Royal Society events in November 2006

Good day to Constituent Organisation Presidents and officers who are on the Royal Society's e-mailing list. If this e-mail should go to a new organisation representative instead of you, would you please forward it, and inform owen.watson@rsnz.org of your organisation's new contact addresses.

This is a regular update on the November meeting of the Constituent Organisations of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Because, each year there is a substantial turnover among the officers of the 70 or so organisations associated with the Royal Society, I am afraid this memo will be rather long, in order to refresh all our "corporate memories". The memo covers four main topics:

1. The Constituent Organisations' day, Wednesday November 15 in Auckland
2. The Royal Society Annual Honours Dinner, Wednesday evening, November 15 in Auckland
3. The Royal Society Conference, Thursday November 16 in Auckland
4. List of New Zealand Science Awards (www.rsnz.org/awards/other.php)

1.   CONSTITUENT ORGANISATIONS' DAY, WEDNESDAY 15 NOVEMBER IN AUCKLAND, 9:15am-4:30pm

Once a year, we invite representatives from Constituent Organisations to spend a day with each other to discuss matters of mutual interest and collaboration. This year, the meeting will be at the Maritime Museum, Viaduct Basin, Auckland on Wednesday, 15 November 2006, and we invite one person from your Society, Branch, or Affiliate Organisation, preferably the President (but otherwise a nominee), to attend. Since there are in total over 70 Societies, Branches and Affiliate Organisations, the Royal Society will contribute up to $100 per organisation if you wish to claim assistance for incidental expenses such as taxi fares etc. Constituent Organisations are asked to cover expenses above this amount.

Please send an e-mail to Gill.Sutherland@rsnz.org, with the heading: "Reimbursement for 15 November 2006". In the body of the text, please state your:  Name; Organisation you are representing; Bank account number; and Postal Address.

Last year we continued to update the documents entitled "Working Together" and "Progress" drawn from discussions on how the Royal Society and its Constituents can help each other, outlining joint initiatives and actions in response. The updated version of the responses has been assembled and is available from www.rsnz.org/members/orgs/. You might also take the opportunity to surf around our web site in general. You will find notes from previous Council meetings under the rollover "Society Council and Committees > Council Notes" at the left of the screen. Our annual report and strategic plan are also on www.rsnz.org under "Society Affairs".

A tentative Agenda is
09:15    Coffee available in meeting room
09:45    Welcome by Society President, Neville Jordan
10:00    For “first timers”: Overview of RSNZ by CEO, Steve Thompson.
10:00    For “old hands”: Separate into groups by branch/electoral college to discuss developments and flipchart problems and issues that may be shared about their organisations.
11:00    The Royal Society’s Vision and Direction: Neville Jordan and Society Councillors
11:20    Update on events and activities by RSNZ senior managers
11:30    Getting People Involved:  Facilitating the Way Forward.  Breakout tables by branch/electoral college to develop ideas about RS&T in New Zealand and implications in their home organisations
12:10    Reports back to Plenary
12.40    Lunch. Invited speaker
14:00    Break-out tables by branch/electoral college: What’s important to us? - will resume 10am discussion on problems and issues and move to proposed actions, See “Progress” at www.rsnz.org/members/orgs/
15:10    Afternoon tea
15:30    Reports back to Plenary, and general discussion
16.10    Other Business
16:30    Close

Break-out sessions will have a 5-minute session setting the scene before breaking into groups and a report back at end of each session.

2. SCIENCE HONOURS DINNER, WEDNESDAY EVENING, 15 NOVEMBER IN AUCKLAND

Preparations for the Science Honours Dinner are now well underway. It will be held in the Hilton Hotel on Prince's Wharf in Auckland. Many organisations registered their interest in presenting their awards at the evening so the Royal Society had to make a selection. In compiling the list, the Royal Society has tried to reach a diverse spread across the whole of the science and technology sector and give some groups who have not previously been represented, the opportunity to be involved. The list is now finalised and the following medals (in alphabetical order) will be presented:

Campbell Award
Hans Dallenbach Prize
Hutton Medal
Jubilee Medal
Liley Medal
Marsden Medal
McKenzie Award
NZAS Research Award
NZIC Award
Olympiad Silver or Gold Medals (if any)
Pickering Medal
Realise the Dream winner
Rutherford Medal
Thompson Medal
NAEAC Award

Please note that each organisation will be responsible for their own recipient's and presenter's dinner ticket, travel and accommodation costs, while the Society will cover all venue costs (and may invite sponsorships as necessary). As part of the evening, we will include short citations and photos of recipients. These citations and photographs must be sent to faith.atkins@rsnz.org by 6 November 2006. One Society representative will be invited to be present on stage to hand over the awards. Each recipient may speak for a maximum of 20 seconds if they wish. The Rutherford Medal winner will be accorded longer.

3.      ROYAL SOCIETY CONFERENCE, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 16 IN AUCKLAND

The Royal Society's annual conference entitled "New Zealand's Ocean and its Future" will be held in the Hilton Hotel, Prince's Wharf, Auckland, on Thursday 16 November 2006 from 8:45am until 5pm. Your society or group of societies may wish to consider clustering around the theme and venue. Please note also, that the theme for 2007 is Food, and the venue will be in Dunedin

The 2006 RSNZ Conference Committee comprises:
Dr Janet Bradford-Grieve (Chair); Professor John Montogmery; Dr John McKoy; Dr Mac Beggs, Dr Lionel Carter, Dr Peter Cozens; and  Gill Sutherland (RSNZ staff)

See http://www.rsnz.org/secure/events/ocean2006.php for registration information. Early bird rates are available before 30 September.

PLEASE CONTACT STEVE.THOMPSON@RSNZ.ORG IF YOU WISH TO RUN ANY SORT OF "CLUSTER" EVENT AROUND THIS YEAR'S CONFERENCE, OR PARTICIPATE AS A SOCIETY IN ANY OF THE FUTURE CONFERENCES.

4.      NEW ZEALAND SCIENCE AWARDS

Last year I e-mailed to Constituent Organisations a "final" list of New Zealand Science Medals and Awards, organized by subject area. The list is at http://www.rsnz.org/awards/other.php. We continue to update the list to improve its coverage and accuracy. Note however, that the list covers AWARDS to recognise past achievements. We do not include GRANTS (even if you call them awards) to commission future endeavour. PLEASE E-MAIL STEVE.THOMPSON@RSNZ.ORG IF YOU HAVE ANY CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO MAKE.