Meeting opened at 8pm with remarks by outgoing President Fari Goodarzi

Attendees (Attachment I):

Agenda - approved (Attachment II)

Outgoing President's report

President Goodarzi gave an enthusiastic welcome to members attending the meeting in Halifax. He said it was good to hold the meeting with TSOP (The Society for Organic Petrology). It provided the members with a wide variety of high quality technical presentations and provided plenty of opportunity for interaction at an informal discussion level. TSOP Halifax '98 meeting conveners P.K. Mukhopadhyay (Muki) and Mike Avery were congratulated on organizing and running a successful meeting (see secretary's report for details).

Acknowledgements and announcements:

• The three students Michelle Hawke (UBC), Sharlene Pollock (U of C) and Nick Wilson (Dalhousie U) were welcomed and their attendance noted with appreciation.
• The presence at our meeting of two distinguished and long time members Peter Hacquebard and Alex Cameron was acknowledged.
• Cindy Riediger was congratulated on receiving tenure at the University of Calgary.
• Andrew Beaton was congratulated on his new job with Smokey River Coal in Grande Cache, Alberta.
• Wolfgang Kalreuth acknowledged for travelling all the way from Brazil to join us.
• Tom and Maria Gentzis were congratulated on the recent birth of their daughter.

In closing he pointed out that Judith has long been an asset to the Society and will surely carry on that spirit into her new position as President.

Incoming President's report

Incoming president, J. Potter thanked Fari Goodarzi for his 6 years of leadership of the Society during which a significant list of accomplishments were made:

the Canadian Coal Petrographers Group was renamed the Canadian Society for Coal Science and Organic Petrology

• the Society was formally registered and a constitution drawn up
• the Society became an active member of the Geoscience Council of Canada thanks to Dr. Goodarzi's representation
• the Hacquebard Award was instituted to honour a CSCOP member who has made significant contributions to Coal Science in Canada; the first award was presented at this meeting
• the Cameron Award was established to recognise the achievements of student members.

Future directives: Where do we go from here? The Atlas is a milestone and a testament to the collaboration and cooperation of our membership despite our fragmented geographic state and in spite of staff cuts, budget cuts, fiscal restraint, dwindling memberships - and support for coal research. It is a great achievement! However, to use a popular phrase, "Been there, done that!" It is time to move on and set new goals.

State of the industry: It is time to recognize some realities. The era of coal petrology is waning although organic petrology has a brighter future. A revival in coal petrology applied to carbonization research appears to be underway. The recent application of coal/organic petrology in forensic and environmental studies is promising. Also there is a persistent reliance on coal/organic petrological data in geological modelling.

Membership expansion: The name of the society was changed in 1991 to include the phrase "coal science" (the acronym remains CSCOP) to encompass technological research related to coal such as coal/organic geochemistry especially in the areas of environmental studies and fuel technology. This is to indicate an expansion of scope of interests of the society and encourage active participation of related disciplines especially geologists from the federal and provincial Geological surveys. The Society could be more active in promoting the interests of its members. The Canadian Carbonization Research Association (CCRA) has shown interest in working with our Society and this cooperation should be encouraged in light of our historic relations and future directives.

Society expertise: The Society should have a means of communicating to potential members and partners what services and capabilities exist within our Society. We should perhaps consider preparation of a brochure (available in hardcopy and web site) that communicates this information more effectively.

Other proposals:

• Reduce term of president to two years.
• Expand use of internet communication to facilitate projects (web site and email).
• Society should produce a regular publication to keep members abreast of events, current reasearch projects and activities, short papers etc. (i.e. more than a newsletter).
• Host another joint meeting with TSOP in Banff for 2001.
• Venue for next meeting: Edmonton, hosted by Thomas Gentzis

Changes in executive
- During the year a vote was held by mail in ballot for the position of President. The two nominees L. Stasiuk and J. Potter agreed to run for the office. Congratulations to Judith on becoming our knew President. She is to be especially commended for taking on this challenge while she has many other commitments on her time.

Hacquebard Award
- As announced in the February /98 letter to the members, Dr. Alex Cameron is the first recipient of the Hacquebard Award. The occasion was all the more special since Peter Hacquebard was on hand to present Alex with the "Gold" medal at the Monday noontime luncheon/business meeting at TSOP - Halifax '98. Congratulations again to Dr. Cameron! A copy of the announcement of the award prepared for the Minister of Natural Resources Canada by Judith Potter is enclosed was attached to the February letter. Alex was presented with a medal designed and struck by the Society (see Attachment V).

Joint TSOP/CSCOP meeting
- The TSOP-Halifax '98 meeting July 26-28th, 1998 was a considerable success with 96 registered attendees. On Sunday evening over 120 registrants and guests attended the ice-breaker and poster display in the Highland suite, World Trade and Convention Centre downtown Halifax. Two short courses offered on Sunday (Forensic Geochemistry, I. Kaplan and Apatite Fission Track Studies, M. Zentilli) were well attended. There were 47 talks and 19 poster presentations which was nearly double last year's technical content. Attendance break down by country was: U.S.A. and Canada 40 each; Denmark 3; Australia and The Netherlands 2 each; Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, P.R. China, United Kingdom and Venezuela 1 each. The conveners P.K. Mukhopadhyay (Muki), J.H. Calder, F. Goodarzi and M. Avery thank all those participated in the meeting for their enthusiastic support. As previously announced a special volume of the Journal of Coal Geology is being prepared. Also, see the agc.bio.ns.ca/tsophalifax98 web site for post meeting details.

Web site
- Last year's proposal to register the Society's web site was made a reality during the past year. Our web site has been officially registered with the domain name of cscop.org and the home page address of www.cscop.org. The initial two year fee of $100US was paid in May (fortunately before the recent run on our dollar value). There is a considerable amount of potential for the society if members make use of the site. I have made some improvements to the site especially around the 'Atlas' pages. The Atlas is advertized on the web site under "Atlas Project - What we can do?". There is a short description, ordering information and a table of contents.

Please provide any feedback, ideas or problems about the site. Make it your site my adding to it! Send your ideas to myself or any member of the executive. Remember you can advertize yourself and demonstrate the expertize and diversity of our membership by sending in an information profile of yourself (membership profile on membership page). It's very easy, just fill in a few blanks.

Glossary/Atlas
- The atlas project has been completed thanks to the efforts of editors Judith Potter, Lavern Stasiuk and Alex Cameron, the working group coordinators and all members who contributed photos, captions and editorial input (See comments from outgoing and incoming presidents and full report by J. Potter under Society Business).

Dinner
- Due to the very busy time schedule this year's meeting was held as a dinner meeting at the Hanover room of the Prince George hotel which was the designated accommodation for guests of the TSOP '98 meeting.

Field trip (see Agenda; Attachment IV)
- CSCOP members were welcome to attend the TSOP post meeting 2-day field trip to Carboniferous sections along the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. See attachment for a description of the field trip taken from the meeting web page. Copies of the very well received guidebooks prepared for the field trip are available. Check the meeting web page agc.bio.ns.ca/tsophalifax98 for address.

Treasurer's report (Attachment III)

Thomas Gentzis presented the financial statement for fiscal year 1997/98. J. Potter asked if an audit has been done and offered to do it if not. C. Riediger noted that banking charges seemed high and T. Gentzis replied that it was because it was a business account. A. Cameron asked if as discussed last year that membership fees were going to raised. T. Gentzis suggested an increase from the present $15 level to $20 or $30 level. It was noted that the membership in the Canadian Geoscience Council was costing us $200 plus $0 .5/member per year. After some discussion L. Stasiuk made a motion to increase dues for full members from $15 to $25 and for students an increase from $5 to $15. F. Goodarzi seconded the motion. B. MacDougall asked that the student increase be limited to just $10. The motion passed with the lower student dues increase. Therefore, commencing May 1, 1999 the membership dues will be $25 for regular members and $10 for students.

Society Business

Membership expansion: University involvement is important. F. Goodarzi suggested that there shouls be a student member on the executive of the Society which would encourage more active university participation. L. Stasiuk commented that (especially at this meeting) although student attendance was good, university members at the professorial level were notably absent, with the exception of C. Riediger (U. of C.)

Glossary/Atlas (Report by Editor-in-chief, J. Potter): The CSCOP Atlas is now a reality. It was published and ready for the July Annual meeting. A few display copies were presented in the poster viewing area of TSOP - Halifax '98. The atlas consists of 24 plates and just over 100 pages. Includes appendices of names of current and past members. It is a joint publication of CSCOP, GSC, CANMET Energy Technology Centre. These groups variously covered the cost of producing and marketing the Atlas.

It will be sold through GSC publications department at a price of $133.50 ($138.50 outside Canada; $113.50 for members and special pre-order offer to ICCP meeting participants). Members should order directly from L.D. Stasiuk (for more details see order form included in this mailing). The print run was for 300 copies with ISBN 0-660-17538-X. Publication costs amounted to $23,000 (printing: $14,800, plates: $5200 and labour: $3000). Financial contributions were from GSC ($5200 for reproduction of plates, typesetting and formatting), CanMet ($5000 contribution to printing costs) and CSCOP ($13,000 for reproduction costs -on budget). The GSC's significant contribution in terms of technical assistance, layout, formatting and materials, in addition to financial support is also gratefully acknowledged.

To break even 173 copies must be sold at $133 each. But copies sold through GSC will be charges 15% so break even will be closer to 200 copies. If all copies were sold it would make a nice profit for our Society. So please promote the Atlas with your contacts.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to all who contributed, all working group coordinators, all photo/sample contributors (any unused photos will be returned), all technical assistance, local reviewers, cartography staff at GSC Calgary (Brian Ortman & Elizabeth Macey for layout, format & quality control). Personal thanks to Laverne Stasiuk and Alex Cameron as compilation editors. Thanks to Society for not letting the project die. It is a landmark publication (awesome by all accounts) and it is a tribute to all those petrographers in CSCOP and its predecessor Canadian Coal Petrographers Group whose expertize and talents can now be recognized worldwide! We should be proud of this achievement.

Future publications: We have shown that it can be done! We must build on our foundations and consider proposals for future publishing projects.

Meeting Reviews

TSOP '97 - Lexington, Sept.27-30 (Report by Mark Obermajer): Held as a joint meeting with the AAPG Eastern Section at the Hyatt Regency in Lexington. There was a session on organic petrology and one on coal. For the technical session 23 talks and 8 posters were presented. About 45 TSOP delegates attended with 4 Canadians but this group presented more than 30% of the TSOP presentations. The total registration for the joint meeting was over 400 so this provided TSOP members with a chance to interact with a wider geological community.

L. Stasiuk appended this report by noting that Marc won the best student paper at the meeting. Congratulations!

ICCP '97 - The 49^th ICCP meeting was held in Wellington, New Zealand, Oct 20 to 24th, 1997 (Report by L. Stasiuk): The meeting as hosted by Dr. Tim Moore from CRL, with about 25 people in attendance. Reports and drafts of several documents were distributed by the Commissions including the psdeuovitrinite working group, accreditation program, coal facies working group, and the microlithotype sheets of definition. Final approval of inertinite sheet was made; publication is expected in 1999. The most significant change in nomenclature was the renaming of Sclerotinite to Funginite.

J. Potter enquired about status of the ICCP accreditation initiative. W. Kalkreuth replied that A. Depers, University of Wollongong (Aivars_Depers@uow.edu.au) is officially in charge of the program and details on the procedure are available from the ICCP homepage( http://www.fu-berlin.de/iccp ).The first step to obtain ICCP accreditation consists of the analysis of six coal samples that you obtain from ICCP and your results from reflectance and composition (maceral groups) have to be in previously defined limits, before the ICCP accreditation is handed out. The accreditation must be renewed every 2 years by analysis of additional 2 coal samples..

Meetings Calendar

CSCOP - Edmonton '99: Hosted by Tom Gentzis. Dates not confirmed yet but will follow CSPG meeting which will be held June 14-18 in Calgary.

TSOP - September 26-30, 1999: The Society for Organic Petrology, 16th Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City (Snowbird Resort), Utah. For information contact: Jeff Quick, Utah Geological Survey, 1594 West North Temple, Suite 3110, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-6100 USA (ph: 801-537-3372; nrugs.jquick@state.ut.us) or Dave Wavrek (ph: 801-585-7907; fax: 801-585-7873; dwavrek@esrilan.esri.utah.edu). For further details see: www.tsop.org .

ICCP - 1999 - Bucharest, Romania

Attendees:

Mike Avery (GSC Atlantic)
Alex Cameron (GSC Calgary)
Cathy Cameron (Calgary)
Tom Gentzis (NRCan, Devon, Alberta)
Fari Goodarzi (GSC Calgary)
Peter Hacquebard (GSC Atlantic)
Michelle Hawke (U of Guelph)
Dave Hughes (GSC Calgary)
Wolfgang Kalreuth (Brazil)
Bill McDougall (GSC Calgary)
Marc Obermajer (GSC Calgary)
Sharlene Pollock (U of Calgary)
Judith Potter (J.P. PetroGraphics, Calgary)
Cindy Riediger (U of Calgary)
Laverne Stasiuk (GSC Calgary)
Maria Tomica (GSC Calgary)
Nick Wilson (Dalhousie U.)

President: Judith Potter

J.P.PetroGraphics
90 Patterson Close SW
Calgary, AB
T3H 2V2
ph: 403-292-7114 or (403) 240-0240
fax: 403-292-5377 or (403) 240-0240
jupotter@NRCan.gc.ca
dpotter@telusplanet.net

Secretary: Mike Avery

Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic)
Bedford Institute of Oceanography
Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B2Y 4A2
ph: 902-426-6761
fax: 902-426-4465
avery@agc.bio.ns.ca

Treasurer: Thomas Gentzis

National Centre for Upgrading Technology
Suite A202, 1 Oil Patch Dr
Devon Research Centre
Devon, Alberta
T9G 1A8
ph: 780-987-8713
fax: 780-987-5349
tgentzis@NRCan.gc.ca

Publication Editor: Laverne D. Stasiuk

Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary)
3303 - 33rd St. NW
Calgary, Alberta
T2L 2A7
ph: 403-292-7000
fax: 403-292-5377
lstasiuk@NRCan.gc.ca

1. Opening remarks - Dr. Fari Goodarzi, President
2. Announcements
3. President's report (F. Goodarzi)
4. Secretary's report (M. Avery)
5. Treasurer's report (T Gentzis)
6. Editor's report (L. Stasiuk)
7. Report on the CSCOP Atlas ( J. Potter)
8. External reports

• TSOP meeting in Lexington (M. Obermajer)
• ICCP meeting in New Zealand (L. Stasiuk)
• IEA ( F. Goodarzi)

• Society pins
• Awards committee
• Hacquebard Award - call for nominations
• Cameron Award - call for nominations
• New president
• New directives

DEBITS:

$ 66.00 Cindy's Café (Coffee, juice, etc. for 1997 meeting) (June 9, 1997)
$ 1,560.00 J.P. Petrographics (Judith Potter's work for Glossary) (June 9, 1997)
$ 30.00 Receiver General for Canada (Incorporation & Disclosure for 1997) (June 19, 1997)
$ 220.00 Geoscience Council of Canada (Fees for 1997/98) (February 7, 1998)
$ 148.60 Fees for Internet Service (April 24, 1998)
$ 30.00 Receiver General for Canada (Incorporation & Disclosure for 1998) (June 19, 1998)
$ 8,500.00 Receiver General for Canada (Glossary publication) (June 26, 1998)
$1,500.00 Receiver General for Canada (Glossary publication) (July 3, 1998)
$ 760.58 Judith Potter (Hacquebard award medals, CSCOP pins, etc.) (July 3, 1998)
$ 12,892.43 Total Debits

CREDITS:

$ 220.00 Membership dues (September 13, 1997)
$ 30.00 Membership dues (January 31, 1998)
$ 79.52 Interest (January 31, 1998)
$ 100.00 Membership dues (May 5, 1998)
$ 45.00 Membership dues (June 24, 1998)
$ 474.50 Total Credits

CURRENT STATUS:

· CHEQUING ACCOUNT (as of July 23, 1998)

No. xxx xxxxxx with Canada Trust in Edmonton

$ 2,143.37*

$ 2,000.00 was transferred from certificate to chequing account

·CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT

No. xxx xxxxxx with Canada Trust in Edmonton

$ 1,150.00

It matures on February 2, 1999 and receives an interest rate of 3.7%
Interest will be credited to account

Prepared on July 24, 1998 by:

Thomas Gentzis
Treasurer-CSCOP

Field Trip Leaders: J.H. Calder, R.J. Ryan, R.C. Boehner, M.R. Gibling, P.K. Mukhopadhyay and D.M. Skilliter

During the two day field trip, we will explore classic (and very scenic) coastal exposures of early and late Carboniferous rocks on the Bay of Fundy, where the world's highest tides rise and fall. These strata occur within the component Minas and Cumberland basins of the Maritimes Basin complex of eastern Canada. The Maritimes Basin serves as the keystone between European and North American basins of the Carboniferous.

We will focus on the development of source rocks and coals in the context of basin evolution, paleogeography, and paleoenvironments. Stops on the first day will include the latest Devonian-Tournaisian (Mississippean) Horton Group of nearshore and lacustrine affinity as well as petroliferous rocks of the Visèan (Mississippian) marine Windsor Group. On the second day we will visit the world famous fossil cliffs of Joggins and the exceptional exposure of Westphalian A (early Pennsylvanian) coal-bearing strata of the Cumberland Group, with its fossil forests and basin-wide organic-rich limestone beds of questionable environment. The traditional non-marine affinity of the Horton and Cumberland source rocks will be debated. Road stops will include the Joggins Fossil Center and the Fundy Geological Museum.

Notes on specifications for preparing the medal by manufacturer: Actual size: 3" Metal finish: gold All black will be raised & polished gold electroplate All white will be recessed and sandfrosted

PRESS RELEASE from The Society for Organic Petrology (TSOP)

The Society for Organic Petrology Starts Student Grants Program

The Society for Organic Petrology (TSOP) is pleased to announce the inauguration of its Student Grants program. Monetary awards up to a maximum of US$1,000 will be granted to qualified masters or doctoral candidates who demonstrate the application of organic petrological concepts to research problems. Applications are due by March 31, 1999. Applications and information are available at the TSOP webpage (www.tsop.org) or by contacting the

TSOP Research Committee Student Grants Program

c/o C. L. Thompson- Rizer, Chairperson
Conoco Inc. PR 3072
P. O. Box 2197
Houston TX 77252-2197 USA
E-mail: carolyn.thompson-rizer@usa.conoco.com
Phone: 281-293-3160
Fax: 281-293-3833

The purpose of the Student Grants program is to foster research in organic petrology, which includes coal petrology, kerogen petrology, organic geochemistry and related discipline, by providing support to graduate students from around the world. Factors to be weighed in the selection of successful applicants include: qualifications of the applicant as indicated by past performance, originality and research potential of the proposed project, support of the department in which the work is being done, and perceived significance of the project to organic petrology.

The grant program will be initiated with a maximum of two grants each year of up to $1,000 each. Grants are to be applied to expenses directly related to the student's thesis work, such as summer fieldwork, laboratory analyses, etc. A portion (not to exceed 25%) of the funds may be used to attend TSOP Annual Meetings. Funds should not be used to purchase capital equipment, to pay salaries, tuition, room, or board during the school year. At the conclusion of the research project, the awardees are required to publish an extended abstract in the TSOP Newsletter and will be encouraged to present their results at the TSOP Annual Meeting.

The TSOP Grant Program focuses on support of qualified candidates for masters or equivalent degrees. Qualified doctoral candidates with expenses beyond the usual scope of funding by other agencies are also encouraged to apply.

The Society for Organic Petrology was founded in 1984. TSOP is an Associated Society of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and a member society of the American Geological Institute (AGI).