|
ANNUAL REPORT2002-031. Review of IMS ConstitutionThe existing constitution of IMS was prepared more than a decade ago. Since then, the Society has grown in size and activities with active participation of a large number of members from allied fields. Moreover, it was observed that certain clauses of the Constitution are required to be amended for efficient functioning of the society. It was therefore felt that there is a need to re-examine the constitution and correct the deficiencies so as to make it more vibrant keeping in view the changing scenario. The National Council of IMS constituted two committees viz., Constitution Review Committee (CRC) headed by Dr P.C.Joshi and Constitution Review Board (CRB) comprising of a few Fellows and National Council members to look into these aspects. After considerable discussion and debate on each and every clause and statute, a draft revised constitution was prepared. The same was circulated along with the existing version and a Voting Form for obtaining consent of all members of IMS during March, 2003. Although, a good response is received from members, the same is not adequate enough for revision of constitution. For revision of constitution, at least 2/3rd members should vote in favour of the revision. We therefore appeal to all the members to fill the Voting Form and send this to us at the earliest to enable adopting a final resolution on the Revised IMS Constitution by the National Council and General Body.
2. INTROMET-2003 The National Council in its 6th meeting held on 31 May, 2002, decided to hold INTROMET-2003 at Hyderabad entitled “International Symposium on Natural Hazards & Seminar on Impacts of Climate Change” during 23-27 July, 2003. There was some delay in bringing out Circular of the events. Learning from previous experience of past few TROPMETs where a large number of abstracts had to be rejected due to poor quality, we introduced a new format for the submission of abstracts for the event and called for Extended Abstracts instead of a one page abstract. This was done to insure quality presentations of the papers. While, we had a very poor response initially both from within and outside the country, but subsequently when we extended the last date, there has been tremendous response within the country and we received nearly 200 Extended Abstracts. But the response from International community was poor due to various reasons. Outbreak of SARS and inconvenient timings of event were two important reasons conveyed by some of the scientists. It appeared that the international participation in the event would have been limited to only 4 or 5 scientists. The LOC of INTROMET-2003 had reported very poor collection of money at the local level for organizing the event. From headquarters, we applied for sponsorship from DST, DAC, Min. of Home Affairs, DOD, IMD, ICAR, WMO, etc. Although, we had received verbal commitments from some of these sponsors particularly WMO and DST, the sanctions for funding were not received till end of June, 2003. There was also some delay on the part of LOC in issuing letters of acceptance of abstracts to the participants. Considering these issues and several other aspects, the National Council took a decision on 3 July, 2003 to postpone the event to 17-21 November,2003. It was also decided that urgent action will be initiated both at LOC and NOC levels to increase the international participation and to raise adequate funding for the events.
3. International recognition for IMS In recent time, the Indian Meteorological Society has made concerted efforts to obtain an international status. We initiated correspondence with several international meteorological societies like, AMS, Australian Met. Society, Royal Met. Society, Irish Met. Society, European Met Society, Kenyan Met. Society, Canadian Met & Ocean Society, etc and International organizations such as WMO, UNEP, ECMWF,UKMO, NCEP, BMRC, JMA, ADPC,etc. We have received several communication from some of these agencies for long term collaboration and cooperation on various issues. On the initiative of IMS, WMO has invited details from all Meteorological and Hydrological Societies of the world including those of IMS, and set up a Web page where these details are available. Due to setting up of a Web Site of IMS last year, linkages for the IMS are available on the Web Page of a few societies. The Secretary IMS receives a large number of queries on Indian weather situations/events and also seeking details of Indian meteorologists, from a number of scientists in the world.
4. Elections for IMS National and Local councils The elections for national and local councils of IMS for the term 2003-05 were due this year. The process of election for national council started in September last year when letters to Secretaries of Local Chapter were sent to update the list of members along with their current addresses. In spite of our best efforts, some of the local chapters did not send the updated list till December. Many of our distinguished members had complained against availability of such a list. Under the circumstances, the task of preparing an updated list of IMS members was taken up intensively at the headquarters . It was quite difficult task as many of the retired scientists have not kept their addresses updated with IMS. Some of them had expired in recent past about which we had no information. With cooperation of several retired scientists and secretaries of local chapters, we prepared an updated list of members. This took some time and delayed the actual election process. President, IMS appointed Shri Dhanna Singh as the returning Officer for the election in the month of February, 2003. The entire process took another 4 months and counting of votes were completed on 17 July, 2003. The National Council wishes to convey its heartfelt appreciation to Shri Dhanna Singh for his sincere efforts and dedication for discharging his assignments as Returning Officer and completing the election process in time. The formal announcement of results of election will be made by the Returning Officer at the AGB meeting on 11 August, 2003.
5. Publication of Vayu Mandal We are lagging behind by at least 5 issues of Vayu Mandal. The society has just now brought out its July-December, 2000, Vol 30 No 3 & 4 issue. This is being distributed to all members. One of main problems in the timely publication of Vayu Mandal issues is the receipt of poor quality papers which get stuck up in the process of review. We are putting up a proposal to NC to provide direction to sort out this problem. We aim to bring the publication of Vayu Mandal to current date within next 2 years.
6. Proceedings of Hazard-2001 and TROPMET-2002 IMS had organized 2 important events last year. These were: Hazard-2001: International conference on seismic hazards with particular reference to Bhuj earthquake of January 26, 2001 during 3-5 October, 2001 at New Delhi and TROPMET-2002: National Symposium on Forecasting and Mitigation of Meteorological Disasters: Tropical Cyclones, Floods and Droughts during 11-14 February, 2002 at Bhubaneshwar. National Council had appointed Editorial Boards for bringing out proceedings of these two events. The proceedings have now been brought out and will soon be distributed to all the participants and institutions in India & abroad. IMS conveys its appreciation to the Editors of these proceedings for completing their task on time. |