Minutes of the Executive committee meeting held on 07/06/2018

Meeting of the Executive committee of the Society of Tropical Forestry Scientists was held on 07/06/2018 at 3.30 pm in the committee room of S.FR.I. The meeting was attended by the following office bearers of the executive committee.

1. Dr. P.K. Shukla                       -           President
2. Shri Ch. Murlikrishna              -           Director, SFRI and Ex officio, Vice President
3. Shri R.S. Kori                         -           Dy. Director, SFRI and ex officio, Secretary
4. Shri S.K. Shukla                     -           Dy. Director, SFRI and ex officio, Treasurer
5. Dr. Moni Thomus                    -           Member
6. Dr. Pratibha Bhatnagar           -           Member
7. Dr. A.K. Sharma                     -           Member
8. DR. Anjana Rajput                 -           Member
9. Dr. Atul Shirivastav                -           Member
10. Shri Maneesh Gosowami        -           Member

The following special invitees also attend the meeting

1. Shri O.P. Tiwari               -           Addl. Director, SFRI
2. Shri Rakesh Jain               -           SRO, IT, SFRI

The agenda for the meeting was as under :-

Agenda  

1. Action taken on decisions taken during the AGM dated 18/12/2017.
2. Present status of receipts of subscription for JTF.
3. Up-dation of Web site of the JTF.
4. Any other item with the permission of the chair.

The meeting was chaired by the president of the society. He welcomed all the participants. Thereafter each agenda item was taken up sequentially for discussion.

Agenda - 1

            There were six agendas during the AGM dated 18/12/2017. The first agenda was regarding the approval of the minutes of the previous AGM meeting dated 15/02/2017. The minutes of the meeting had already been approved by the General Body and therefore, no action was due on the agenda.

The second agenda was regarding the presentation of the audit report of the society for the year 2016-17. The audit report had already been approved by the General Body and therefore, no action was due on the agenda.

  The third agenda was regarding membership subscriptions receipt during the year 2016-17. During the discussion it had been decided that the secretary and treasurer would immediately prepare an updated list of pending subscription and accordingly send reminders to the defaulting forest divisions. They would also telephonically talk to the DFOs concerned. The production editor had also been requested to contact the CCFs concern to expedite the process. In compliance of these decisions, it was inform that the defaulting divisions have been sent the invoices for payment of pending subscriptions. However the response has not been very encouraging.

            The fourth agenda was regarding the election of office bearers of the society. The elected office bearers have already taking over their respective charges and therefore, no further action his call for.

             The fifth agenda was regarding the activities to be undertaken during the year 2017. It had been decided to take up the following activities.

1. It was regarding the organization of 8th K.P. Sagreiya memorial Lecture.

This event has already been organized on 20 Feb 2018 in which Shri Arvind Khare from World Resources Institute, Washington DC delivered his lecture on “Who Owns the World’s Forests and Why it is Important: Global Tennre Trends and Imperatives with Special Reference to India”

1. It was regarding the selection of Best paper published in the JTF for K.P Sagreiya award for the Best Paper.

A committee comprising of the following persons was constituted to adjudge the best paper published during the year 2016 in JTF.

1. Dr. P.K. Shukla
2. Shri O.P. Tiwari
3. Dr. N. Roychoudhary
4. Dr. R. Bajpai
5. Dr. Pratibha Bhatnagar

The paper titled as “Artificial regeneration of SAL (Shorea robusta faerin.F.)” authored by Pooja Yadav and G.S. Yadav in April-June, 2016 Vol. 32 (II) issue of JTF was adjudged as the best paper and recommended for the K.P. Sagreiya best paper prize. The first author was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 10000/-. Certificates of appreciation were given to all the authors.

1. It was regarding the publication of special issue of JTF on Climate change it was informed that although an announcement to that effect had been made in the JTF and full length papers on Climate change had been invited for publication in the Journal, the idea of bringing out a special issue on climate change had to be shelved due to poor response. It is now planned to publish edited papers on climate change presented during the National seminar on Climate Change and Role on Communities for Adaptation and Mitigation held on 18th 19th Sep. 2017. Editing of these papers is in progress and after editing the papers will be published in book form.
2.  It was regarding the improvement and updation of the newly developed web site of the society and for that purpose, a committee comprising of Dr. Avdesh Sharma, Dr, Sachin Dixit and Shri Maneesh Puri Goswami had been constituted complete the task within a months.  Sadly, no progress has so far been made.
3. It was regarding the disposal of the old issues of the JTF it had been suggested that the surplus copies might be distributed free of cost to the libraries of universities, colleges and institutes. It had also been suggested put these copies for sale on discounted rates in Van mela and other such fairs. It was informed that a limited number of copies of old issues had been put in the Van mela. However, a large number of copies are still lying in the office of the society unnecessarily occupying space in the office. 

The sixth agenda was the appointment of the auditor for auditing the accounts of the society for the year 2017-18. It had been decided to reappoint M/s. Kirit Patel and Associates, Chartered Accountant. Compliance of the decision has already been made and no further action is due.

Agenda - 2

            It was informed that no subscription from the forest department has been received during the year whereas there are 152 offices where copies of the Journal are being sent regularly. The current situation on this front is quite disappointing. The current expenses of the society are being met from the interest on the fixed deposits in the bank. After thorough discussion during the meeting the following suggestions were put forward –

1. Bills for previous three years ie 2015, 2016 & 2017 should be sent to all the 152 offices by e-mail as well as by post.
2. The secretary and the treasurer may please also telephonically contact the concerned officials reminding them to send the pending subscriptions.
3. Dr. Moni Thomas suggested to prescribe some fee for publication of articles in the JTF to be taken from the authors. However, the president opined that levy of such fee would discourage authors from sending their papers for publication in JTF.
4. It was also suggested that PIs working on different research projects in SFRI, should be encouraged to write papers on the findings of their research projects and submit the papers for publication in JTF. These papers can be charged some publication fee which can be paid from the project budget.

Agenda - 3

            The members present emphasized upon the need of immediate and regular up-dation of the web site. Two members of the committee viz., Dr. Avdesh Sharma and Shri Maneesh Puri Goswami who were present in the meeting, promised to complete the task of updation in a week on their request, the services of Shri Rakesh Jain were also made available to the committee in the task of web site up-dation. Shri Rakesh Jain who was present in the meeting agreed to give his cooperation and assistance to the committee.

Agenda - 4

                        There was no other item for discussion in the meeting.

            In the end, the president thanked all the office bearers and special invitee to the meeting.    

 

 

 

(R.S Kori)

Secretary

Society of Tropical Forestry Scientists,

Jabalpur