Volume 55 No 2 April 2007 - New Zealand Society of Soil Science

AJSR
Chris McLay’s term as Society Representative on this committee is due to end soon. It was agreed that
we would like to nominate Louis Schipper as his replacement in due course. Action: Chris McLay to
follow this up with Jenny Fegent.
WWW
The website needs revamped and updated. Costs to be sought as stated earlier.
Soil Science Update/Roundup
It was decided that we should combine items 11 and 15 for future meetings and rename the item as
suggested above. See later in meeting for more on this topic.
Showcasing NZ Soils
Jacqui Horswell is still keen to help with this concept and she has a number of useful contacts lined up
for us. Unfortunately our application for funding was declined last year by the RSNZ but they did
suggest it might be worthy of resubmission. We may decide to put some money into this project to
follow it up. The Smithsonian display is nearly complete.
Need to investigate Horizons current plans for “The Great Green Rig” that they are currently
developing to see if there is room for a soils component.
Action: Alec and Louis to each follow up.
Education and Science Fairs:
Science Fairs
Letters will need to be sent out soon to Fair organisers asking if they would like our book prize.
Action : Roger McL to follow up as part of his new role.
Conferences:
NZSSS Conference 2006, Rotorua
In general we are very pleased with this conference and happy to hear also that it is likely that a small
profit was made. Final accounts have not yet been settled, but they hope to do this shortly.
A number of very happy Undergraduates from Waikato wrote to thank the Society for supporting them
to get to the conference.
NZSSS/ ASSS Joint Conference, Massey University, 2008
World Congress, Brisbane 2010
Prof Roger Swift is to be Head of IUSS in 2010.
We had previously intimated that we would like Prof Ron McLaren to act as our representative on the
organising committee, but so far nobody has heard from the organising committee.
Action: Alec to follow up with ASSS President.
Some discussion arose regarding the location of future conferences beyond 2010. Given that the
World Congress will be in Australia in 2010, will they want to have another joint meeting in Australia
as per current plans in 2012?
Action: Alec to follow up with new ASSS President, Stephen Cattle.
Joint Conference 2008 at Massey
Vince Neall joined the meeting to report on progress to date.
Vince pointed out that we need to consider whether we need insurance for public liability.
Action: Cecile to follow up.
It was proposed that we invite Dr Stephen Cattle to join the organising committee for the 2008 joint
conference. It would also be good if we could coordinate one of our Council meetings to coincide with
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