General Interest Group Committee Report 2006

The General Interest Group cosponsored two sessions at the 2006 meeting in Hawaii: Canadian Light Source Symposium with Synchrotron Radiation SIG, and Cool Structures with Small Molecule SIG. The group and the Young Scientist SIG propose cosponsoring the Etter Symposium for the 2007 meeting.

Discussed at the annual GIG meeting was the idea of a session exploring diffuse scattering for the 2007 meeting. The GIG will look for cosponsorship in the Small Molecule and Powder Diffraction SIGs. Another topic suggested was “Educational Gadgets and Tools.” The members present urged that an additional session, simply General Interest, should be available to catch presentations that do not fit into the other sessions.

Participation in the GIG continues to be a problem. Peter Mueller surveyed all registered members of the GIG and received only two negative responses suggesting the GIG be disbanded. Many respondents felt the role of the GIG should be to ensure that new topics, topics that lie outside the purview of other SIGS, exotic and esoteric topics have a place at ACA meetings.