IMGA ADVISORY COMMITTEES and WEBINARS REPORT Aims Members

IMGA ADVISORY COMMITTEES and WEBINARS REPORT Aims Members Brief Report from each Chair Presenter: Maria Aurora Armienta

Conference Committee: Ensure that the Association’s bi-annual MEDGEO conference meets or exceeds stated objectives and successfully promote IMGA global mission, function and objectives Leader: Saveiro Fiore Members: Jose Centeno, Eduardo Ferreira de Silva, Nelly Manay, Brittany Merola Brief Report: For MEDGEO 2017: Russia got the best evaluation and the same result was obtained by the ways: vote to the whole report (Russia: 3; China: 1; Equality: 1) vote for single item: Russia: 185; China: 173

Education Committee: The main mission of the International Medical Geology Association is to promote, facilitate and conduct educational activities on Medical Geology to the world wide community. To maintain a global presence on education, IMGA Education Committee is tasked with the role of: Compiling and maintaining a database listing of educational and training programs and opportunities on medical geology available world wide; To identify organizations, institutions and/or universities with graduate program offering and to facilitate post-degree training opportunities for medical geology students; To facilitate the transfer of educational and technological opportunities between IMGA Centers of Excellence. Leader: Jennifer Mc. Guire Members: Claire Horwell, Alejandro Villalobos-Aragón, Teresa Heller, Theresa Albuquerque, Magarida Antunes, Laura Ruhl Brief Report: Currently, we have the results of the 2013 survey of Educational Programs, updated on an ad hoc basis, in the form of a spreadsheet that is shared with interested parties via e-mail as requests are made. We recommend that in the near future, this information be converted to a web-accessible database to be available through the IMGA webpage.

Funding Committee: As a global Association, IMGA is encouraging individual donors, private organizations and academic institutions to support our activities and to support members and Divisions and Chapters through raising funds to sustain research, training and educational activities on Medical Geology. Leader: Zhang Chaosheng Members: Cassio Silva, Hassina Mouri, Shiming Ding Brief Report: The IMGA Funding Committee has recruited a total of 4 committee members; They are working on a funding program

Students Committee: Students are the future of our Association. IMGA is aimed at attracting students into this interdisciplinary area of medical geology by facilitating training, education, mentorship and The Student Committee has proposed several initiatives research opportunities. The committee shall explore ways to inform students of the field of medical geology, to encourage students to learn more about medical geology, to encourage -The first initiative, on the way to implementation, is nominating student promoters (SP) at them to become active members of the IMGA, and to retain student membership by academic institutions with smart objectives for enhancing IMGA student membership and awareness developing various incentives. about medical geology. The pilot project of the first six SP nominations is at its final stage for commencement. The target is to establish a large network of students for IMGA. Leader: Ateeq Ur-Rehman Members: Zane Vincevica-Gaile, Saugata Datta, Chris Ola, Robert Finkelman -A student poster has been finalized and sent for publication in the newsletter. Several other ideas are in the pipeline to be implemented step-by-step such as: - Starting with “student section” in the newsletter with the title “voice of medgeo students” and transforming it into a student magazine in the future. - Maintaining an online forum for students at IMGA website to launch discussions on medical geology issues and answer their questions. - Preparing list of opportunities/scholarships/fellowships/grants for medical geology students and guiding them to win such opportunities. - Proposal to EC for celebrating medical geology month every year with a specific slogan. - Working with academic institutions for including medical geology as a subject in medgeo related sciences.

Awards and Nomination Committee: The Awards and Nomination Committee will be charged with the task of seeking quality nominations for IMGA independent awards. IMGA awards are external markers of exceptional achievement in the emerging field of medical geology. , as such, IMGA awards are important for the growth of the discipline and for individual career advancement. Nominations Responsibilities: to develop a list of candidates for chairs and councilors every two years. The EC may direct the committee to seek candidates for other positions such as Secretary, Treasurer, webmaster, etc. The committee shall have the list of candidates distributed to all members in good standing, compile the results of the voting, and report the results to the EC. Leaders: Bernardino Figuereido (Awards), Claire Horwell (Nomination). Members: Nelly Manay Brief Report: Nominations Committee: The last nomination and election round was completed prior to this IMGA conference in Aveiro, Portugal. , having received nominations for 6 Councillor positions that were voted. We are in the nomination of a new Secretary and a Treasurer. The core Executive Committee will all stand for a second term. Awards Committee: Travel and Chapter Stymulus have been awarded. Other awards will be anounced in this Conference.

Constitution and Bylaws Committee: Responsibilities: To administer proposed changes in constitution and bylaws of IMGA. The proposal shall be submitted to the EC for consideration and modification and then sent on to the membership for their vote on each change. Leader: Saveiro Fiore Members: Diego Fridman, Ester Sztein, Iosif Volfson, Chien-Yen Chen Brief Report: The final draft of the Constitution and Bylaws was completed and will be reported by Saverio Fiore

Chapters Committee: Brief Report: Responsibilities: The committee shall act as the point of communication between the EC and its Chapters. In terms of Chapters over the last two years the activities are on-going and have been The committee shall encourage the formation of new chapters, encourage active participation in 1. Continue to advise new chapters on how to establish themselves. existing chapters, and encourage the formation of new chapters. 2. Put forward new chapters for approval by the IMGA EC. The committee shall periodically remind the chapters of their responsibility of providing updates for 3. Arrange presentations of Certificates of Approval to new chapters. the Newsletter and for Association meetings. 4. Contact all chapters twice per year to collect their reports for the IMGA newsletter and website. Leader: Fiona Fordyce 5. Collate chapter reports and forward them to the newsletter editor and webmaster. 6. Advertise the Local Chapter Stimulus Contest to Chapter Leaders. 7. Handle requests and questions from Local Chapters for the IMGA EC on issues such as reduced fees, keeping dues locally, affiliated associations, funding for research etc. 8. IMGA now has 22 Chapters; one Honorary Chapter and a China-Ireland Concord. 9. The China-Ireland Concord and Chapters in Australia, Canada, Haiti, Pakistan and the UK have been established between 2013 -1015. 10. In 2014 IMGA changed the format of the Local Chapter newsletter reports not to include the lists of Chapter members. Therefore, we stopped sending the list of paid members to Chapter Leaders for their reports. This has caused problems as Chapter Leaders did not know who was a paid member in their Chapter as the dues are collected centrally. Therefore, we have reinstated sending Chapter Leaders lists of paid members twice per year, these will not be published in the newsletter, but the Chapter leaders need this information to keep up to date with their members and for encouraging members to pay their dues. Fiona Fordyce

Publications Committee: Responsibilities: To produce an informative and attractive biannual newsletter. In conjunction with other committees the committee shall seek relevant contributions to the Newsletters. Leader: Mark Cave , formerly Dave Elliott Members: Maria Aurora Armienta (e-news responsible) Brief Report: Three Newsletters published, sent to members and posted in the webpage Three e-news sent to members by email

Membership Responsibilities: To seek and encourage new members for the Association and to encourage membership retention. Leader: Robert Finkelman Brief Report: Dr. Nurdan S. Duzgoren-Aydin, New Jersey City University, has been selected as the first IMGA Distinguished Lecturer. We are waiting for a response from a second candidate from Europe. Distinguished Lecturers are members of the IMGA with a strong reputation as an excellent speaker, solid research credentials, and a demonstrated commitment to medical geology and the IMGA. The Distinguished Lecturer is charged with giving as many talks as they can manage at universities, high schools, conferences, businesses, technical meetings, mining companies, etc. on some aspect of medical geology or an overview of medical geology while promoting the IMGA with flyers and membership application.

Webinars • • • Health and Earth-Medical Geology José A. Centeno November 21, 2014 Attendants: 13 Countries: 11 • • • Estimating Human Exposure to Potentially Harmful Elements in Soils Mark R. Cave March 4, 2015 Attendants: 26 Countries: 17 • • Comming Soon: Medical Geology - What we need to do for a healthy future Robert Finkelman, Olle Selinus August 7, 2015