IXS Executive Committee Meeting
August 27, 1996, Grenoble

Minutes

Present: K. Baberschke, B. Bunker, D. Crozier, S. Heald, K. Garg, J. Goulon, B. Hedman, A. Hitchcock, D. Konigsberger, P. Lagarde (for A. Fontaine), S. Mobilio, T. Murata, R. Natoli, T. Ohta, J. Penner-Hahn, D. Sayers, E. Stern

The meeting started at 19:10 with a summary by Ed Stern of the discussion with the IUCr in Seattle. The IUCr has agreed to accept a Commission on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure. This Commission will consist of a chair and six members consisting of the following: chair, Edward A. Stern and the six members, Klaus Baberschke, Alain Fontaine, Krishna Garg, Britt Hedman, Settimo Mobilio, Takatoshi Murata, Jim Penner-Hahn.; this group is likely to be a subset of the IXS Executive Committee, but this is not required by the IUCr. Further, the IUCr reserves the right to approve members of the Commission. The Commission is separate from the IXS, but it is envisioned that there will be very close contact between the two. Two of the expectations of the IUCr is the linkage of Web pages and a link with the selection of the commission with the IUCr 3 year cycle. These do not seem to represent any difficulties.

The principal advantages of IUCr recognition are a higher profile in the crystallography community and access to IUCr resources such as newsletters and other publications, administrative help with meetings, contacts with other IUCr commissions, and other facilities.

If the XAFS conference is managed under the auspices of the IUCr, US $6,000 will also be available for student attendance of the conference. For this support, however, the IXS conference cannot take place the same summer as the UICr meeting, which takes place every three years. This essentially requires that the XAFS conference also go to a three-year schedule. In the following discussion, the consensus was that while this should not drive the decision to a three-year schedule, there are other good reasons to do so, such as avoiding conflicts with the SRI conference.

There was an extensive discussion of the ramifications of the Commission and its impact on the IXS. A general consensus was reached that the Commission be considered a subcommittee of the IXS and selected under our usual rules. This means that the commission members could be IXS EC members or other IXS members depending on how we view the needs to give the best representation and the best distribution. It was also felt that we should have no problem forwarding a list of commission members which would meet the IUCr expectations of broad geographical representation.

Ed Stern then presented the "Terms of Reference" for the Commission on XAFS, which are appended to these minutes.

Dale Sayers next presented the recommendations of the ad-hoc Membership Committee consisting of Sayers, Dobson, Garg, and Murata. This committee considered a number of options for possible membership dues. Because the ability to levy membership dues is not in the IXS Bylaws, it was recognized that the Bylaws must be amended before further action can be taken. Dale Sayers moved, and Adam Hitchcock seconded, the motion that the IXS Executive Committee propose to the general membership of the IXS such an amendment. An active discussion ensued of both the issues involved in charging dues and in the procedures which should be followed. Because of time constraints, the motion was tabled until the second IXS meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm until 29 August.

Recorded by B. Bunker and D. Sayers

Appendix: Terms of Reference for the IUCr Commission on XAFS

In the following by XAFS is meant the fine structure associated with the inner shell excitation (both near edge and extended) by various probes (e.g., absorption or scattering of x-ray, electrons), and related techniques for which the data is interpreted on the same physical basis.

1) To promote the development and acceptance of standards and criteria in XAFS measurements and analysis so as to improve the overall quality of the research being performed in the field.

2) To interact with the organizing committee of the International XAFS Society to contribute to the organization of the biannual International XAFS meetings.

3) To increase the interaction and coordination among researchers who are involved in XAFS research.

4) To increase the interaction between researchers in the XAFS field and other groups in the IUCr who have the common goal of understanding the structure of matter and its relation to properties.

5) To promote the improvement of the experimental facilities for XAFS at synchrotron sources.

6) To help develop courses to teach the advanced techniques of measurement and analysis of XAFS.

7) To cooperate with other Commissions of the IUCr in establishing adequate guidelines and standards for articles to be published in IUCr journals reporting structural investigations of materials.

8) To advise the IUCr on organizing or sponsoring sessions on XAFS at Congresses.

9) To coordinate a database on XAFS with IUCr.