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You are here: Home eNewsletter Archives 2007 April 2007 New GSN Committee takes the reins

New GSN Committee takes the reins

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Nikki "skyping" with Dirk and Dianne (Picture © GSN)

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The First Student Symposium will be held at the University of Cape Town from 11-13 September 2007 (Picture © UCT)


- By the GSN Committee

In March, the Interim Committee of the SAEON Graduate Student Network (GSN) held a meeting with the newly elected members of the committee in Cape Town to begin the process of handing over the reins to the new committee members.

As a first for a GSN committee meeting, internet conferencing was used so that two of the new committee members that are currently overseas could join the meeting: Dianne Southey is in Australia and Dirk Snyman in Belgium.

During the meeting, some key GSN responsibilities were handed over to the new committee members. Musa Mlambo will from now on be responsible for communications with students via email, Nikki Stevens for communications with SAEON, Nikki and Dirk will be involved with funding issues, and Dianne will be taking over website maintenance on her return to South Africa.


First Student Symposium

The main focus of the meeting was planning the First Student Symposium, for which go-ahead was received from SAEON. While the final details still need to be worked out, we are pleased to be able to release a date and location: 11-13 September 2007, University of Cape Town. A call for abstracts will be made soon, so watch the website for details.

A quick update on the committee members' comings and goings:

  • Dianne is at the Australian National University for four months, working on her MSc project with prominent fire ecology researchers
  • Dirk is in Belgium for six months as part of his MSc study
  • Musa has just started his MSc in the Zoology Department of UCT
  • Nikki is working hard as the Ndlovu Node's data manager
  • Glynn is currently in the process of moving from Skukuza to the SanParks office in Cape Town
  • Saras Mundree is pulling out all stops to get through the final stretch of her PhD
  • Silvia has just been appointed as project coordinator for the South African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA)
  • Bernard is attending conferences and workshops related to his field of study

For more information about the SAEON Graduate Student Network, visit http://www.saeon.ac.za/students

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