Earth Sciences History Group (A Specialist Group of the Geological Society of Australia Inc.) Email Bulletin No. 45 September 6 2014
New ESHG Committee At the ESHG Business meeting at the AESC in Newcastle in July, the former committee based in Western Australia handed the reins to a new Queensland-based committee. The Queensland Committee has had its inaugural meeting and appointed the various tasks, and the various steps of transferring bank account signatories are in progress. The new committee is: Chair — Ian Withnall Secretary — John Jell Treasurer — Paul Blake Newsletter Editor — John Draper Assistant Editor — Cec Murray WA representative — John Blockley NSW representative — David Branagan Victorian representative — Roger Pierson Tasmanian representative — Carol Bacon SA representative — Jim Jago
Change of name for the ESHG Newsletter? Following discussion at the previous Business Meeting at the IGC in 2012, the suggestion was made that the ESHG Newsletter should change its name to Journal and be published as refereed or partly refereed journal. The matter was investigated by the Editor (Peter Muhling), and his detailed report was tabled at the 2014 Business Meeting and is available on request. The report discusses the alternative possibility of publishing in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, the results of discussions with the editors of ‘The Globe’ and the ‘Journal of Australasian Mining History’, and provides an evaluation of the current Newsletter in terms of the submission of suitable articles, the irregular date of publication, the workload that it places on the Editor (a position held voluntarily). Comments that the full-time Editor of the Journal of the Australasian Mining History struggled with contributions were noted, and the general consensus around the table was that the publication should maintain its current status. It was pointed out at the meeting that the name is confusing (considering that this regularly emailed Bulletin could more appropriately be referred to as a ‘newsletter’, and that ‘Bulletin’ might have been a more appropriate term for the ESHG Newsletter). Therefore it was suggested that the new committee might continue to investigate a simple change of name from Newsletter to a more suitable term. The committee is therefore open to suggestions for a suitable name.
AESC A special session on Geological Heritage, Geotourism and Earth Sciences History was conducted at the AESC organised by Angus Robinson. The sessions were well attended and provided a range of presentations on these closely related topics. In addition, a Panel Session chaired by Angus Robinson discussed ‘Geotourism - The Potential for Employment Opportunities for Geoscientists’. The Geotorism Subcmmittee has suggested that some of these papers may be suitable for inclusion in a future issue of the ESHG Newsletter.
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