INQUA Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits, & History

Posted by Alexander Makeev 11 Sen 2003 13:56:53

Dear colleagues,
I am resending you the letter of Professor Jim Teller, the President of new INQUA commission, that now includes paleopedology as a subcommission. Your comments are appreciated.

Alexander Makeev

<We have now begun a new chapter in INQUA, and our newly-
formed Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits, and History is off to a fine start. My thanks to you for agreeing to serve as Commission Members during the next four years. I am grateful for your enthusiastic support for the new concept of the INQUA Commissions, introduced at the Reno meeting, and for entrusting me as the first president of the Terrestrial Processes, Deposits, and History Commission (TERPRO? Terrestrial Processes? TPDH?). I look forward to working with you.

The terrestrial realm of the Quaternary is complex and
multifaceted. Subdivisions are not distinct, and I think we all understand and encourage the interactive nature between any disciplines/topics we might identify in our own Commission, as well as between those of other Commissions. Interdisciplinary is healthy for science, and I hope we will encourage and support it in the next four years. Of course research in specific terrestrial topics is equally
important, and we must also promote and support efforts on important specialty-defined topics.

I believe one of the strengths of our Terrestrial Processes
Commission is that there is a history of accomplishment in INQUA for so many of the Discipline Groups we identified at Reno; most of you have been part of this success through your Commissions. We are able to "hit the ground running", with the peer-elected infrastructure of existing Commissions (now to be called Subcommissions) and a number of active Working Groups and Projects. I believe we should retain this structure within our new Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits, and History.
Of course we need to periodically review the accomplishments, activity, relevance, and goals of these Subcommissions, which will mainly be judged by evaluating their Working Groups and Projects. New Subcommissions may
be proposed, existing Subcommissions may be modified, restructured, amalgamated, or phased out. Members of our new Terrestrial Processes Commission will make these decisions.

We will be responsible for reviewing all proposals and renewal requests for Working Groups and Projects that seek INQUA endorsement and/or funding related to terrestrial processes, deposits, and history; in some cases we may share this responsibility with other Commissions. The new Commission structure in INQUA will allow proposals for new Projects and Working Groups to be considered that are not
associated with Subcommissions.

Given that our Commission is now comprised of only 10 full
Members-even though we will increase that by several more in order to expand our geographic and discipline representation-there will be times in the coming four years (and beyond) when we will need the advice of fellow Quaternarists to evaluate proposals and make decisions. As I noted in Reno, I believe we should select an Advisory Council to our Commission, which normally will be comprised of, perhaps, 15-30 experts, appointed at various times during an inter- congress period for 1-4 years. For the
2003-2007 period, the INQUA Executive has already assembled such a Council for each Commission and, as I understand, all people on the list we saw in Reno have accepted. Although I accept the Executive list, I believe we should identify other members for our Advisory Council in the next four years as we, the voting Members of the Terrestrial Processes Commission, feel is appropriate.

Our mandate in the next four years, before our replacements are chosen, is to stimulate research on specific Quaternary problems where international collaboration is required and to promote and encourage
terrestrial research activity by recognizing and supporting Projects and Working Groups. As well, we will review proposals and consider appointments to the Advisory Council.

As well, we will have to prepare a set of guidelines on how we operate, with regard to promoting, reviewing, voting, and funding proposals for Working Groups and Projects. How and when should proposals be submitted? Will all full Members of our Commission review them? Should we also require that someone in the specialty
area of the proposal who is not a Member of the Commission also review them (i.e. one of the Advisory Council)? How and when should we identify topics in the terrestrial realm, not represented by Subcommissions, which we want to encourage to organize and seek INQUA endorsement as a Working Group or Project?

Please let me have your thoughts on all of this, and let me know how you recommend we proceed. As I understand from the INQUA Executive, old Commissions (now Subcommissions) will continue to operate with their INQUA endorsement for the next year, as will their previously-approved Projects and Working Groups. It is not clear to me how requests for new funding will be handled in this "transitional" phase.
In the next few months, I will use suggestions I receive from you, along with guidance from the Executive and others, to try and clarify things and chart a course for our new Commission. In the mean time, would each of
you let me know that you received this email (just in case I have your email address wrong), and please send me your full mailing address.
Again, thanks for agreeing to serve as a Member of the new
INQUA Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits, and History.
Sincerely,
Jim Teller
Professor

Department of Geological Sciences
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba CANADA R3T 2N2

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