Beiijing, China (from WASER Net):

2006 Membership Renewal Request / Message from the President and Secretary General of WASER, Des Walling and Zhao-Yin Wang
   

Renewal notices for members, whose membership expires in winter 2005, will be mailed out in early December 2005. You will receive a renewal form where you can indicate your level of membership renewal as well as confirm and update the contact information that we have for you.  If you do not receive a renewal form by January 2006, please contact our office with your mailing address and we will re-send the form. To ensure that your journal issues and other communications reach you in a timely manner, please return your renewal by the end of January 2006.

December 10, 2005

Dear WASER Members,

It is now a little over a year since our association, WASER, was inaugurated at the Ninth International Symposium on River Sedimentation held in Yichang , China , in October 2004. As 2005 draws to an end, we feel that we can look back on a successful and eventful year and the Officers and Council of WASER would like to take the opportunity to wish all members a happy and prosperous new year.

During the last year there have been many important developments for the association. The new website for WASER has been established and this has attracted increasing attention from scientists and engineers in many different parts of the world. The International Journal of Sediment Research (edited, published and distributed by IRTCES) has now become the official journal of WASER and the first issues with its new cover have appeared. All the founder members have received free copies of the four issues of the Journal for 2005. Circulation of the journal continues to grow and an application has been submitted for the journal to be included in SCI, in order to improve further its service to members and to extend its role in promoting international research activity and interchange in the field of erosion and sedimentation.

The promotion of education and training is also seen as an important activity for WASER and, as a first initiative, the WASER/IAHR-APD/IRTCES Study Tour to the Three Gorges Project held in August 2005 proved an outstanding success. This was a joint venture between WASER, IAHR-APD and IRTCES. A total of 27 doctoral students, scientists and engineers from 7 countries including mainland China and Hong Kong – China , Iran , the Republic of Korea , Japan ,India, Italy and the USA attended the study tour. The success and value of the tour was clearly confirmed by all participants and the need for further events of this nature was emphasized.

The 220 founder members of WASER ， have now been joined by 32 new members from 11 countries in 2005 and our association is therefore beginning to grow. Looking back over the first year of WASER, we think that we can take encouragement from the old Chinese (and English!) proverb, which says that with a good beginning a job is already half done. We hope that the website, the journal and the newsletter will play an increasingly important role in raising the profile of WASER and in facilitating the creation of its own unique identity.

The Officers and Council of WASER will do their best to promote the development of WASER during 2006, but your support for our young association will be very important in ensuring its success. It is also the time of year to remind you to renew your membership for the coming year. Enclosed is your WASER membership renewal form for 2006.  Membership benefits:

● Continue to receive the International Journal of Sediment Research and on-line electronic access for regular membership.

● Receive a discount on registration for the International Symposia on River Sedimentation and other conferences and meetings organized by WASER.

● Access the members' section of the web site, search the archived newsletters, and join the discussion forum.

● Join your colleagues in the only international association dedicated to sedimentation and erosion research and help to promote interdisciplinary collaboration in our field. Please see the enclosed renewal form for membership categories.

All members need to renew for 2006. If you have not been receiving email communications from the Secretariat of WASER, or if your email address has changed, please send your current email address to liuxy@iwhr.com.

We remind you to visit the WASER web site ( www.waser.cn ) for new features such as news, photos, meeting announcements and details, and more .

We send you our best wishes and thank you for your continuing support for the Association. 

Des Walling, President of WASER