[Aqualist] Potential change to INQUA Commissions

[Scott Mooney]

Hi People,

The International Council (IC) of INQUA (which I sit on as Australia’s delegate) is discussing 2 big issues in a series of meetings in Rome: changes to member countries and changes to Commissions. I don’t know details of the 1st yet but INQUA is trying to bring more countries into the fold which seems like a good idea.

The 2nd, proposed changes to INQUA Commissions, will be contentious and will eventually go to a vote (all member countries, like Australia, get one vote). At the moment only a few of the Commissions run well and so the INQUA Exec are proposing changes (to start in 2025). The Exec would like more (there are 5, they suggest 10-12); a clear mechanism to nominate new Commissions; to make it clear that gender, geographic and career diversity should be represented in Commission leadership and projects etc; and that Commission leadership is determined by the INQUA Exec… this last one is controversial as at the moment the leadership team are voted by members of those groups. The Exec want this ‘control’ to make sure diversity is maintained (at the moment 3/5 Commissions are led by US and 5/5 are men) and, when the Exec contacts Commissions they often get zero response! Some Commissions also do not communicate with members very well/regularly and some regions are not well represented in projects (e.g. Oz was in 5% of projects in the last inter-congress period, Asia was in 19% but South America was in none, cf. Europe in 60%!).

After hearing arguments for and against, I support the overall thrust of the proposed changes but I have little experience within the Commissions. Leadership of Commissions needs care but may be solved with careful re-draft of relevant Stats and By-laws (we are expecting text at the next meeting of the IC, which is Monday 3pm Monday Rome, 11 pm AEST). If you have any thoughts on this, please email me asap. (I’d also NB that New Zealand also gets a vote on this, so if you feel strongly about it contact your IC rep, who I think is Chris Moy)

best wishes
 Scott


A/Prof Scott Mooney FIAG, SFHEA

Deputy Head of School
School of BEES
Faculty of Science
UNSW AUSTRALIA

T: +61 (0) 2 9065 5231
E:  s.mooney at unsw.edu.au<mailto:s.mooney at unsw.edu.au>
W: https://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/our-people/scott-mooney
P: School of BEES, UNSW, 2052 AUSTRALIA

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