cc: hzimmerm@nsf.gov, keith.alverson@pages.unibe.ch date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 17:12:06 +0100 from: frank.oldfield@pages.unibe.ch (Frank Oldfield) subject: EXCOMM Meeting and the PAGES Open Science Meeting to: k.briffa@uea.ac.uk, messerli@giub.unibe.ch, patrick.dedeckker@anu.edu.au, ztguo@mimi.cnc.ac.cn, laurent.labeyrie@cfr.cnrs-gif.fr, lautenschlager@dkrz.d400.de, yugo@geoeco.hokudai.ac.jp, gbpant@tropmet.ernet.in, 141tcp@cosmos.wits.ac.za, jto@paleosun.ngdc.noaa.gov, tfp@unixg.ubc.ca, rbradley@climate1.geo.umass.edu, domraynaud@glaciog.grenet.fr, matti.saarnisto@gsf.fi, r21024@er.uquam.ca, pbonin@lanet.losandes.com.ar Dear colleagues, First a warm welcome to our three new members Anne de Vernal, Pepe Boninsegna and Matti Saarnisto. I look forward to meeting you along with the rest of the PAGES SSC next year. I am sending along with this message, both as simple text below and as an attachment, the notes made at our recent EXCOMM meeting. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you need more information or have any observations or queries. The EXCOMM took place on either side of a PAGES Leaders Meeting, the first ever. One of the important functions of the meeting over and above the main agenda was to consider the problems posed by the overwhelming response to the call for poster abstracts for the PAGES Open Science Meeting in April 98. This has already generated over 240, with many gaps to be filled and a steady trickle increasing the final number. Even if only 50 percent of those submitting abstracts come to the meeting and only one person per poster (which seems unlikely), those numbers, plus invited speakers, members of other IGBP projects, a growing number of 'non-contributing' intended participants, PAGES SSC members, additional graduate students etc etc would exceed the capacity of the original venue. The invidious and divisive task of rigorously pruning the number of posters for presentation was not welcomed and we (rightly I believe) saw the likelihood of demand far exceeding capacity no matter what strategy we adopted within the constraints of the original venue. We have therefore agreed to move the meeting to Central London - the University Senate House close to University College in Bloomsbury. This new venue gives us a maximum capacity of 500 participants, all the advantages of a central location (as well as the costs alas) and a very much more attractive base for the lectures and poster sessions. It is therefore most important that all PAGES leaders and SSC members now help to ensure that the meeting is fully subscribed. Preliminary details of the speakers and draft programme are given below. I believe it will be a quite superb conference in an excellent setting. The fees proposed are:- Full registration fee: £100 (US$150) Student registration fee: £35 (US$50) These fees will include the volume of abstracts. A day fee will also be arranged. We are in the process of finalising the programme and as soon as this is done, we shall circulate it to all who have expressed an interest in coming. Meanwhile, you may be interested to know the list of invited speakers, all of whom have agreed to speak:- Richard Alley, Zhisheng An, Edouard Bard, Rick Battarbee, Juerg Beer, Ed Boyle, Ray Bradley, Keith Briffa, Paul Colinvaux, Elsa Cortijo, Anne De Vernal, Peter DeMenocal, David Drewry, Mike Gagan, Francoise Gasse, Sandy Harrison, Sylvie Joussaume, Jean Jouzel, Jim Knox, Suki Manabe, Vera Markgraf, Bruno Messerli, Jonathan Overpeck, Tom Pedersen, Colin Prentice, Dominique Raynaud, David Rind, Thomas Stocker, Lonnie Thompson and Greg Zielinski. Those of you who wish to attend but are not presenting one of the invited lectures or offering a poster may wish to fill in the form below and return it by e-mail if at all possible. PLEASE DO COME IF AT ALL POSSIBLE AND STRONGLY ENCOURAGE COLLEAGUES AND RESEARCH ASSOCIATES TO DO SO TOO. ----------------------------------- Name............ Institution and address .................. Please delete all but one of the following statements:- 1. I plan to come to the Meeting and would prefer accommodation + meal costs within the range £300 - £350; £350 - £400; £400 - 450 (please delete all but one of these price ranges). 2. My attendance at the Meeting depends on securing external financial support and at present, I regard my participation as ...highly likely fairly likely rather unlikely (PLEASE DELETE ALL BUT ONE OF THE ABOVE) 3. My attendance at the Meeting depends on securing finanical support through PAGES directly....YES/NO. (please delete one). 4. If you have answered 'YES' to question 3, please state the likely minimum financial support you will need from PAGES in order to make your attendance possible: US$.... PLEASE NOTE:- In answering questions 2 to 4, please bear in mind that PAGES is unlikely to be able to offer financial support to participants from 'developed' countries. We are seeking sponsorship for the meeting from a wide range of sources and we hope this will allow us to offer support to selected participants from developing countries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'll try to send a further message soon with more news from the PAGES Office. meanwhile, I would draw your attention especially to the section in the EXCOMM notes referring to the PAGES SSC Meeting. Please note these dates; I hope you will all be able to attend. With very best wishes, Frank ----------------------------------------------- Meeting of the PAGES Executive Committee Hilterfingen - 7 & 10 Nov. 1997 (NB. the Meeting took place in two halves, either side of the first PAGES Leaders Meeting). NOTES and immediate sequels 1. Web Site. Access is still patchy and unpredictable. As soon as possible Keith will explore the reasons for the problem and will also liaise with those responsible for the web sites in Boulder and Médias-France, Toulouse, in order to arrange for the Bern-maintained site to be mirrored in both places. Action: KA 2. Newsletter. As soon as item 1 has been addressed, it will be necessary to make a prominent announcement on page 1 of the next newsletter. Publication and availability of the Implementation Plan should also be announced in the newsletter. Action: CJ The upcoming newsletter should include: - a synopsis/executive summary of the ARTS and ITASE workshop reports, as well as the promised article by Ray Bradley on the current El Niño within the context of PAGES. Action: FO/CJ Ray Bradley 3. Leaders Meeting. A report on the meeting and some of the highlights should form part of the next PAGES newsletter as well as of the PAGES entry to the IGBP newsletter to be prepared for the deadline of 6.12.97. The desirability of obtaining wide approval for any reports compiled after the meeting was recognized. Action: FO Several issues were raised before the leaders meeting and identified for discussion by EXCOMM after the meeting. Not all were fully resolved. The majority view at the leaders meeting was that a similar event would be useful and desirable in 2 - 3 years time (and this was presumably endorsed by EXCOMM). It was suggested that contributions to any future leaders meeting should be more strongly science-driven and should also focus more strongly on linkages and on problems. It was also recommended that all PAGES SSC members should be invited to attend the next leaders meeting; indeed a leaders meeting and SSC could be linked together. 4. Open Science Meeting. Discussion of this item evolved during both of the EXCOMM sessions as well as during the leaders meeting itself. The response to the call for poster abstracts has already generated over 240 submissions. This number, or any generally acceptable reduction of it on the basis of scientific or financial criteria, would generate a potential audience which, alongside invited speakers, guests, student assistants, members of other IGBP Project Elements etc., would be significantly in excess of the maximum capacity of both the lecture theatre and the dining facilities at Royal Holloway. The problem is compounded by the fact that many essential PAGES Activities are still under-represented in, or entirely absent from the list of poster abstracts. Near unanimous opinion amongst the leaders was that more abstracts should be solicited in these areas. Moreover, the strong feeling of EXCOMM was that the capacity of the banquet hall was too small for the number of people likley to want to attend. These issues were of great concern not only to EXCOMM but also to the PAGES leaders, who debated the problems at length. In view of the concerns expressed, an alternative venue within central London is being sought. Action: FO Anson Mackay (UCL) Provisional calculations suggested that a full fee of approximately $200 with a reduction to $100 for students would be sufficient to cover the general costs associated with the conference. This will need to be reconsidered if a change of venue imposes extra costs. Invited speakers were to be asked to submit abstracts with a likely deadline of 1.3.98, subject to this date providing sufficient time for printing the abstract volume for distribution at the meeting. The abstract volume would contain the synopses of invited lectures followed by poster abstracts in alphabetical order. It was decided that the invited lecture chapters would be peer reviewed. Actions related to the request for sponsorship, invitations to publishers and press, and the composition and organization of the panel discussion on the final afternoon of the meeting were discussed at length. EXCOMM made suggestions as to the membership of the panel but left final coordination of this to the University College team in consultation with FO. Actions: FO/CJ to obtain estimates of the cost of printing an Abstract Volume and to find out how long such a volume would take to produce Ray Bradley to contact all invited speakers to prepare abstracts to the agreed deadline and to remind them of the guidelines, the overall shape of the Meeting and sequence of themes. FO to filter out the few Abstracts that are clearly inappropriate for the PAGES Meeting. Rick Battarbee's team and FO to coordinate Panel invitations. !!!(NB - I would propose to add notes on the venue and cost changes made after the EXCOMM)!!! 5. Proposed Cambridge University Press (CUP) book. EXCOMM recommended that all invited speakers should contribute to this within a suggested limit of 15 pages each, including figures etc. This would lead to a book of 450 to 500 pages; higher than the ideal size recommended by CUP, but less than the published GCTE volume. It was decided that in view of the carefully coordinated nature of the proposed volume, any publisher should be required to accept the format proposed; should CUP refuse to do this, an alternative publisher would be sought. The thrust of the volume would be strongly oriented towards to IPCC with the timing linked as closely as possible to the IPCC process. It is intended that preprints of chapters be available in time to contribute directly to IPCC 2000, and be sent directly to the scientists drafting relevant parts of the IPCC report. Action: Ray Bradley, Jonathan Overpeck and FO to act as initial editorial board and as negotiators with CUP and other publishers if necessary. 6. Workshop proposals and modifications to existing plans. It was noted that - * the PICE Workshop (Sept. 1998 in China) would require more than the $3k agreeed at the last PAGES SSC. * A PAGES/CLIVAR Workshop is now proposed for late 1998 to be held on Santorini. This will probably place significant demands on PAGES funds for 1998/9. * A joint ITASE/ARTS workshop is being considered for 1999. * A proposal for PAGES to part-fund a workshop on fossil records of fish-otoliths was discussed. It was proposed that modest PAGES finanical support might be considered, provided GLOBEC strongly endorses the proposal and were prepared to co-fund. 9. The PAGES-GAIM-IGAC joint initiative/ 'Paleogas Grand Challenge'. So far, GAIM has taken most of the initiative in this area and a draft GAIM document was circulated which set out a possible agenda within this area. It proposes a strong emphasis on releveant aspect of PAGES science and the key requirement from now on is that PAGES be seen to be a full partner in, and co-sponsor of the initiative. Action: KA to liaise closely with Gaim in order to ensure full PAGES involvement from now on. 10. Proposed PAGES 'synthesis' document. Communications from IGBP stress the desirability of having a document perhaps similar to the recently published 'GCTE Synthesis' for each of the IGBP Project Elements that have advanced their science sufficiently. A deadline for the availability of such a document would be the next IGBP Congress in 1999. In the case of PAGES, it was proposed that such a document should be based on, and developed from, synopses of the peer-reviewed chapters contributed by speakers invited to the Open Science Meeting. In this way, the synthesis document would be based on state-of-the-art research of the highest quality available from the PAGES community. Action: Ray Bradley to report this to IGBP in connection with the upcoming discussion of this theme in Boulder, Feb.1998. 11. PEP III. There was much discussion of the problems faced by Françoise Gasse as coordinator of PEP III. These arise, in large part, from the refusal of EEC and national research councils in Europe to provide funding for the essential administrative and post-doctoral support required to launch, promote and coordinate the many initiatives required. It was decided that the leadership and coordination of PEP III needs to be shared and that the urgency of the problems posed by PEP III requires a one time input of PAGES funds on the clear understanding that these are to be used, along with the efforts of a broader group of people involved in PEP III, to secure the future of the Activity from the end of 1998 onwards: * Up to $20k will be made available during 1998. This will be administered by Rick Battarbee (University College London) who proposes to share it equally between the predominantly Time-stream I initiatives to be coordinated by his group and the predominantly Time-stream II activities to be coordinated by Françoise from her new base in Aix-en-Provence. Before any funds are released, Rick and Françoise will present a proposal detailing their plans for approval by EXCOMM. * Responsibility for PEP III coordination should be clearly demonstrated to be international within the European context in the hope that this will increase both national and international funding opportunities. * The European countries/groups most closely involved will be the UK (Battarbee et al.), France (Gasse et al.), Germany, through both the ongoing Paleomonsoon programme of Stefan Kroepelin (and his links to the ACACIA programme) and the Negendank-led ELDP programme, and Switzerland, through initiatives taken from the PAGES IPO. * At the appropriate time during 1998, approaches will be made to both national and international groups (eg. ESF) for financial support. * Rick Battarbee will work with Françoise Gasse and FO to produce a promotional document for PEP III consistent with the science goals already stated, but reshaping them and linking them explicitly to upcoming funding opportunies and research agendas within the EEC and European National Research Councils. This document should be ready, at least in draft form, for presentation and discussion at SAC V in Nairobi, September 1998. 12. Human impact on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the 'Freshwater' theme within IGBP. A final decision as to whether PAGES should incorporate an 'Activity' on 'Human Impact on freshwater ecosystems' in Focus III, alongside related themes, will be taken at the next SSC. The venue will provide a good location for exploring this theme. Meanwhile, the leaders of actual and potential Focus III Activities should liaise in order to optimize their research plans without spreading their effort too thinly. This observation also applies to initiatives centred around Human Impact on Terrestrial Ecosystems. In this case, further initiatives by PAGES should develop above all in response to requests from other IGBP Projects, such as GCTE, BAHC and LUCC, for PAGES expertise, information and collaboration. Action: FO to liaise with Rick Battarbee and Bob Wasson in order to develop the most effective way of addressing the inter-related themes within Focus III. Rick to make a presentation on the 'Aquatic Ecosystem' theme at the next SSC in Pallanza. FO to attend the first meeting (late Nov. '97) of the group charged with producing a Science Plan for a Fresh water 'inter-project' within IGBP: 13 Next SSC and associated Workshop. In planning for the next SSC, to be held in Pallanza, N Italy, June 20 & 21, 1998, SSC may wish to consider, inter alia, the following themes: * Possible reductions and rationalizations within the PAGES spread of Foci and Activities. For example: - there was thought to be scope for bringing both NAD and ICAPP under the general remit of CAPE, - Activities dealing with different forcing mechanisms might usefully be linked within a single framework, - Focus III may be reconfigured in light of the initiatives and discussions linked to 1 and 2 above, - PMAP might realistically be subsumed within the Data Activity and regarded as one of the ways in which this Activity finds expression * The future of those apsects of PAGES most closely linked to IGBP Projects such as GCTE, LUCC and BAHC, that deal more directly with human impact and with human/climate relations. For this purpose, it was thought useful to consider inviting representatives from the relevant IGBP Projects to the meeting. The next SSC should also consider the procedures to be used for appointing and evaluating the next Executive Director; also issues of timing related to this and to the need to ensure overlap and continuity at a stage when the membership of SSC was due to undergo a major change, (including appointment of a new Chair). FO stated that, if this were consistent with the wishes of SSC, he would hope to continue in Bern until Fall 1999, with the possibility of any extension beyond that left as an open question at present. It was agreed that the order of rotation, with separation of at least six months, would be first Ray Bradley, then Frank Oldfield, and finally Bruno Messerli. It was agreed that the Frank's position should be advertised well ahead of time as an open competition. The applicants will be required to submit a one page statement of goals. Several senior scientists have already expressed potential interest in the position. It was decided that clear rules and guidlines for the mechanism for hiring a new director and executive director should be drawn up for approval at the next SSC meeting in Palanza. Action: SSC members to react to these ideas and to suggest other items for the June agenda. Ray Bradley to circulate the list of SSC resignations/ replacements/renewals due on 31.12.98. It was proposed that the PEP III Symposium/Workshop to be held in Milan should, if possible, take place on Monday June 22, ie. after the SSC Meeting. In view of his growing involvement in PEP III, it was hoped that Rick Battarbee would have some involvement in the planning of the programme, in association with Françoise Gasse and Dr. Orombelli, the host. The Symposium should be regarded as an essential commitment for all SSC members attending the Pallanza meeting. Action: Gasse, Battarbee and Orombelli to plan the programme in consultation with FO. 14. Proposed SSC Meeting in India, Jan. 1999. * It was recognized that in order to mobilize the Indian PAGES community and make maximum use of the venue as a forum for interaction betwen SSC and the research community in India, firm plans should be made soon. Action: Ray Bradley to contact Govind Pant. APPENDIX - PAGES OPEN MTG SCHEDULE Here is an update on the outline circulated by Ray just before the list of invited speakers had been finalised. We had planned 25 minute talks, plus 15 for discussions, as follows: A. 8.45-9.25 B. 9.25-10.05 C. 10.05-10.45 COFFEE D. 11.15-11.55 E. 11.55-12.35 LUNCH F. 2.00-2.40 G. 2.40-3.20 H. 3.20-4.00 4.00-6.00 POSTER SESSIONS ....so 8 talks per day, Monday-Thursday noon = 29 talks in all. Thursday pm will be for the "policy" discussion session. Currently, we have 29 speakers for the main sessions, plus 1 (David Drewry) who is a policy type for the PANEL. Overpeck and Boyle have not yet been alloted a place in the sequence. MONDAY Bradley Briffa Gagan Thompson Markgraf An Gasse Knox TUESDAY Alley Cortijo Raynaud Beer Zielinski Stocker Manabe Bard WEDNESDAY De Vernal Joussaume Harrison Jouzel Rind Prentice Colinvaux Pedersen THURSDAY Battarbee DeMenocal Messerli THURSDAY PM Panel Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\EXCOMM_Notes_-_18.11__.doc" ____________________________________________ Frank Oldfield Executive Director PAGES IPO Barenplatz 2 CH-3011 Bern, Switzerland e-mail: frank.oldfield@pages.unibe.ch *** NOTE CHANGE *** Phone: +41 31 312 3133; Fax: +41 31 312 3168 http://www.pages.unibe.ch/pages.html