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
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.