee, and http://www.ut.ee/lichens/). Today the lichenological group in this institute consists of seven persons; our lichen herbarium includes more than 65,000 specimens and we publish a yearly journal, Folia Cryptogamica Estonica. We would like to invite all the lichenologists to come to Tartu for IAL 5 in 2004.

T. Randlane, Tartu

Proposal for a new IAL Constitution (final version, by the Constitution Committee)

§ 1. Name - The name of the Association is the International Association for Lichenology (IAL).

§ 2. Goals - The purpose of the IAL is to promote the understanding of lichens and lichenology world-wide. To achieve this, the IAL shall: a) encourage the study of lichens, b) advocate lichenological interests in the international arena, c) stimulate communication and discussion among those interested in lichens, d) organise symposia, field meetings, conferences, etc., and e) support the conservation of lichens.

§ 3. Membership - Members of the IAL are those, whose dues have been paid. Any member who is more than two years in arrears in payment may be suspended by the Council.

§ 4. Power to raise Money -The IAL exists only for non-profit status. It has the power to raise money by dues or other means as approved by the Council, but only for scientific purposes, awards and the administration of the Society.

§ 5. Dues - Membership dues will be determined at the general meeting of the IAL, upon advice of the Council.

§ 6. Officers, Auditors and Nominating Committee - The elected Officers of the IAL are a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, an Assistant Treasurer, an Editor, the organiser of the next IAL Congress, and three Council members-at-large. These officers form the Council of the IAL. The Auditor and Vice-Auditor are elected non-Council members. The Nominating Committee is composed of three elected non-Council members, and they elect a secretary among themselves. The term for Officers, Auditors and Nominating Committee is four years. The maximum period for any Council Officer, Auditor and Nominating Committee member is two consecutive terms. Council Officers, with the sole exception of the Editor, cannot serve more than one consecutive term in the same position.

§ 7. Nomination and election of Officers, Auditors and Nominating Committee - The Nominating Committee must publish a call for nominations in the IAL Newsletter at least one year prior to the general meeting. Any member of the IAL may submit nominations or be nominated. Nominations, to be valid, need the written consent of the nominees, and need to reach the Nominating Committee at least two months prior to the general meeting. Nominations from the floor at general meetings are allowed only when no nominee for a given post is elected. Elections will be made by majority vote at the IAL general meeting. Voting will take place irrespective of the number of nominees for a post.

§ 8. Duties of Officers and Auditor - The Council administers the affairs and funds of IAL and shall meet or in other ways communicate as decided by the President or at the request by Council Officers. The Council must establish an Advisory Board including a representative selection of lichenologists worldwide, with special attention to local societies, which shall assist the Council in the transfer and dissemination of information. The Council may designate Committees that shall manage topics of particular relevance for lichenology. The Advisory Board and the Committees will last until the next Council takes over. The President, or in his absence the Vice-President, or any member of Council designed by the President, shall preside at all meetings of IAL and the Council. The Secretary shall keep minutes of meetings, and shall conduct correspondence as requested by Council. The Treasurer, or in his absence the Assistant Treasurer, shall keep an account of all receipts and expenditures and have a statement presented at general meetings and as requested by Council. The Assistant Treasurer shall assist the Treasurer as requested by the Council. The Editor shall prepare the International Lichenological Newsletter, whose content and format shall be at their discretion subject to review and recommendation of Council. The Council may temporarily fill positions vacated between elections. If less than seven elected members remain, a new Council must be elected at an additional general meeting. To be valid, decisions of Council - held by a majority vote - require that all Council members have been informed, and that at least six of them participated. The Auditor, assisted by the Vice-Auditor, will review the financial records of the IAL and present a report to the general meeting. In his absence, the Vice-Auditor will act as Auditor. The Nominating Committee is responsible for presenting a list of nominations to the general meeting.

§ 9. General Meetings - The IAL shall hold its general meeting at the IAL Congress, a major international congress covering all aspects of lichenology, to be organised every fourth year. Announcements of additional meetings must reach the membership at least six months in advance. Any member can address topics for discussion to the Secretary at least four months prior to the general meeting, so that these will be disseminated to the Membership before the meeting. Additions to the agenda require a two-thirds majority of those present at the general meeting. Decisions will be taken by a majority vote. To be valid, a general meeting requires the participation of at least 10% of the membership.

§ 10. Awards - IAL awards are decided on by the Council. At least two awards should be assigned: an award recognising excellence in research by young lichenologists for outstanding work resulting from doctoral dissertations or similar studies (Mason Hale Award), and, b) a medal recognising the life-work of distinguished lichenologists (Acharius Medal). The initiation of further awards can be decided by the general meetings. A call for nominations to all awards must be made in the Newsletter at least one year prior to the next general meeting.

§ 11. Change of Constitutional Rules - Changes in these rules may be made only upon approval by not less than two-thirds of the Members present at the general meeting. Proposals of changes must be sent to Secretary at least four months prior to the general meeting, so that they will be disseminated to the Membership before the meeting. No rule change shall be allowed which will change the non-profit status of the IAL.

§12. Dissolution of the IAL - A motion to dissolve the IAL must be approved by at least two-thirds of the whole Membership. If the IAL is dissolved, any funds remaining after all outstanding liabilities are discharged shall be used for scientific purposes in the field of lichenology as agreed by the last Council.

The Constitution Committee of IAL