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Dear all

Those of you who attended ECM31 in Oviedo should know that I am no longer the Chairman of SIG9; for the rest of you, this is a short message following my retirement.

The main reason that I am taking up your time is to let you know that the incoming Chairman, Martin Lutz, our Secretary Andrea Thorn and I have been thinking carefully about the role of SIG9 in the future.

We have a proposal that we have discussed with the ECA Executive Committee and the other Interest Groups of the ECA, namely that we should change from being a Special Interest Group to a General Interest Group.

There are two main reasons that we feel this is a suitable change.

First, Crystallographic Computing is of interest to all other IGs – there isn’t a single other IG that does not make use of Crystallographic Computing in one way or another, and in this sense it is not “Special”.

Secondly, because we are a SIG, and sessions (i.e. microsymposia, keynotes and plenaries) at ECMs are arranged according to “Focus Areas” which group a number of SIGs, we are often under-represented in the Program at ECMs. It is often the case that the best attended sessions at ECMS are those with a strong emphasis on developments in Computing methods; it has been a shame over several ECMs that there are not very many of these sessions in spite of the best efforts of our representatives on the Programme Committees.

The ECA does not include GIGs in any of the Focus Areas, and leaves them free to participate actively in joint microsymposia, keynotes and plenaries with any and all of the other IGs, without direction from Focus Area representatives.

We feel that these points could be addressed by a change from a SIG to a GIG.

With your agreement, we intend to present this as a formal proposal for immediate adoption at ECM32 in Vienna.

Please let me know of your thoughts on this topic before the end of October 2018

Harry
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Dr Harry Powell