The new Executive of the Division held its first meeting in early January, at which time proposals were made for modifications to the format of the Main Thrust, and to the awarding of Best Thesis prizes. A proposal was also made to provide some support for students who wish to attend GAC meetings. Given this flurry of new proposals, it was deemed appropriate that a newsletter be published early in the new year, and early in the tenure of the new Executive, to lay out the proposed changes so that they might be discussed at the upcoming business meeting in Edmonton. This newsletter also provides a reminder and an update about the proposal for an SGTD E-MAIL link-up.
BEST THESIS AWARD
The Executive proposes to change the Best Thesis Award to a Best Paper Derived From a Thesis Award, or simply Best Thesis Paper Award. To be eligible, a manuscript with the student as first author would need to have been submitted for review no later than 24 months following the thesis defence. Only manuscripts accepted by peer-reviewed journals would be considered. The motivation for this proposed change is twofold; to encourage the timely publication of new and interesting results, and to considerably lessen the burden of the Councillors and the members of the Executive called upon to judge the contributions. The process of submission of manuscripts and of choosing a winner would remain unchanged. That is, manuscripts would be submitted to the Secretary of the Division by 1 September of each year. The manuscripts would be judged by the Executive, and the award would be announced at our fall meeting. We are looking forward to discussing this proposal with you in Edmonton. In the mean time, please feel free to express your opinion by mail, fax or E-MAIL. Addresses and fax numbers for the Executive are listed at the end of this newsletter.
STUDENT SUPPORT FOR THE GAC
Perusal of the latest financial statement for the Division (Main Thrust December 1992) shows net assets of close to $3000. This has led to a suggestion that the Division might provide some support for graduate students wishing to attend GAC - MAC's. Support would be in the form of several prizes awarded for excellent GAC Abstracts on topics related to Structural Geology and / or Tectonics. Abstracts would be reviewed by the executive, and prizes would be awarded in the form of cheques to cover part of the expenses of attending the meeting. As a test run, one prize of $150. will be awarded for the upcoming meeting. Abstracts should be submitted to the Secretary of the Division by fax or by mail before 15 March. Please inform your students!
THE CLASSIFIEDS
Another proposal was put forward to include a Positions Sought / Help Wanted section in the Main Thrust. This would considerably help in putting prospective graduate students, field / research assistants and post-docs in touch with prospective employers / supervisors. Looking for a position? Got some cash for a student? Let the Division Secretary know the details, and an ad can be placed in the next newsletter.
E-MAIL COMMUNICATION
As announced in the last newsletter, Frank Fueten (Geological Sciences, Brock U.) has volunteered to put together a file of E-MAIL addresses of Division members. The list is so far rather short (about 15 addresses, for a membership of about 180). If you have E-MAIL and are not on the list, send your address to Frank at: "ffueten@spartan.ac.brocku.ca". If you have colleagues who are Division members and who don't read the Main Thrust (unthinkable you say?), please inform them of this worthy initiative to bring all our members a bit closer together across this great country of ours. Frank has also set up an E-MAIL network to help you communicate quickly and efficiently with the membership whose addresses have been compiled. You can send a message to: "ctg@spartan.ac.brocku.ca" and it will be forwarded to all the compiled addresses.
SGTD BUSINESS MEETING
By the way, the business meeting at the upcoming GAC-MAC is scheduled for Tuesday, 18 May, 17:00 - 18:00 (location TBA). Refreshments will be provided for those who attend the meeting.
THE NEW EXECUTIVE
The new Executive would like to take this opportunity to wish a happy and prosperous 1993 to all Division members, and to thank the outgoing Executive for their contributions to the Division over more than three years of service. Bravo! As for the new crew, here's who we are and where we are:
Simon Hanmer, Chairman Geological Survey of Canada 601 Booth Street Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0E8 fax: (613) 234-8951 EMAIL: SIMON_HANMER@CARLETON.CA CompuServe: 76557,430
Cees van Staal, Treasurer Geological Survey of Canada 601 Booth Street Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0E8 fax: (613) 995-7997
Keith Benn, Secretary Department of Geology University of Ottawa 161 Louis Pasteur Ottawa, Ont. K1N 6N5 fax: (613) 564-9916 EMAIL: KBENN@acadvm1.uottawa.ca CompuServe: 74750,3271
That about wraps it up for this newsletter. Any comments or suggestions on the above mentioned proposals are welcome. Looking forward to seeing you all at the GAC!