Meeting Notes 2015-2016

The APECS ExCom held a productive meeting on April 27. We discussed developments relating to the APECS Secretariat bids, and heard from Alice about the APECS Council Charter updates. Hanne filled in the ExCom with details on both the Social Media guidelines and the upcoming APECS Online Conference - the council will be approached to find volunteers to act as judges for this event. Heather provided an update on the recent European Polar Board meeting, at which she gave a presentation about APECS. Antarctic Science funds were also discussed, and submissions for the first round of travel funding have already begun to be received. There are also funds available for National Committees to apply to access, in order to run local events, and this will be publicised again via the National Committee Coordinators. Finally, ExCom members congratulated the APECS president, Ruth, as she has been selected to be the Early Career Representative on the POLAR 2018 organising committee. The next ExCom meeting will be held in 2 weeks time.

The ExCom is busy working on many of the action points that came out of our in person meeting in Fairbanks two weeks ago. We have updated the Council Carter, followed up with project groups, sent out announcements for the APECS online conference and added an opportunity for an ECR to be on the planning committee for POLAR 2018, and soon there will be posted a call for travel support specifically for Antarctic researchers. Stay tuned for more information!

This year the annual APECS Excom meeting was held in Fairbanks, Alaska, immediately prior to the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW). We had two very productive days of discussions and we were joined by Alex, one of the National Committee coordinators, for part of these.

The last few months have seen a number of changes as a result of the organizational review recommendations and the subsequent publication of our 5-year strategic plan. During the first part of the meeting we reviewed the changes to the council structure, which we implemented in autumn. Whilst we felt that the new project group structure was working well, we recognized the need for improved reporting so that experiences and advice can be passed on to future project group members. We also prioritized a number of documents, resources and pages on the website to be updated in the coming months.

The individual National Committees do a tremendous amount of work that is often not recognized outwith the local country. We discussed ways to improve the sharing of updates and experiences between NCs and develop ‘how to’ guides for organizing the most common types of NC events.

Other topics on the agenda included the budget and renewal of MoUs with a few of our partner organizations. As a final topic we noted that APECS will be 10 years old next year and so we discussed ways in which we could mark this momentous occasion. We plan to organize events at several conferences so keep an eye out for ways to get involved!

ASSW began straight after our meeting and this gave us an unrivalled opportunity to talk in-person to many of our Arctic-orientated partners, attend their meetings and spread the word about APECS.

There were several items of the agenda at the ExCom meeting of 24 February 2016. We discussed the layout of the strategic plan, which is coming along well. Yulia Zaika is due to start her new position as APECS Assistant Director (based in Russia) in April, and this represents great progress for APECS. Further details on her position will be discussed at the ExCom in-person meeting in Alaska. Finally, details for that in-person meeting were finalised - this will take place in under 2 weeks time alongside the Arctic Science Summit Week.

After a successful Arctic Frontiers Conference held in Tromsø, the ExCom reconvened for business on February 10th. At Arctic Frontiers, APECS hosted several events including Science for Schools, a young politician workshop, a panel discussion, and the poster awards. All these events were well attended and received very positive feedback. If you would like to be part of next years organizing team contact Gerlis! In other business, the ExCom is strategically working on several funding proposals with partner organizations. If funded, these proposals would expand APECS activities with our partner organizations, such as hosting new webinar series, organizing workshops, and creating other opportunities for ECR. In addition, the ExCom has been working hard on finalizing the APECS Strategic Plan 2016 – 2020. Keep an eye out for its release at the end of February!

ExCom is gearing up for a busy week! Arctic Frontiers, one of our main annual in-person events will start January 24 in Tromso, Norway. All the planning of our ExCom members and council members will be put into action over the course of the week. During our ExCom call we heard updates the January 19th Council Call. Many projects are currently running and need more help. Please contact either the ExCom or our Council chairs if you are looking to get more involved!

The ExCom met for its first meeting in 2016 on 6 January! After the holiday break this was a good chance to catch up on ongoing projects and also revisit our priorities for the year to see what we have accomplished already and what we want to focus on next. The ExCom identified several action points to work on in the coming months. Other items on the agenda were the planning for the upcoming ExCom in-person meeting at the ASSW 2016 in Fairbanks in March, as well as planned upcoming projects for the next years and seeking funding for them. Happy New Year 2016 everyone!

The APECS Excom had its final meeting of 2015. The main topic of discussion was the finalization of the Strategic Plan. The Advisory Committee and National Committees provided helpful comments regarding the structuring, wording, and content of the plan, which will be integrated in early January. In other news, keep your eyes open for the APECS 2015 Year End video, coming out the week of December 20!

During this call we discussed Yulia's attendance of the European Polar Board meeting, the Arctic Snapshot programme, and possible funding options for it. The project group structure was also on the agenda, as all project groups should now be submitting their first reports. Maintaining momentum of these groups with a more hands-off approach from the ExCom, allowing for council members to step into leadership roles, is a priority. It was decided that a new project group should be formed within the council to create this year’s APECS end-of-year video, which has become something of a tradition. Finally, planning details for the 2016 in-person ExCom meeting at ASSW were discussed.

With the new term up and running, the ExCom discussed ways to have better oversight of the many projects currently running. The new structure of Council has council members working in smaller projects groups. The aim is two fold, i) to help keep projects moving forward and relevant and ii) to engage Council better. The new Council has had a chance to read and comment on the Strategic Plan. Many council members contributed suggestions, during the ExCom call we discussed some of the larger points raised. The revised draft will be open for comments from all APECS National Committees and Advisory Committee. The Strategic Plan is still on schedule and will be finalized in December.

The APECS ExCom met on October 21 to discuss the progress of the Project Groups, the APECS Priorities document, and several external submission made by APECS. Two new Project Groups have been created (Medical, and Art Exchange), and these now have ExCom members assigned. The European Polar Board Survey has been circulated to Council members for comment, with further comments to be collated. We also discussed away times, deciding that the same document will be used to record absences of ExCom members as those of Council members. Project Group meetings will be held prior to the next ExCom call, and opportunities for holding the in-person ExCom meeting in March 2016 will be investigated further.

ExCom met on October 6 for the first official meeting of the new term. Most of the discussion was in preparation for the first council meeting: we went through the list of proposed project groups to make sure ExCom members are available to help new and returning Council members get started on the new term. We also discussed the status of the APECS Strategic Plan document (which is now ready for internal review), and have some new information about APECS representative selection that will be going up on the website in an effort to increase transparency in the process.