• 1. Minutes of the Biennial Business Meeting, Spetses, September, 1999

ESDP Newsletter #5 - January 2000

Chairman: George Butterworth

1. The Chairman formally opened the meeting and welcomed those attending.

2. The minutes of the previous business meeting held at Rennes in September 1997 were formally approved.

3. The Chairman commenced his report by congratulating Elias Besevegis and his team for their work in organising the conference. The number of participants, approximately one thousand, was a record-breaking attendance and all arrangements had gone remarkably well. He then proceeded to report on developments within the Society during the course of the two years since the Rennes conference. The period had been marked by steady progress on a variety of fronts. Of these, the most significant were the organisation of the first election for office bearers, the establishment of the Society journal and the development of the Society web-site. The election of office bearers had gone smoothly, but had been somewhat disappointing due to the lack of nominations. He expressed the hope that future elections would attract more interest. As a result of the election, approximately one third of the committee consisted of elected members. In order to ensure satisfactory continuity within the committee over the years, two further elections would be required before all of the members were elected by the membership. Developmental Science had got off to a very good start and the publishers were pleased and encouraged by its rapid progress. The web-site had likewise been a great success. He thanked Charles Crook and his helpers for the time and effort they had invested in setting it up.

4. The Secretary/Treasurer reported that the financial situation of the Society was healthy. Outgoings for Society business activities had been kept to a minimum by organising an electronic meeting of the committee. This had been followed by a further meeting which was timed to coincide with a meeting of the conference scientific committee. This meant that the Society had only to pay the costs for a limited number of those attending. Membership fees provided a steady source of income and current resources were such that it seemed unlikely that any increase would be required during the next few years. This was especially true given the likelihood that membership would continue to increase. Some problems had become apparent with regard to the payment of membership fees. It appeared to be desirable to move towards a two yearly payment arrangement, possibly combined, where appropriate, with conference payments. This might however take some time to achieve. The financial report (see appendix) was approved by the meeting.

5. The Chairman provided details of the initial progress of Developmental Science. This had been so good that it had been already decided to move from 2 to 4 issues per year. There were already 263 subscriptions of which 62 were from libraries. He expressed his thanks to Blackwell's for their co-operation and hard work. He also took the opportunity to encourage members not only to subscribe, but also to contribute to the journal.

The Newsletter continued to be available in both paper and electronic versions. The Chairman congratulated Charles Crook for all he had done to get the Newsletter established. He reported that Charles would now like to hand the editorship over to someone else and that steps would be taken to recruit a suitable person as soon as possible. The Chairman led on from this point to remark that it would also be useful to appoint a membership secretary with the function of stimulating recruitment. He also referred to the (thus far) unsuccessful effort to create a logo for the Society. Perhaps this task would have to be passed on to a professional organisation.

6. Elias Besevegis reported on the Spetses conference. Approximately 1000 people had taken part and roughly 320 of these were students. Participants had come from 40 different countries (see appendix 2). The Chairman congratulated Elias and his team again for preparing such a large and well-organised conference. He raised two further points of concern: the presentation of posters without any being in attendance and the substitution of one paper for a completely new one. He pointed out that the first ran counter to the whole purpose of posters, namely that they should serve as a basis for interaction concerning the research presented. The second was unethical in that it involved presentation of material which had not been through the peer-review procedure which all other papers had had to undergo.

7. Berit Hagestrom reported on progress with the organisation of the Uppsala conference. Thus far a series of concrete steps had been taken: the whole University building had been reserved for the conference; a reception at the Royal Botanic Garden had been arranged; finances for initial costs had been secured. Steps were now being taken to find more sponsors, to set up a conference web-site and to arrange a meeting of the scientific committee in January/February, 2000. She reminded people of the dates of the conference, 22 - 26 August, 2001.

8. Advance details of the proposed 2003 conference at Milan were provided. A detailed plan was presented which indicated that many of the necessary arrangements could readily be made in Milan. Some concern was expressed about whether there was adequate financial support available for initial organisation. The Chairman said that he would explore this matter with Professor di Blasio who unfortunately could not be present because of illness. He congratulated the representatives from Milan on the professional quality of their presentation of the Milan site and all that it had to offer.

9. Any other business. Attention was drawn to the lack of attention given at the conference to the needs of handicapped people. It was pointed out that a phrase such as "within walking distance" meant something very different to a handicapped, as opposed to a non-handicapped person. Future conferences should be asked to pay more attention to the needs and difficulties of handicapped participants. The Chairman agreed with the remarks and asked future conference organisers to take them to heart.

10. There was no further business so the Chairman thanked all who had attended for their presence and formally closed the meeting.

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