RSC Belgium 2022 AGM

The 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Belgium International section (RSC Belgium) took place on the evening of  Friday 14 January 2022 via webinar meeting on Microsoft Teams.

The meeting commenced at 19:35. Tweleve section members attended the meeting online: Bob Crichton (Chair), Tim Reynolds (Secretary), Julie Tuppeny (Treasurer), David Terrell, Fabio Lucaccioni, Rita Woodward, Susan Schamp, Dharmjeet Madhav, Ricky Payen, Ari Koskinen, Geoffrey Knight and Richard Green.

Also in attendance were co-opted Committee members: Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris.

Twelve section members who were unable to attend the AGM sent their apologies and had asked the Chair to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required. These members were: Deepak Pant, Brian Sutcliffe, Filip du Prez, Steven De Feyter, Lance Smallshaw, Albert Dijkstra, Marie-Beatrice Madec, Eveline Volcke, Joshua Holloway, Catherine Cazin, Tracey Ehiwe and Colin McCarney.

1. Apologies for absence

There no further apologies were noted.

2. Approval of Minutes of 2021 AGM

No corrections were suggested, and the meeting moved (Rita Woodward), seconded (Susan Schamp) and hence unanimously adopted the minutes.

4. Committee Report on the Section’s 2021 Activities (Tim Reynolds – Secretary)

The Secretary presented the 2021 report.

“As in 2020 the activities of the section have been significantly impacted by the continuing COVID crisis. However, building on our success in 2020 in initiating webinar-based activities RSC Belgium was able to run a comprehensive programme of activities. During 2021 RSC Belgium managed to organise seven public lecture webinars, our AGM, a fund raising social, and our two annual school outreach events: the Chemistry Challenge and the Top of the Bench ‘European Eliminator’. We also welcomed our eighth Norman Lloyd scholarship recipient at Cardiff University.

Our 2021 AGM was run as a webinar event on Microsoft Teams on the evening of 29 January and we were fortunate to be joined over the ether by RSC President Professor Tom Welton of Imperial College London and RSC CEO Dr Helen Pain. The AGM was recorded and is now available, along with many of our webinar events, on our own dedicated YouTube channel. Please note that our first lecture event of 2022 will be given by Prof Welton on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Sustainable Chemistry'.

We kicked our lecture programme in 2021 on 11 February with Prof James Durrant also from Imperial College on developments in Sustainable Solar Fuels. This was followed on 18 March with a fascinating talk from Professor Annemie Bogaerts of the University of Antwerp on plasma-based catalysis and processes in particular for CO2 conversion.

On 22 April members and friends of the section enjoyed a talk on ‘Edible Oils and Fats’ from long-time section member Dr Albert Dijkstra a well-known expert in this field and on 27 May we welcomed back Professor Nick Lane from University College London to explore the question: How does chemistry come alive?

During the summer, while COVID restrictions were more relaxed, the section was once again able to hold an appropriately socially distanced fundraising event for our Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Setsuko Lloyd’s house in Lasne. A very sunny and enjoyable afternoon raised a total of €860 for the fund.

During the year, our seventh recipient of a Norman Lloyd scholarship at Cardiff University, Cara Watkins, worked hard and enjoyed the 1^st year of her chemistry degree and at the end of the year we received news of eighth recipient, MartimGouveia Pereira, who started his degree course in the Autumn term. After the deduction of £1,000 for Martim’s award and including the funds raised in 2021 the Norman C Lloyd Scholarship Fund currently stands at £1,278.62.

September saw the results of our 2021 Chemistry Challenge announced. As for the previous year we had to organise a virtual event but received entries from the majority of our group of international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond. The prize-winners from the Challenge, including this year’s overall winner and recipient of the coveted Keith Price Award, were announced at a very entertaining and informative webinar event with Dr John O'Donoghue of Trinity College Dublin on 'Chemistry in the Movies' on the evening of 23 September.

On the evening of  21 October RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to an inspiring webinar talk from regular Chemistry World columnist and author Dr Philip Ball on The Beauty of Chemistry.

Our final lecture event of the year was on 25 November with Professor Jean-François Gohy from the Université Catholique de Louvain on advances and opportunities for future battery technologies.

Our Top of the Bench (TOTB)regional heat was also, again, a virtual affair taking place in late November and early December. In 2021 only four teams from two schools had been able to complete and return results in our first attempt at a COVID-proof TOTB, but this year 13 teams from seven schools were involved – returning participation to pre-COVID levels – and including for the first-time teams from the European Schools in Luxembourg. For 2021 online written and hands-on practical exercises were set by RSC Belgium committee members Rita Woodward and Susan Schamp. As ever the competition was very close with some notable individual performances and excellent teamwork, but the overall winner was the Titanium team from St Georges International School – that school’s third win a row - who will be representing RSC Belgium at the TOTB finals in March 2022.

We hope to be running a full programme of events during 2022 – either virtual or physical depending on the evolving COVID situation – and look forward to seeing many members and friends on screen or face-to-face during the year. Details of forthcoming events can always be found on the RSC Belgium blog.

As mentioned, our next programmed event is with Professor Tom Welton on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Sustainable Chemistry'. Further events will be announced.”

There were no questions on the report, and it was unanimously approved.

5. Financial Report of 2020 (Julie Tuppeny – Treasurer)

The treasurer presented the 2021 financial report and accounts.

“Like previous years 2021 was planned to be another busy year, until restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic saw cancellations and lectures moved online for RSC Belgium Section (RSCB) and its committee.

Our two annual competitions for schools, the Chemistry Challenge Competition were well attended with 68 students taking part, and the Top of the Bench (TOTB) Eliminator Round.

On 1^st January 2021, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section were €10,709. 91 The Annual Grant for 2021 was received in July 2021 from RSC UK of € 2,626.25 which was less than the 4,952.50 that was asked for.

Major items of expenditure during the year are listed below.

• € 706 to organise the Chemistry Challenge of which €620 was prize money.
• € 236.97  to organise the TOTB eliminator round.

For the Year ending 31 December 2021, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section amount to €9,563.98 in the current account and €2,101.30 in the Savings account giving a total of €11,665.28.

Bearing in mind Belgian Law, the status of the RSC Belgium Section holds the three Officers personally liable for debts arising from the activities of the Belgium Section. A grant of €2,000 will be requested from RSC UK to cover all the activities planned for 2022.”

The meeting unanimously adopted the Treasurer’s report.

6. Chair’s Remarks (Bob Crichton)

The Chair thanked all members of the committee for their hard work and support during another difficult year. In particular he thanked Fabio for his technical support in running our successful webinars.

Bob hoped that the section would be able to run more face-to-face events in 2022, however the section needed to follow guidelines from RSC HQ as well as the local rules and we awaited their instructions.

7. Election of committee members and section officers

Two nominations had been received for election to the committee as ordinary members.

• David Terrell
• Dharmjeet Madhav

As the number of nominations equalled the number of vacant positions, both candidates were elected to the committee for a period of two years.

At the first committee meeting of 2022 Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris were co-opted onto the committee. Full details of the 2022 committee membership are available here.

8. Auditing arrangements for 2022

Julie confirmed that accounts must be prepared and submitted to RSC HQ by 7 February 2022. These accounts did not require a formal audit prior to submission. If a review/ audit was required section member Lance Smallshaw had agreed to assist.

9. Any Other Business

As noted previously the first event of the 2022 programme will be on Thursday 24 February 2022 via Teams with Prof. Tom Welton of Imperial College London on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Green and Sustainable Chemistry'.

A question on the funding of the section by HQ was asked by Geoffrey Knight. Bob and Julie confirmed that the funding was through an annual grant and that this was not a loan, and the section did not have any debts.

The meeting Adjourned at 19:50. The first meeting of the 2022 committee took place on Tuesday 18 January 2022.

RSC Belgium 2019 AGM Report

The section's Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place on Friday 15 February 2019 at Les Amis Dinent Restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem at 19h30 and was followed by the section's Annual Dinner from 20h00. The meeting opened at 19:30 with ten members present but a further nine members, who were unable to attend the AGM in person, had asked the Chairman to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required thus achieving our quorum.

Following the recording of apologies received, the minutes of our previous AGM of 2 February 2018 were approved with no corrections. The section secretary, William Darnley, then presented the Committee Report on the Section's 2018 Activities. 2018 had been another good year for the section, with 10 events, of which six were public lectures, two social trips and our two annual school outreach events. The committee once again attended inter-section curling in Kent, where victory had been claimed! Membership stands at 131, a minor increase over last year.

The year kicked off with an evening with Prof. Sir Martyn Poliakoff – our highest attended event of the year with in excess of 50 people! And ended with another favourite: Dr. Urbina-Blanco’s talk on using CO2 as a chemical building block. In between these fabulous events were scattered throughout the year other, equally fantastic events, with a social outing to the highly interesting “Trainworld” train museum in Schaerbeek. We also took a trip to the Duvel brewery to the keen interest of many members. Other highlights included lectures on the duality of Music and Chemistry in April and a lecture on the history, importance and of course the chemistry of the colour blue.

We have our 5th Norman Lloyd scholar this year, William Cawdell. Reports from Cardiff are that he is a fantastic student and he intends to become a teacher!

Top of the Bench was yet another cracking event, with 11 teams from six schools and three countries partaking! It was an incredibly close call on the winners, but after reassessing all the teams’ performance in the practical exercise it was decided BSB was this year’s winners! They will be competing in the final in Birmingham in March.

Section finances

The section treasurer, Julie Tupenny, presented the 2018 financial report and accounts. On 1 January 2018, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section had been €8 552. The Annual Grant for 2018 received in June 2018 from RSC UK was €5 000, somewhat less than the requested €7 000. However, with no Café Chimique this year the financial situation is good.

For the Year ending 31 December 2018, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section amount to €10 311. This included part payment of a RSC Outreach Grant for the proposed Kitchen Chemistry tour (see below).

Bearing in mind that under Belgian Law, the status of the RSC Belgium Section holds the three Officers personally liable for debts arising from the activities of the Belgium Section. A grant of €7 000 will be requested from RSC UK to cover all the activities planned for 2019.

On behalf of The Belgium Section, Julie thanked Ralph Palim F.C.A the Hon. Auditor for his thoroughness in auditing and approving the RSC Belgium Section for the year ending 31 December 2018. Ralph has agreed to continue as the section's auditor for 2019.

Chairman’s Remarks

The Chairman, Tim Reynolds, thanked the committee for their hard work and support during the year and during his four years as Chair of the section. As ever we had hosted an interesting and diverse programme including some firsts. He thanked William Darnley for taking on the burden of section secretary.

Looking forward to 2019 he anticipated a challenging year with the fallout from Brexit making all our lives a little more difficult, however he was pleased to announce that the RSC would be launching a free legal service via its Community Fund to all RSC members in the EU who required support over issues such as immigration, residence or nationality as a result of Brexit. The service would cover any member, their partner or dependents and was good news.

The RSC Belgium programme for 2019 was also looking good and pretty much complete. Highlights included a possible trip to Hamburg in June to visit DESY and the new XFEL facility that is set to revolutionise our understanding in the biological sciences; the Kitchen Chemistry schools tour in September that is largely funded by the first RSC Outreach Grant to be awarded to any section outside the UK and Republic of Ireland (another first for RSC Belgium!); and the Istvan Marko Memorial Symposium at Louvain-La-Neuve that the section will be supporting and is attracting some notable speakers.

In anticipation of the elections, the Chair wished Bob Crichton well as the incoming Section Chair and welcomed Matt Andrews to the committee.

Committee elections

Three ordinary members were elected to the committee (Rita Woodward, Matt Andrews, and William Darnley) and the three Section officers were elected with Bob Crichton becoming Chair, Julie Tupenny remaining as Treasurer, and Tim Reynolds moving to the role of Section Secretary.

Election to the committee is for a two-year term and David Terrell and Jane Downing are currently in mid-term on the committee. The full composition of the RSC Belgium section committee can be found here. The first meeting of the 2019 committee took place on 5 March 2019.

All business being completed the meeting adjourned at 19:59 and the Annual Dinner commenced. You can access the full draft Minutes of the 2019 AGM here. These minutes will be presented to the AGM of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Belgium Section in 2020 for approval.

RSC Belgium 2017 AGM report

The section's Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place on Friday 10 February 2017 at Les Amis Dinent Restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem at 19h30 and was followed by the section's Annual Dinner from 20h00. The meeting opened at 19:30 with nine members present but a further ten members, who were unable to attend the AGM in person, had asked the Chairman to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required thus achieving our quorum.

Following recording of apologies received, the minutes of our previous AGM of 15 January 2016 were approved with no corrections.  The section secretary, Becki Scott, then gave the Committee Report on the Section’s 2016 Activities. During the year the section organised seven public events, one Saturday social excursions, two schools events and the Chemistry Challenge. Total section membership stood at 133 – a net increase of one over the year.

Among highlights of the year, reported by Becki, were the Café Chimique on the changing public perceptions of chemistry, Andrew Hanson’s series of colourful demonstration lectures for schools and the public in March, a lively stand-up comedy science show by Dr Jack Heal, and a guided tour of Namur led by Sarah Strange. The Chemistry Challenge competition attracted good levels of participation with prizes given out at Jack Heal’s event in October. Feedback had been received from Cardiff University that Mr Rhodri Evans (the second recipient of the Norman Lloyd scholarship) had performed well in his first year. The 2016-2017 recipient had just been named as Jessica Powell. The report was unanimously approved.

Section Finances

Outgoing section treasurer Rita Woodward presented the 2016 financial report and accounts. On the 1st January 2016, the net assets of the RSC Belgium Section were €6350 approx. The Annual Grant from RSC UK for 2016 had been €6200, less than the requested amount. Expenditure for the year was significant, but less than the previous year. With careful management the deficit for the year was only €440 approx. The committee aims to keep our account balances at around €7000, due to Belgian regulations where the section officers are responsible for any deficit. A grant for 2017 activities of €7000 will be requested from HQ. The section wished to thank immediate past president Prof Dominic Tildesley who covered many of his own expenses during his visit to the section. The accounts had been audited by the auditor Ralph Palim. The meeting unanimously adopted the audited accounts and the Treasurer’s Report.

The Treasurer expressed her gratitude to Ralph Palim and announced that he had agreed to be appointed as auditor for the section accounts for 2017.

Chairman’s Remarks

Section chairman Tim Reynolds thanked the committee for their hard work and support during a rather difficult year. The section had hosted an interesting programme and survived financially despite a lower grant than requested. With the visit of immediate past president, Prof Dominic Tildesley, the section maintained its tradition of hosting the RSC presidents.

The chairman thanked the three committee members who were stepping down and acknowledged their many years of service on the committee: Brian Sutcliffe (4 years), Ian Carson (11 years), David Terrell (27 years). It is hoped that David can be co-opted on to the committee for the coming year. Thanks weer also given to Rita Woodward who is stepping down as Treasurer. The Chairman also extended a welcome to the newly elected committee members and the incoming Treasurer and looked forward to a varied and interesting programme for the coming year.

Committee elections

Following elections the RSC Belgium Executive Committee for 2017 has the following membership: 

Elected members
Mr. Tim Reynolds (Chair)
Ms. Julie Tuppeny (Treasurer)
Dr. Becki Scott (Secretary)
Prof. Bob Crichton
Mr. William Darnley
Mr. John Swift
Mrs. Rita Woodward

Co-opted members
Ms. Jane Downing
Dr. David Terrell

The co-opted members were confirmed at the first meeting of the executive committee on 7 March 2017.

Closing remarks
Bob Crichton noted that the new structure of taking the demo lectures to the respective schools appeared to work better than the previous structure whereby a single location was found for the demo lectures and the students were transported to the venue. It was agreed that this approach will be continued as far as possible.

Special thanks were made to Dr Ian Carson for the enormous amount of work he has done for the section during his years of service. He was especially thanked for his help in arranging the very successful travelling demo lectures to schools.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 19h55 and was followed by the 2017 Annual Dinner of the RSC Belgium section.