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ASSOCIATION OF AGROMETEOROLOGISTS

FIRST MEETING OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL FOR THE TERM 2017-19

The first meeting of Executive Council of Association of Agrometeorologists for the term 2017-19 was held at 1400 hrs on Friday the 21st April 2017 at AC & RI, TNAU, Madurai. Following members were present.

1. Dr. Akhilesh Gupta President 2. Dr. Surender Singh Vice President 3. Dr. Vyas Pandey Secretary 4. Dr. Rani Saxena Jt Secretary 5. Mrs. Rucha Dave Treasurer 6. Dr. K.K.Singh Member 7. Dr. Mahender Singh Member 8. Dr. Sandeep Singh Sandhu Member

Dr. V.U.M. Rao, Ex-Officio member, Dr. J. D. Jadhav Vice president, Dr. B. Ajithkumar and Dr. K. K. Dakhore members could not attend the meeting due to their preoccupation..

The meeting began with welcome remarks by Dr Vyas Pandey Secretary. He requested Dr Akhilesh Gupta, President Elect to take over the charge of President and preside over the meeting. Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, President of Association after taking over charge, in his opening remarks welcomed and congratulated all the newly elected EC members for having made it to the council for the term 2017-19. He mentioned that this was the first time that the election was conducted through e-ballot system. The EC appreciated the efforts made by Returning Officers and placed on record its appreciation and heartfelt thanks to Dr V.Geethalakshmi and Dr Ga. Dheebakaran for having conducted the election in a very free, fair, professional and transparent manner. After these brief remarks, the agenda items were taken up for discussion. AGENDA ITEMS NO 1 AND 2: SECRETARY’S AND TREASURER’S REPORTS ON THE ACTIVITIES AND FUND POSITION OF THE ASSOCIATION DURING 2016-17 Secretary, AAM highlighted the various activities carried out by the Association during the year and presented the annual progress and accounts reports for 2016-17. The EC appreciated the efforts made to sustain the activities of Association particularly for

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establishing a dynamic website of AAM and the publication of Journal of Agrometeorology. EC approved the reports of Secretary and Treasurer. AGENDA ITEM NO 3: ELECTION PROCESS FOR THE CHAPTERS It was brought to the notice of EC that although all the Chapters are expected to conduct elections for the term 2017-19 concurrent with that of National Council, so far no chapter has conducted the election. EC requested Secretary to write to all the chapters to conduct elections and report to National council at the earliest. It was also decided that henceforth all the chapters must have their terms concurrent to the National council. AGENDA ITEM NO 4: NOMINATION OF FIVE ZONAL REPRESENTATIVES Secretary mentioned that as per the Bye laws of AAM, EC has to nominate 5 zonal representatives. After detailed deliberations, EC approved following zonal representatives.

Eastern Zone Dr. U.S.Saikia, ICAR RC-NEH, Umiam, Meghalaya Western Zone Dr. S. K. Bal, NIASM, Baramati, Maharashtra Central Zone Dr. K. K. Agrawal, JNKVV, Jabalpur, M.P. Southern Zone Dr. V. Geethalaxmi, AC&RI, TNAU, Madurai,T.N. Northern Zone Dr. R.S. Rana, CSKHPKV, Palampur, H.P

AGENDA ITEM NO 5: PROGRESS AND PREPARATION FOR THE FORTHCOMING EVENTS Regarding AGMET-2017, Dr. Surender Singh, Vice-President apprised the EC of the progress made so far in this regard and presented a rough draft of the brochure for the seminar be held at CCSHAU, Hisar during 16-18 October, 2017. President suggested that draft brochure may be sent to him and Secretary for finalization. For organizing International Symposium at Ludhiana, Dr. Sandeep Singh Sandhu requested a formal letter from HQ for the same to get approval from the University. It was decided that a formal letter will be sent to Ludhiana Chapter at an early date. AGENDA ITEM NO 6: APPROVAL OF PUBLICATION OF JOURNAL OF AGROMETEOROLOGY- QUARTERLY The EC approved the proposal for bringing out quarterly issues of the journal. EC also suggested to expedite bringing out special issues/proceedings of Pantnagar and Coimbatore seminars.

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AGENDA ITEM NO 7: TRANSPARENT EVALUATION SYSTEMS FOR DIFFERENT AWARDS EC authorized President to take appropriate decision in this regard. AGENDA ITEM NO 8: MEMBERSHIP DRIVE- NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL- FEE EC resolved that all members must make concerted efforts to undertake a drive to enroll new members into the association. There was no consensus on increasing the membership fee at this stage. AGENDA ITEM NO 9: INCREASING LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION FEE It was suggested to revise the library subscription fee from Rs. 1500/- to Rs 3000/- with effect from 1st April, 2018. It was also suggested that apart from hard copy, e-copies can also be provided to library on demand with Rs. 1000/- charge annually which should be password protected. AGENDA ITEM NO 10: SUGGESTIONS FOR ENHANCING THE ACTIVITY OF THE ASSOCIATION Dr Akhilesh Gupta made a detailed presentation outlining some general and specific suggestions to enhance the activities of the Association. A summary of his presentation is given below:

1. Increase number of chapters from 7 now to at least 17 in next 2 years (additional 10 chapters) to cover most parts of country

2. Target enrolment of new members by at least 20% annual increase 3. Build collaboration with other Indian and international societies/associations 4. Preparation of AAM VISION-2030 5. Preparation of History of Agrometeorology in India 6. Preparation of annual calendar of activities by chapters and Hq 7. Launch a quarterly e-News letter 8. Prepare strategy for fund raising from GOI ministries/departments/private sector 9. Activate/motivate chapters to enhance their activities 10. Initiate Public awareness programmes – Science popularization among public,

school children; Celebration of National Science Day, WMO Day, Earth Day, Environment Day, Water Day, etc

11. Organise training programmes for stakeholders ( e.g., State government officials, teachers, professionals, scientists, etc)

12. Apply for Scientific & Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) certificate to get IT 13. exemption 14. Involve renowned scientists/ leaders in the area of agriculture, meteorology, allied

areas and felicitate them 15. Institute a big award in the name of an agriculture luminary

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16. Build corpus for establishing a Full fledged office 17. Position an Executive Secretary to the Association 18. Set up Coordination Mechanism within EC for various activities such as

Publication, Events, Resource generation, Inter-ministries coordination, Inter-institutional national and International Linkages, etc

In order to set up a coordination mechanism within EC, Dr Gupta suggested that following roles and responsibilities of different office bearers of EC.

President- Overall Management, Planning, Vision, Publication, Inter-ministerial coordination, Resource generation

Vice-president 1 (Dr Surender Singh)

• Preparation of a draft Vision-2030 • Developing strategy for building International linkages,

National/International events, coordination with Chapters, initiating a e-News letter

Vice-President 2 (Dr JD Jadhav)

• Preparation of a draft History of Agrometeorology, • Developing strategy for initiating Public Awareness

Programmes, collaboration with National societies and membership drive

Secretary- Executive functions, day to day activities, overall coordination, support to President, Publication, etc

Joint Secretary Assist Secretary in all functions, Media Coordination (under the guidance of President)

Treasurer Fund related coordination, support to President, Secretary EC Members Coordination with chapters and Zonal representatives, inter-

institutional linkages, membership drive The President suggested that EC may set up a National Advisory Board for providing guidance and suggestions to EC in various activities. The Board may not meet formally but their views may be taken through email. The Board may comprise of some of the veteran of agrometeorology. Members of the board may be chosen out of following suggested list. If required, some more names could be added in this list later on.

1. Prof B V Ramana Rao 2. Dr S Venkataraman 3. Dr YS Ramakrishna 4. Dr MC Varshneya 5. Dr LS Rathore 6. Dr AM Shekh 7. Dr SS Hundal 8. Dr O. P. Bishnoi 9. Dr TN Balasubramanian 10. Dr ASRAS Sastri 11. Dr KK Nath 12. Dr S.Pasupalak 13. Dr NVK Chakravarty

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14. Dr GGSN Rao 15. Prof. BRD Gupta 16. Prof. Padmakar Tripathi 17. Prof S. K. Tripathi 18. Dr. A. K. Singh, Gwalior 19. Dr. P. K. Aggarwal 20. Dr. Naveen Kalra 21. Dr. V. K. Goel, METOS 22. Dr S M Virmani 23. Dr MVK Sivakumar (Geneva), 24. Dr Samsul Huda (Australia) 25. Dr Amor Ines (USA)

After this detailed presentation, the EC appreciated the suggestions and proposals outlined by the President and unanimously resolved to initiate action on all the issues. The EC authorized President to take appropriate decision on all the above items on behalf of EC. AGENDA ITEM NO 11: ANY OTHER ITEM WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE CHAIR There was a general discussion on various issues especially regarding defining roles of zonal representatives as laid down in the bye laws. The EC members were of the view that with the expansion of activities and memberships of the Association, there is an urgent need to start new chapters. The very purpose with which provision of zonal representatives was kept may need a revisit. After detailed discussion EC decided that the process of amendments of Constitution of AAM (By-Laws) may be initiated. EC authorized President to set up a committee to suggest the amendments to the constitution. EC authorised President to take a decision about nominating a few senior scientists who contributed significantly to the field of agrometeorology as Honorary Fellows of AAM. EC also authorised President to take decision about finalising a new Editorial Board for the term 2017-19 for the Journal of Agrometeorology. President requested Secretary to prepare a draft minutes and issue letters to all identified Zonal Representatives by end of this month; letters to EC members suggesting them to take responsibility of their role in AAM and letters for seeking sponsorship from Ministries for AGMET-2017 by mid-May; letters to identified members to initiate a new chapter; letters to Chairmen of all existing chapters to prepare a calendar of activities, fund required and submit to HQ by end of May. The President suggested that the EC must meet at least once in 6 months but discuss issues more frequently over emails. He suggested that a Watsapp group may be set up to facilitate informal interactions among EC members. He proposed that the next Meeting of EC may be held during AGMET-2017 in October 2017 at Hisar. The meeting ended with a Vote of Thanks to the chair.