From: <smaddison_at_email.protected>
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:48:21 +1000 (EST)

Hi folks,

Sorry for my delayed reply.

>(i) there will be a Gemini/MNRF session

I originally agreed with John's comments that Gemini related talks
should just be included in the general mix of science talks. But of
course politics is involved! In which case I think it's fine to have a
Gemini session. As noted by others, this doesn't add to the number of
talks etc.

>(ii) I'm fully behind the Education session, and support the notion
>of permitting someone proposing a talk for the Edu session to also
>propose a second science contribution.

Yep, me too. However, I am a little concerned that there often
appears to be little interest in education by the astro community as
a whole. I wonder why this is as most astronomers are involved in some
teaching/outreach activities and yet don't seem to want to give it
space at ASA AGM (or in PASA - though I agree these are separate
issues). All that said, I was very pleased by the level of interest
in the Decadal Review education working group. So maybe things have
changed! Hopefully it will be a lively session full of interesting
discussion.
>(iii) Garry Da Costa has indicated the best time for the PASA review
>would be immediately before the formal AGM, and that it should take
>the format of a 1-hour discussion lead probably by John.

All sounds good to me.

>(iv) Women in Astronomy session or workshop. At this early stage
>it could be either. A formal session might well attract more of an
>audience. A less-formal lunchtime workshop might be more effective
>as a forum for discussion.

The purpose of the women in astronomy session is to have a short,
inclusive, lunch time discussion to (a) update ASA members about the
current status of women in Australian astronomy after the Decadal
Review's demographics survey, and (b) to offer all members a forum for
discussion on the status of women in astronomy and to solicit for
comments/ideas that the Australian community would like take to the
IAU in regards to the status of women in astronomy. While it might be
true that a lunch time session will attract less attendees, we don't
want to eat into science sessions time. It would be great if all ASA
members were interested in (and actively engaged in improving) the
status of women in astronomy, but we realize that this session is
outside of the main objectives of the ASM. If there is a lot of
interest, we can always host a dedicated meeting some time in the
future. Ideally we'd like to request the Tuesday lunch session as this
gives people time later in the meeting to continue discussions if they
wish. We'd also be delighted to report back to the ASA at the 2007
ASM about the discussions held at the IAU GA.

Finally, I also support Tony's idea of highlighting posters by having
a book, even if it ends up being a "free" online e-book of posters.

Cheers,
Sarah.
*===============================================================*
 Dr Sarah Maddison smaddison_at_swin.<!--nospam-->edu.au
 Swinburne Astronomy Online Coordinator
 (visit http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/sao)

 Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing tel: 61-3-9214 5971
 Swinburne University of Technology fax: 61-3-9214 8797
 PO BOX 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, AUSTRALIA
 http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/maddison/
*===============================================================*
Received on 2006-04-26 21:49:26