Early this year, Nicky Hine and Kevin Cooper announced that they wanted to resign from their posts as, respectively, Treasurer and Secretary of the INA. Stacia Spaulding was prepared to take over both tasks as joint Treasurer/Secretary, thus recombining the posts, as was done in the past. As no alternative candidates came forward after announcements on coccoliths.list and at the INA7 conference, Stacia was confirmed in her council position on April 1st, 1998. The handovers between Nicky, Kevin and Stacia have now been completed. She is now the person to send all changes of address to.
The main INA account is now held in the US, and payments into this account should be made through either Stacia or Steve Root (US Assistant Treasurer). Thanks to Mitch Covington, we now also have the facility to pay by credit card (he has been installed as Credit Card Treasurer) - please note, though, that there is an extra $1 charge for this facility. The UK account is being operated as the subsidiary account, but payments can still be made into this account via the new UK Assistant Treasurer, Matt Hampton. Matt's only role will be to pay cheques into the UK account - please direct all payment enquiries to Stacia.
Stacia was originally the INA Silicoflagellate Bibliographer but was considering stepping down from this position since her present job doesn't allow her access to such material. At INA7, we asked whether anyone cared whether or not we continued with this bibliography. There was still some interest and Woody Wise suggested a friend of his might be interested in taking over this role. He was indeed, and so we are pleased to announce that Kevin McCartney will be the new Silicoflagellate Bibliographer. Please make his job worthwhile by broadcasting this service whenever relevant and asking silicoflagellate workers you come across to send their reprints to him.
We thank Nicky Hine and Kevin Cooper very much for all the work they
have done, and for being so cooperative with the Editor twice a year, and
welcome Stacia (again) and Kevin onto the INA Committee - Steve, Mitch
and Matt will be represented by Stacia on the Committee.
Shirley van Heck
The time has come to start looking for a new president, as my term of office will end at the next INA conference (INA8, Bremen, 2000). Candidates should fulfil three criteria:
NOMINATION PROCEDURE: If you wish to nominate a colleague please first discuss it with them then send me an email (or letter) nominating them. If you wish to be nominated please ask a colleague to nominate you.
Shirley van Heck
There are, of course, certain conditions to be met to allow you to qualify for sponsorship:
Application forms (e-mail or paper versions) will be provided by the Secretary/Treasurer. Application for sponsorship should be made six months in advance of the conference to Stacia. Decisions on the assignment of funds and the level of sponsorship will be made by the INA Committee.
Shirley van Heck
As the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (1994; see JNR, 18/2) indicates, new efforts are currently being made by the international botanical communities to stabilise taxonomic nomenclature by producing lists of accepted names. In fact, the ICBN itself is an ongoing effort to stabilise nomenclature. What is new, is the establishment of lists.
Although such lists are not yet mandatory, Shirley van Heck has proposed that we, the whole community of calcareous nannofossil/nannoplankton specialists, review our taxonomic nomenclature, and establish a list of taxa that we regard valid under ICBN rules, in order to be in a position to present it to the ICBN Committee when such a list is required.
The idea is not to revise the nomenclature, but to review it, in order to keep it stable. To this end, an ad hoc INA Taxonomic Committee was established at INA7 in Puerto Rico. The committee includes eight volunteer members: Marie-Pierre Aubry, who will act as co-ordinator of the various subcommittees which will be overseen, on a stratigraphic basis, by Paul Bown, Jackie Burnett, Laurel Bybell, Ric Jordan, Mike Styzen and Jeremy Young. Shirley van Heck will act as advisor on ICBN rules.
The Taxonomic Committee is foremost concerned with the validity of the taxa under ICBN rules. It will thus first proceed by establishing a list of all taxa (valid, invalid, illegal, etc.) ever described.
Our progress and course of action will be outlined in the autumn issue
of the JNR. It is intended that all INA Members who are interested will
take part in this.
Marie-Pierre Aubry
wberggren@whoi.edu
Fax: 33 4 67 14 36 10
