Minutes of the Fusion Annual General Meeting, held on 28 January 2006 at The Open University, Milton Keynes.

1. Paul Ruffle welcomed those present
Lindsey-Shaw Greening, John Small, John Pollard, Jim Grozier, Graham Foyle, Digby Tarvin, Christine Seaman, Lorraine Robinson, Bill Willows, Fred Muirhead, Dwyn Padfield, Mark Galloway, Norrette Moore, Sybil Richardson, Saira Badar, Aisha Badar, Pam Fineberg, Sandra Keen and Diana Maxwell.

2. Apologies for Absence
Professor Barrie Jones and Samir Dawoud.

3. Minutes of 2005 AGM
Approved.

4. Reports

(a) Finance

Jim Grozier distributed copies of the Fusion Accounts for 2005. In 2005 the balance between expenditure and income was £7.71* in credit. Income came from membership fees and a Nexus grant, plus income from the sale of Fusion T-shirts, which amounted (after costs) to £310.16. Categories of expenditure included advertising, AGM, Committee travel, Committee accommodation, office expenses, Open Day, Fusion events and bank charges. The Society has allocated monies to a contingency fund for the Newsletter (in case the IoP discontinue printing and distributing the Newsletter for free) and for general emergencies. This money has accumulated over the years and is the reason a healthy bank balance.

Bill Willows raised the question as to whether the Society's annual income was sufficient to cover future annual outgoings. As the Society's income includes membership fees that are paid for three or five years in advance, could expenditure exceed annual income at some point in the future, and therefore does the Society need to consider increasing its fees to cover this possibility and a potential drop in new members? It was decided that the Committee would look closely into this matter to establish whether or not fees need to be increased†. This was considered especially important since Fusion is taking on new commitments such as the S207 Preparation Weekend, which may need to be subsidised by the Society in the short term in order to be viable (see section 7(a) below, where authority was given to increase fees by up to a maximum of £2.00 per membership year).

Marie Griffiths and Mark Jones will be asked to audit the 2005 accounts.

The Society changed its bankers from the Halifax to the Co-Op who provide full cheque book and paying in banking facilities. In the future membership fees will be payable online from the Fusion web site via PayPal.

* Subsequent to the AGM it was realised that accrued income of £972, from previous years' three and five year membership fees, was not included in this figure. † At the subsequent Fusion Committee meeting, held on 11 February 2006, it was agreed that membership fees should be increased with immediate effect by £1.00 per membership year, i.e. from £6.00, £15.00 and £20.00 to £7.00, £18.00 and £25.00 for 1 year, 3 years and 5 years respectively. A £1.00 transaction discount will be given to members joining or renewing on-line when that facility becomes available.

(b) Membership

John Pollard reported that Fusion membership was healthy, standing at 501 on 31st December 2005. It appears to have peaked in 2004 (513) but compares well with 2003 (407), 2002 (381) and 2001 (294). Course mailings are our best source of new members (60) followed by advertising in Sesame (40). Other sources also swell the ranks, e.g. 10 who joined as a result of attending the revision weekend. Member's ages range from 18 to 84 and male members continue to outnumber female members by three to one. Of the current membership, 37% are due for renewal this year, 22% in 2007, 20% in 2008, 5% in 2009 and 15% in 2010. 10% of members are OU staff or researchers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy (each year the department gives the Society £100 to cover the staff group membership scheme and £106 for Associate Lecturers to receive the Newsletter and free membership).

As John Pollard is stepping down this year, a special thank-you was given by the Committee for all the hard work that John has put into membership coordination and organisation of the S207 Preparation Weekend.

(c) Newsletter

Paul Ruffle stated that three issues of the Newsletter were produced in 2005 amounting to 32 pages (12+8+12), which is equivalent to four 8 page issues. Contributions have been sufficient for each issue, although there are always concerns about having enough material for the next edition. However, we already have material for the Spring 2006 edition, with more promised. The Committee were encouraged to always be on the lookout for contributors and to be proactive in seeking sources of articles.

The current distribution, including all Associate Lecturers who tutor physics courses, is well over 600 copies. The Institute of Physics (IoP) continue to print and distribute the Newsletter without charge to the Society (it is IoP policy that one of its remits is to support student physics societies). It should be noted that in return Fusion recruits new members for the IoP at a cost of £2.00 to the Society for each new Fusion member who also joins the IoP.

The Newsletter (both print and on-line) is now registered and has an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). Copies of each issue are sent to the SSN UK Centre at the British Library. All previous editions of the Newsletter have been placed on the web-site with a Google search facility.

(d) Events

Lorraine Robinson reviewed Fusion events for 2005: Visit to Herstmonceux (Telescope and Science Centre), Daresbury, OU Open Day with two Fusion stands, Electric Mountain, Huygens and Beagle Lectures and the Thames Flood Barrier. Events planned for 2006 include visits to Jodrell Bank Observatory and Culham which have been confirmed and advertised. Other new events in the process of being organised: An Astronomy Weekend with the possibility of the event being held on the OU campus at Milton Keynes, the Diamond Light Source at Rutherford, the Met Office in Exeter and the Nanotechnology Lectures in November.

The cost of running lectures using IoP facilities in London was discussed. This could involve room charges of £250 which are far too expensive for the Society. Unfortunately Samir Dawood (the IoP's student liaison officer) was unable to attend the AGM, so it was not possible to discuss these facilities with him. At the present time a list of possible venues is being considered for future events, especially the November Nanotechnology Lectures.

To consolidate links between the Society and the OU, Fusion will advertise the dates of lectures being given by OU academics at various venues around the UK in the field of mathematics, physics and astronomy. This would be an opportunity for Fusion members to consolidate their long-distance learning with lectures given by the academics who write many of the course units. Professor Zarnecki, Dr. Cornwall, Dr. Kolb and Dr. Green have given their support for this idea. In the first instance an email will be sent out to all members giving this timetable, but it is hoped that in the next two months a facility will be created for posting the events on the Fusion web site.

John Small mentioned the ICPS event in Rumania in August 2006. A large number of ICPS attendees have, in the past, come from Fusion members. This was a great event combining sun, physics and parties, and there were interesting speakers. Lorraine said that she would make sure this event was promoted on the web site. The cost will be in the region of 120 euros and would include food and student accommodation.

(e) S207 Preparation Weekend

John Pollard, the organiser of this year's event, said that overall the Committee should feel optimistic. There were 20 people registered for this year, which means that Fusion should be able to cover its costs. For next year (2007) the weekend it will be publicised in the S207 Course Prospectus, which should give credibility to the weekend and draw in more students. John thought that combining the AGM with the Preparation Weekend was beneficial, although earlier facility bookings will have to be made in order to ensure larger room sizes. John will be passing all his papers to the next S207 Preparation Weekend Coordinator along with suggestions for next time based on the experiences gained from the current weekend.

Kents Hill Training Centre (nearby to the OU campus) was also mooted as a possible venue (this could include catering and accommodation) but was something that would be looked into by the next Coordinator. (Bill Willows said that the rooms were very nice at Kents Hill). John mentioned that the key reason why Fusion was able to break even was grants received from the IoP (£350) and the S207 Course Team (£300). Feedback forms will be given to all who attended to find out how much they benefited from the weekend.

(f) Science Revision Weekend

Digby Tarvin reported that information about this can be found on the Science Revision Website. The new venue is Yarnfield Park in Staffordshire. Fusion members get a £5 discount.

(g) Merchandise

Christine Seaman reported that 229 Fusion T-shirts had been sold in 2005. The number of T-shirts in stock at the end of the year was 100, with an additional 24 of the Schrödinger design delivered on 24 January 2006. Sale of T-shirts went especially well at the Science Revision Weekend. Subsequent discussion centered around perhaps expanding the range to include a Fusion sweatshirt. A new T-shirt design is being planned, possibly based on the 'Explore the Universe with Fusion' poster which was created for OU Open Day 2005.

(h) Website

During 2005 the home page has been used much more proactively to publicise key events such as the AGM and Revision Weekends. A Google powered search facility has been added to the site that enables visitors to search any of the site's content. Because we are an educational organisation there are no ads on the search result pages. The Fusion Newsletter has been published on-line within a few weeks of the hardcopy mailing. Work continues with setting up a PHP/MySQL one-line membership system that will enable new members to join and existing members to renew and update their membership details. T-shirts can be ordered as well. Payment by credit card has been set up and we are fully validated to accept payments via PayPal. Most of the PHP coding is complete (this generates the web page forms and validates user input) and integrating the existing membership records into a MySQL database is in progress. Roll out should be in another month or two. The Science Revision Weekend website has also been maintained throughout 2005. There are also plans to try creating a podcast (audio files placed on the internet for download) based on the forthcoming visit to Jodrell Bank.

(i) Space Project

The Society is no longer involved with this project so no further action is planned.

(j) OUSA Conference

No report was submitted due to the resignation of the Society's OUSA Conference Delegate during the latter half of 2005.

(k) OUSA Societies' Standing Committee

Jim Grozier has tried to attend the SSC meetings, but unfortunately missed the last meeting due to an over-run of the November Fusion Committee meeting. This is one of the posts that need to be filled for 2006.

(l) Nexus

Digby Tarvin explained that Nexus is the student branch of the Institute of Physics. This would have been one of the areas that Samir Dawoud would have talked about if he had been at the meeting. Digby will re-contact him to ask if he would be available to attend one of the Fusion Committee meetings during 2006.

Grants are available from the IoP and Digby felt that, over time, Fusion could apply for grants to run events like the Fusion Lectures in November 2006. Digby believes that Fusion could perhaps get a grant towards the cost of the IoP lecture theatre in London which would make it feasible to hold the event in London instead of at the OU campus.

(m) OU Liaison

Lindsey Shaw-Greening felt that the direct link between the Society and the Department of Physics and Astronomy was working well. She said that during 2005 Fusion has made itself better known within the department. Lindsey was still waiting to hear if the Iraqi scientists, due to work for a time at the OU, would be available to give lectures for Fusion. In 2006 Lindsey will be withdrawing from her work with Fusion, but she said that she will personally organise a replacement from department. The Committee thanked Lindsey for doing so much to allow liaison between Fusion and the department, for organising use of lecture theatres and rooms on the OU campus and for organsing the catering at Fusion events. An observatory tour and a visit to the chemistry and space labs are being planned for the next S207 event.

5. Elections for Officers, Committee Posts and various Delegates

(a) Statutory Officers

Chair: Paul Ruffle

Secretary: Digby Tarvin

Treasurer: Jim Grozier

Nominated (en block) by Bill Willows and seconded (en block) by Norrette Moore. The statutory officers were initially nominated and seconded individually, but unfortunately the individual names were not recorded.

(b) Functional Officers

Newsletter: Paul Ruffle

Membership: John Small

Events: Lorraine Robinson*

Website: Paul Ruffle

Merchandise: Christine Seaman

Science Revision Weekend Coordinator: Digby Tarvin

OU Liaison: Lindsey Shaw-Greening

First Class Moderator: Christine Seaman

S207 Preparation Weekend Coordinator: Graham Foyle

Nominated (en block) by Jim Grozier and seconded (en block) by Sandra Keen. These officers were initially nominated and seconded individually, but unfortunately the individual names were not recorded. * Since the AGM Lorraine Robinson has stepped down from the post of Events Coordinator, which is now vacant.

(c) Additional Committee Members (without specific duties)

Dwyn Padfield

(d) Delegates

OUSA Standing Committee: No delegate proposed

OUSA conference delegate: No delegate proposed

(These posts will be advertised to all Fusion members)

Nexus Rep: Digby Tarvin

Nexus Committee nominee: Digby Tarvin

(Nominated by Lorraine Robinson, seconded by Jim Grozier)

(e) Auditors

Marie Griffiths, Mark Jones (to be confirmed)

All posts were voted on and agreed unanimously.

6. Motions concerning changes to the Constitution

(a) That Article 6.v of the constitution be changed to read:

All expenditure shall be in connection with the AIMS of the Society. The Treasurer shall have the authority to spend sums in total not exceeding £250 between committee meetings. The Committee may authorise the expenditure of sums up to £1,000 and not exceeding in total £5,000 between General Meetings. Any expenditure in excess of these sums must be authorised by a General Meeting.

This amendment does not change the fact that all cheques have to be signed (by the Treasurer) and then counter-signed (by either the Chairman or the Secretary).

Proposed by Jim Grozier
Seconded by Bill Willows
The motion was carried unanimously

(b) That Article 6.vii of the constitution be changed to read:

In the event of the Society being dissolved or wound up its assets shall be realised and any sum remaining after settlement of all outstanding liabilities shall be donated to The Institute of Physics or the Open University Department of Physics and Astronomy for the setting up of a Trust for the promotion and/or support of studying physics through the Open University.

Proposed by Paul Ruffle
Seconded by Bill Willows
The motion was carried by majority with 2 votes against

7. Other motions not concerning changes to the constitution

(a) Increase in Fusion membership fees:

During 2006 Fusion membership fees may be increased by a maximum of £2.00 per annum, if it is recommended by the finance working party (members of which will be nominated at the next Fusion Committee meeting) that this is needed (see treasurer's report above).

Proposed by Paul Ruffle
Seconded by Fred Muirhead
The motion was carried unanimously

The meeting concluded with a word of thanks to everyone concerned with the smooth and successful running of the Fusion AGM and S207 Revision Weekend.