Dear members of the UIS KHS Commission,

The 17th International Congress of Speleology in Sydney, Australia is quickly approaching. The UIS KHS Commission has to present an activity report for the period since the last Congress in Brno (2013-2017) and elect new officers (President and two Vice-Presidents), either prior or during the Congress.

1. The UIS KHS Commission activity report. During the period of 2013-2017, the Commission has sponsored several important conferences and symposia and initiated three major international volumes. Several hundreds of articles on speleogenesis and karst hydrogeology topics have been published by the Commission members in major journals and conference proceedings. So, the Commission celebrates its 20th anniversary (created in 1997 by upgrading a respective Working Group) being active and productive. The report is currently under preparation and will be posted on Speleogenesis website within next 10 days. With possible subsequent amendments, it will be presented to the UIS General Assembly during the Congress in Sydney.

2. An election of the Commission officers. Following the practice established in 2013, I suggest that we’ll run an election before the Congress, via online voting. In this way, we’ll have a possibility to nominate candidates and perform voting, thus forming a new leadership with a wide involvement of the speleogenesis/karst hydrogeology community. This would be impossible to do during a formal meeting at Congress, considering limited time and attendance.  

I suggest the following procedures and time schedule for the election campaign.  

1) Nomination of candidates for three officers (a president and two vice-presidents) starts immediately upon the distribution of this message and lasts until June 30.  Candidates can be nominated by any affiliated member (registered at Speleogenesis website). IMPORTANT: Prior to nominating a candidate, a nominator must contact him/her and make sure that he/she agrees to stand for an election. Self-nominations are acceptable. Same candidates may be nominated for a president and for a vice-president (if such a candidate takes the first place in the election of a president, she/he will be excluded from the rating list for vice-presidents). Please, send nominations to me (klim[at]peleogenesis.info; copy to klimreserve[at]gmail.com), indicating a suggested position (a president or a vice-president), full name of a candidate, his/her affiliation, and email. I’ll post a list of nominees at Speleogenesis News by the end of the nomination campaign.

I encourage members of the UIS KHS Commission to take an active part in the nomination campaign. I will definitely not run for a president for the next period. I am very grateful to the community for excellent cooperation, and for supporting my initiatives during the ( probably too long) term of my presidency. Of course, I will remain an active member of the commission and I will do all my best to foster and support its activity. In particular, new officers may rely on the continued functioning of the Speleogenesis website in supporting the Commission activity, which will be ensured by our webmaster Alexey Kopchinskiy and me.

2) Voting will take place between July 5 – 15 via online polls, and results will be posted on Speleogenesis website and presented for an approval by the UIS General Assembly in Sydney. Candidates nominated for a president and vice-presidents will be included in two separate polls. The voting will be by the core members (members of the Commission’s Executive Bureau; 40 colleagues from 15 nations; for the full list see http://www.speleogenesis.info/news-all.php?pageNum_rsGeneralNews=7&totalRows_rsGeneralNews=174&id=271).   

3. Commission meeting during the 17th International Congress of Speleology in Sydney. The Commission will have its meeting at the Congress to review and discuss its activity and consolidate/develop plans for the future. Time and a place are not determined as yet and will be announced additionally. Unfortunately, I’ll not attend the Congress, but the meeting will be convened and chaired by the Commission Vice-President Jo De Waele.   
 

Yours sincerely,

Alexander Klimchouk,

President, UIS KHS Commission

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