Phytogen-November is ASPS2019 at La Trobe University

Dear ASPS members,

The 2019 Australian Society of Plant Scientists Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place during our annual conference ASPS2019 at 6.00 pm Thursday 28th November 2019 in the Victoria rooms, AgriBio Building, La Trobe University Bundoora, Victoria.

This year at our AGM, I am going to propose a change to the structure of the ASPS committee and Council which will require a change to our Constitution.

I would like to propose that we change from having Discipline Reps to State and Territory-based Reps. As part of this change I would like to propose that a role for the State Reps would be to encourage an informal gathering in their State or Territory, to promote plant science, young scientists and the Society each year. I could envisage that we could provide a small amount of funding each year to the rep to help facilitate this. The process for this can be defined at the AGM.

I am proposing this as I feel that the concept of Discipline-focused reps is somewhat redundant in an era of multi-discipline research. Further, we currently do not have all States represented in our current rep system. For example for 2019,  NT,  Queensland and Western Australia  do not have local ASPS representation. I believe that this change in committee composition would ensure that this lack of representation would not occur and enable ASPS to be promoted  more widely, the Society would be more visible and be able to provide more to its members, which in turn would lead to an increase in membership.

Of course we would retain other office bearers such as Plant Science Education and the Student Reps.

To move this process forward we need to change the following item in the Constitution of ASPS Inc;

21. THE COMMITTEE
22. a. the office bearers of the Society who shall be the office bearers of the Committee;
23. where possible other members, each representing a subject discipline or a specific group (e.g.postgraduate students). The subject disciplines shall encompass the broad spectrum of the society’s scientific and educational interests together with due regard for each State and Territory being represented.

So I am proposing that Item 21 in the constitution be reworded to the following where I have marked in bold the change in text;

21. THE COMMITTEE
22. a. the office bearers of the Society who shall be the office bearers of the Committee;
23. where possible other members, each representing a State or Territory of Australia or a specific group (e.g.postgraduate students). The subject disciplines shall encompass the broad spectrum of the society’s scientific and educational interests together with due regard for each State and Territory being represented.

This can only be done via the following process as outlined in the Constitution;

26. ALTERATIONS TO THE CONSTITUTION

This Constitution may be altered or amended a. by resolution at an Annual General Meeting, provided that all members have the opportunity to vote by post or by proxy and b. the resolution is passed by at least a two thirds majority of financial members voting.

So, this will be an item at the AGM to be held during ASPS 2019. As not all members are attending this meeting or the AGM, we have organised an online voting system which will be open before the AGM (to be held on 28^th November 2019) and close the morning of that day. Further we will have open a discussion forum, so that members can voice their opinion about the proposed resolution and others can view it if the wish.

If the Society wishes to accept this change, then I suggest that we keep the two systems running through 2020 or until the end of any Discipline Reps term and for 2020 we find people to nominate as reps in the States and Territories where ASPS is not currently represented.

I hope that you, as a financial member of ASPS Inc.,  will take the time to consider this and vote as we need  2/3 of financial members to approve it before we can move forward.

Details on voting including a link will be e-mailed through to you in the coming week.

Kathleen Soole

President – Australian Society of Plant Scientists (www.asps.org.au)