(meteorobs) Fwd: [MIAC-L] MIAC status news

[Ed Majden]

Forwarded with the permission of Dr. Martin Beech

Ed Majden

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Martin Beech <Martin.Beech at uregina.ca>
> Date: November 26, 2007 8:41:06 AM PST
> To:MIAC
> Subject: [MIAC-L] MIAC status news
>
> Dear all,
>
> There is some important news concerning MIAC that I would like to pass
> on to all Associate Members.  As is the way of such things I have some
> good news and I have some bad news. Perhaps I should begin with the 
> bad,
> or not so good, news. MIAC is no longer being funded or recognized as 
> an
> advisory agency to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). In short the AC 
> part
> of MIAC no longer applies. On the brighter side for the Canadian
> planetary science community, the CSA has established two Discipline
> Working Groups (DWG) that to some extent replace MIAC. One, the small
> body DWG, is concerned with solar system exploration in general, and 
> the
> other, the astromaterials DWG is concerned with the analysis of solar
> system materials. The DWGs have no funding for actual fieldwork,
> however.
>
> The first meeting of the DWGs was held earlier this month and since the
> various (now ex) committee members of MIAC were nearly all in 
> attendance
> some time was spent on trying to workout how to keep MIAC going, and on
> how to keep the whole infrastructure for reporting and contacting
> volunteers in place. Firstly it was suggested that we stick with the
> acronym MIAC, but it is now understood to stand for Meteorite Impact
> Analysis Community. Hopefully we will be able to keep the fireball
> reporting webpage active and run the information webpages as a general
> resource guide for anyone wishing to report a meteorite find or fall. 
> At
> some stage we will probably want volunteers to make their contact
> information available on the web page so that they can be contacted as
> regional advisors should a meteorite dropping event take place.
>
> At this stage I would encourage people to voice (email) their thoughts
> to the MIAC list server, and I will keep you informed as best I can 
> upon
> future developments.
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Martin Beech (ex MIAC Chair)
> Campion College, The University of Regina,
> Regina, SK, Canada S4S 0A2
>
>
> November 24th, 2007
>