Patrons.
“Any person who has rendered conspicuous service to the Canadian astronomy community beyond purely scientific contributions may be elected by resolution of the Directors to be a Patron of the Corporation.” The CASCA Board is pleased to recognize two remarkable people on your behalf, Michael Jolliffe of AMEC, founding co-chair of the Coalition for Canadian Astronomy, and Pekka Sinervo of the University of Toronto, a key figure in establishing ACURA and on-going co-chair in the Coalition. Certificates noting this election as Patron were presented to Michael during the Town Hall meeting in Kingston, and to Pekka at the subsequent ACURA meeting.
Achievements.
Our members are busy: the splendid science results presented at the recent CASCA meeting reflect this. Faced with reading all the posters, I wrote to our sponsoring agencies asking them to reduce our funding. Our members are successful internationally and ambitious: this is reflected in the programs that exploit our existing facilities and efforts toward future facilities. In a separate article, I have noted the 40th anniversary of VLBI.
Coalition.
The “Big science, Big money” requirements in the current Long Range Plan present a considerable challenge. I don’t think there is any question that Canadian talent and leadership are there, but if we are to succeed, it will cost more than has historically been spent. Convincing the government and its ministries and agencies of this is the explicit goal of the Coalition for Canadian Astronomy. CASCA is an essential component of the Coalition, and we are really fortunate to have such strong support from ACURA and from industry. This is a pre-requisite but no guarantee. Perhaps it is the nature of science funding in a political environment to be precarious and chaotic. Probably the coming year will test this in more critical terms than we’ve faced before. So don’t stand back from the Society and assume things will unfold. They might unravel instead; there is no birthright or entitlement here.
Balance.
We need to strike a balance, exploiting current facilities as we look ahead to the next. My view is that as the new facilities come on-line (SCUBA-2, Herschel, Planck, ALMA, JWST), in addition to CFHT, Gemini, and other opportunities that continue to attract many of our number, that we will find that we are lacking enough people to fully exploit them. The flip side is that this presents fabulous opportunities for training HQP. The LRP, of course, recognized such manpower issues, but there is some distance to go, through uncharted territory, to realize and implement those aspects of the new funding. Another area requiring balance is between collective initiatives on a national and international scale and initiatives that strike individuals as interesting and worth pursuing. A Plan can be valuable in finding consensus and setting priorities on the large projects, but I don’t think we want to stifle entrepreneurial activities either. That said, even if this is not a zero-sum-game, there are limits to funding; priorities do have to be set and expectations managed and aligned, so that our talent pool is not dissipated over too many activities that will fall short of the necessary funding to be effective and maintain Canadian astronomy’s high profile.
The next LRP.
We need a system of facilities, large and small, multi-wavelength, ground and space based, and as a Society, CASCA has a Long Range Plan, which embodies our collective aspirations. Even though we are in the midst of the current plan, the Board has noted that a new Plan will be needed and has tentatively proposed that this be completed and released by the AGM in 2011; 2010 or 2012 might be better, we’ll see. Opinions on the timing are welcomed. A related issue is “ownership” of the Plan, by which I mean such broad responsibilities as planning and setting of priorities in a transparent fashion, advocating and raising the funding, and then implementation and generally keeping things on track as outside factors change. The first aspect can be led by CASCA and the Coalition is engaged in the second, in cooperation with the agencies. The present dependence on so many agencies creates challenges and so, as was clear from the Working Group report, funding and the third aspect, implementation, are still quite a muddle. We need to evolve an appropriate system of governance, one that is both responsible and responsive, with effective advisory mechanisms that provide co-operative interactions with the astronomical community, and one that embraces on-going peer review.
EPO/IYA.
I sense that despite our many individual efforts, we are collectively falling short on delivering the full potential of EPO envisioned in the LRP: again we have more ideas than resources, especially resources for coordinating activities at a beyond-local level. While LRP funding is sorely needed, in the meantime the CASCA Board is working with the E&O committee to try to break the logjam. International Year of Astronomy 2009 provides us with a unique opportunity. This is a time-critical issue. We have strong leadership through Jim Hesser and Jayanne English and the committees. This is exciting. Read about their work and get involved.
Society.
Out Society is run through volunteer efforts. There are many committees through which members can become pro-active. The Board is considering the committee structure to make sure that it best serves the evolving needs of the Society and the next LRP. The Society has a Board, another opportunity for members to step up. I’d like to thank Rene Plume for his contributions, as his term comes to an end. Particularly crucial roles are played by the Secretary and Treasurer, both of whom are finishing their long terms this year. Thank you sincerely to Secretary John Rice and Treasurer Dave Hanes for your remarkable contributions and for your willingness to make the transition for the incoming officers as smooth as possible. Finally, thank you Nadine Manset and Gregg Wade for stepping into these important roles.
Peter Martin