Nominations and EOIs close for AACS committee and Conference 2021 venue

Calling for Management Committee Nominations

Every two years the President and Management Committee positions are declared open and the AACS calls for nominations which are then decided by the AACS membership through a formal secret ballot. Our current Management Committee is made of 4 full members, 1 associate member and the president position. Our current representatives are:

President

Paul Grundy (QDAF)

Full Member Executive

Mary Whitehouse CSIRO (vice President)

Linda Smith QDAF (Secretary)

Michael Bange CSIRO (Treasurer)

Warwick Stiller CSIRO

Associate Member Executive

Allan Williams CRDC

The roles within the Management Committee (e.g Treasurer) are decided by the incoming executive team.

We would warmly invite nominations from the membership for the positions of President, Management Committee or Associate Management Committee. To nominate please provide the following details

• Nomination role (President, Management Committee or Associate Management Committee)
• Preferred name and Surname
• Your Organisation and Position
• Area of work/discipline
• Why you would like to be considered for the President/executive committee (25 words max)
• What have you got to offer the committee (30 words max)
• Provide a photograph

Our constitution also states that the immediate Past-President shall be an ex-officio member of the Management Committee. Should there be a change of President at the AGM, this position will be in addition to the elected Management Committee.

Please email your nominations to Warwick Stiller (who will be our returning officer) prior to 15 October 2019.

Warwick will not be seeking nomination for the next Management Committee and I warmly thank him for his service and support of the AACS since its inception.

EOIs for next AACS Conference

One of the key functions of the AACS is to provide a high quality conference that enables our members to share and discuss their research. The conference program has continued to grow and during the last two events has attracted an increasing number of international attendees and presenters which is fantastic to see. The other important function of the conference is to provide an opportunity for students and early career scientists and specialists to share their work with peers.

For each conference we have relied on the generosity of members to put themselves forward to chair the next conference. This process has always been somewhat ad hoc. As we continue to evolve as an Association the management committee have decided that it would be more appropriate to have a formal process in place that provides the opportunity for people to consider hosting the AACS conference as well as providing some clarification around the selection process. Therefore we would like to call for expressions of interest from our membership for hosting the 2021 AACS Cotton Research Conference

In submitting an expression of interest please address the following criteria:

1. Conference Chair Nominee is a current full AACS member
2. Why you want to hold the conference, what you and your site bring to the conference, and your vision for the conference.
3. Host Organisation is supportive of the event and supportive of conference Chairperson/nominee allocating work time to event. A letter from the organisation (senior leader) to this effect is required.
4. Proposed location has suitable facilities to host up to 200 delegates (with concurrent sessions)
5. Critical mass of members exist within chairpersons host organisation and/or proposed location to assist with conference workload
6. Experience with prior events by the chairperson or key committee members would be viewed favourably. That said, the AACS membership has a number of members with conference experience that can be approached to be part of your committee, so do not let inexperience hold you back.

NB: previous conference location and host organisation may have bearing on the selection of the successful nominee to encourage diversity.

Nominations will be presented at the AGM to ascertain membership feedback with the final decision being taken by the incoming Management Committee.

Please submit your expressions of interest to Linda Smith prior to 15 October 2019.