International Congresses of Dipterology

1. Apologies for absence were received from Paul Beuk, Mary Owaga, John Stoffolano, Vadim Zaitsev. No communication had been received from Ipe M. Ipe since before ICD4 in 1998.
   Ashley Kirk-Spriggs was also invited to the meeting, to present his invitation to host ICD6 in Windhoek, Namibia.

2. The minutes of the last meeting on 20 August 2000 at the International Congress of Entomology in Iguassu, Brazil, prepared by David Henshaw and circulated by the Secretary, were approved.

3. The Secretary presented a brief report of his activities since the Iguassu meeting: obtaining curricula vitae for the proposed new Council members and the proposed Honorary Congress member, preparation of this meetings agenda, discussion of various matters with Chairman and Vice-Chairman.
   Council funds stand unchanged since 1997, at £79.93.

4. Milan Chvála then outlined the five bids that had been received to host ICD6 in 2006:

   1. Switzerland, Lausanne: this was evidently submitted in error, and the Swiss dipterists are not in the position of being able to host ICD6.
   2. Brazil, Rio de Janeiro: this bid has been withdrawn, but will probably be made again for ICD7 in 2010.
   3. Russia, St Petersburg: a formal bid was submitted in writing by Vadim Zaitsev, but contained very few concrete details about meeting places, accommodation, costs.
   4. Japan, Fukuoka: Junichi Yukawa had sent information about Fukuoka city to all Council members prior to the meeting, and would make his formal bid during this meeting.
   5. Namibia, Windhoek: Ashley Kirk-Spriggs had been invited to this meeting to present the Namibian bid.

   Milan Chvála then invited Junichi Yukawa and Ashley Kirk-Spriggs to present their bids for ICD6.

   Junichi Yukawa gave a CD-ROM presentation which showed the dynamically modern city of Fukuoka and the Congress facilities to be expected in the newly-built Congress centre. Subsequent discussion raised a number of points: this centre will be close to the main railway station and will have all the facilities required by an ICD, with a very fine and appropriate selection of meeting rooms; there is no accommodation on the university campus, and delegates will stay either in a newly-constructed accommodation block near the Congress centre or in a variety of moderately-priced business hotels; the cost for hiring the Congress centre would be underwritten by the city of Fukuoka, but if it was still too expensive there were ample meeting rooms for a Congress in Fukuoka University itself; the cost for registration was expected to be the about the same as in Brisbane; in the Fukuoka area there are six dipterists and 10 dipterist graduate students, and in Japan as a whole at least 50 dipterists with 20 graduate students; August would be the best time, when temperatures rise to 30°C, September is the season of typhoons, but October is also a month with a good climate.

   Ashley Kirk-Spriggs was still waiting to have his presentation burned on CD-ROM, but distributed several sheets with information on costs in Windhoek (actual and projected) for registration, accommodation and air fares.

   It was decided that there should be an additional Council meeting the following evening, Monday, 1730-1830, also in the Innes Room, to hear the remainder of the Namibian proposal and to vote on the location of ICD6. It was also decided to have an open Council meeting on Wednesday 2 October at 1700 hours, in Room 206 of the Steele Building.

   Junichi Yukawa and Ashley Kirk-Spriggs were thanked for their excellent presentations, and Ashley left the meeting.

5. The first item was an emendment to the Constitution. It was read out by the Secretary, and then David Henshaw explained how it added flexibility to Council procedures. Its acceptance was proposed by David Henshaw, seconded by David Yeates, and it was accepted unanimously.

6. The matter of Honorary Members of the International Congresses of Dipterology was raised, and the reason for the total of seven was explained. There are currently five Honorary Members of Congress.

   Roger Crosskey was proposed as an Honorary Member by Hans Ulrich, seconded by Milan Chvála. Copies of his curriculum vitae and list of publications were put on the table for members to peruse. The Secretary gave a brief presentation of Roger's dipterological achievements, together with his scientific and personal qualities. Due to ill health he was unable to be present in Brisbane.

   Roger Crosskey was unanimously elected as an Honorary Member of the International Congresses of Dipterology.

   There was no proposal for a second Honorary Member of Congress, and it was decided to keep this vacancy open should there be any further proposals during the week.

7. The need for seven new members of Council was discussed:

   Chairman Milan Chvála and Vice-Chairman David Henshaw have come to the end of their term and are not eligible for re-election.
   Rudolf Rozkošný, Hans Ulrich and Vadim Zaitsev have also come to the end of their term and have indicated that they do not wish to be re-elected.
   A letter from Mary Owaga was read out in which she regretted her continuing absence from Council meetings and offering her resignation. This was accepted, with regret.
   Ipe M. Ipe has remained out of contact for over four years, and was deemed to have resigned by default.
   Adrian Pont has also come to the end of his term as Secretary, but indicated that he was willing to serve another term.

   Seven nominations for the seven vacancies had been received, and copies of the curricula vitae of the candidates were on the table for inspection by Council members.

   These nominations were:

   David Barraclough, South Africa, age 44, systematics
   Neal Evenhuis, Hawai'i, age 50, systematics
   Marion Kotrba, Germany, age 45, morphology
   Jim O'Hara, Canada, age 50, systematics
   Marc Pollet, Belgium, age 41, systematics
   Vera Richter, Russia, age 66, systematics
   Manuel Zumbado, Costa Rica, age 44, biodiversity

   It was decided to defer the election of new Council members until after the open Council meeting, and to take that opportunity to invite further nominations.

   For the post of Chairman: David Yeates was proposed by Milan Chvála and seconded by Adrian Pont. He was elected unanimously, and begins his term at the conclusion of ICD5.

   For the post of Vice-Chairman: it was decided to hold this over until the new members of Council had been elected.

   For the post of Secretary: Adrian Pont was proposed by Milan Chvála and seconded by David Yeates. He was re-elected unanimously.

8. Other business

1. Copies of a letter from Brian Stuckenberg concerning the support for natural history Museums and collections in South Africa were on the table. This is a very specific letter, and it was felt that it would be appropriate as a Congress resolution. It was decided to invite Brian Stuckenberg to the next Council meeting to discuss it.
2. David Yeates suggested that word be spread among delegates that we would welcome items for discussion at the open Council meeting and also nominations for new Council members. It was felt by all Council members that Council business, and in particular the election of Council members and decisions regarding Congress locations, should be more open and should allow for more input by all Congress delegates.
3. A list of dipterists who have passed away since ICD4 was drawn up, for presentation at the final plenary session.

   Alan Brindle Igor Ceianu Juri Cepelak William G. Downes Richard Foote Michael Gillies Kyrill Gorodkov Rokuro Kano Kenneth L. Knight

   Loic Matile Sturgis McKeever Toyohi Okada Laurence W. Quate Guy Shewell Kenneth A. Spencer Alan Stone Edvard Sylvén

4. It was suggested that the ICD5 website should be maintained for at least the next four years, or even that there might be a website on which all ICD web pages and also the Council minutes could be displayed.

The meeting closed at 1655 hours.

1. The possibility of setting up an endowment fund for Council business, perhaps to fund Congress attendance by the Honorary Members of Congress. In fact, the Council has no sources of income and indeed has no expenses at present, and the possibility of supporting accommodation or travel for the Honorary Members of Congress is out of the question.
2. By a regrettable oversight, the officers and members of Council were not listed in the Congress programme. The Secretary was asked to display a list on the public noticeboard by the registration desk in the Holt Room.

The meeting closed at 1900 hours.

The meeting was introduced by Milan Chvála. He outlined the purpose of the Council, the number of members, the numbers of meetings during and between Dipterology Congresses. He spoke about the election of Honorary Members of Congress and of ordinary Council members, and about Congress resolutions. Normally Council decisions are announced at the final plenary session, but on this occasion he announced that the new Council Chairman was David Yeates, and the new Vice-Chairman was Neal Evenhuis.

He then asked Adrian Pont to give a resumé of the minutes from the two Council meetings held earlier in the week. This was done, and it was stressed that neither the operations nor the decisions of the Council were intended in any way to be secretive or closed. Every member of Council was open to questions, and any Congress delegate was free to nominate new Council members and new Honorary Members of Congress, to propose resolutions, to express preferences for ICD locations, or to raise any other matter of concern with Council members. He again asked for further nominations for new Council members.

The new Council Chairman David Yeates then took the chair.

He invited Brian Stuckenberg to say a few words about the Congress resolution. In the ensuing discussion, it was suggested that it should be made more specific in order to have an effect, to which it was countered from the floor, somewhat cynically, that it would probably have no effect anyway but Congress had to make the gesture. Brian Stuckenberg pointed out that the best possible act of support would be for the biological sciences in South Africa in general, and that a resolution focusing on Diptera would be too specific. A plea was made for the wording to be simplified. It was also suggested that everyone was at liberty to write to the Minister, on an individual basis.

David Yeates then moved on to the location of ICD6, and announced that, having been given two excellent bids, the Council vote had been for Fukuoka in Japan. There were three main reasons for this:

1. As the Congress could not on this occasion move from the eastern to the western hemisphere, it should move from the southern to the northern hemisphere.
2. It was anticipated that many more dipterists, representing a much wider range of disciplines, would come to Japan, and thus give a much broader-based and wide-ranging series of meetings.
3. Bids to host an ICD had been received on several occasions previously from Japan.

A lively discussion ensued, pursuing a number of topics. One suggestion was that each ICD should be timed to coincide with meetings of other dipterological workers such as the culicid and tephritid workshops. One request was for the Fukuoka presentation material to be shown to all delegates. One delegate suggested that there should be more open meetings, and another that the next ICD location should be decided by a open vote by all Congress delegates. Against this it was pointed out that this is precisely what a Council is elected to do, that the International Congresses of Entomology are run in this way, and that a vote by Congress delegates would disenfranchise the very large numbers of dipterists not present at the Congress. An objection was raised that Council members and officers are elected by the Council itself, rather than by the wider dipterological community, but a response from the floor pointed out that this, again, is exactly how the International Congresses of Entomology and the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature function. It was also pointed out from the floor that a suitably worded proposal presented at a plenary Congress session could change the Council constitution to enable e.g. all Congress delegates to vote for members of Council, but that this would be to politicise the proceedings to a potentially undesirable extent.

The meeting ended at 1740 hours.

As no further nominations for Council members had been received, the Secretary prepared ballot papers with the names of the seven proposed candidates, and distributed a copy to each Council member. During the evening they were all returned, and the ballot gave the following result:

All except for Vera Richter secured a majority of the votes and were thus elected. The six names were scheduled to be announced at the closing plenary session on Friday, 4 October, together with the comment that there is still one vacancy on Council.

Adrian Pont
Secretary/Treasurer
1 December 2002