CGRG was busy during the first half of 1998. In March, it sponsored a special session entitled Little Ice Age Geomorphology in the Canadian Cordillera at the annual meeting of the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers, held at Kwantlen University College, Richmond, B.C. Kudos to Dan Smith for organizing this excellent session. CGRG, together with AQQUA and CANQUA, sponsored a special session on Relative Sea-level Variations and Isostatic Recovery across Canada, from Late Wisconsin to Present Day at the joint meeting of GAC/MAC, APGGQ, IAH, and CGU in Quebec City in May. This superb session was organized by Jean-Claude Dionne (U of Laval) and Yves Michaud (GSC-Quebec). Finally, CGRG hosted a special session on Fluvial Systems and Environmental Change A Canadian Perspective at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG), held in Ottawa in June. Joe Desloges, Peter Ashmore, and Greg Brooks were the driving force behind this extraordinary session.

The CAG meeting in Ottawa was also the venue for CGRG s Annual General Meeting, which was attended by about 30 people, 20% of the membership (this is an enviable proportional turnout for any organization). I won t bore you with details, but I'd like to call your attention to a few of the more important decisions that were made at the AGM. A new executive was installed. Brian Luckman (University of Western Ontario) and Lynda Dredge (GSC) were nominated and unanimously endorsed as incoming Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer, respectively. Tracy Brennand (Simon Fraser University) and Dirk De Boer (University of Saskatchewan) were elected from a slate of six candidates as members-at-large. Chris Burn now becomes Past-President, and I am the new President. The highlight of the AGM was the presentation of CGRG's first J.R. Mackay Award to Tracy Brennand. Dan Smith, chair of the selection committee, made the award to Tracy, citing her outstanding contribution to geomorphology through her paper Macroforms, Large Bedforms and Rhythmic Sedimentary Sequences in Subglacial Eskers, South-central Ontario: Implications for Esker Genesis and Meltwater Regimes (Sedimentary Geology, 1994). Tracy delivered a lecture Esker Roads immediately after the AGM. Nominations for the second Mackay Award, which will be presented at the CGRG Annual Meeting in Calgary in August 1999, can be made to Chris Burn, Chair of the Award Committee. Information on the Mackay Award and the nomination procedure are included in this newsletter.

What s coming down the pipe for CGRG? This fall, we hope to sponsor a two-day workshop on Geophysical Techniques in Geomorphic Research at Simon Fraser University s Harbour Centre Campus in Vancouver. The emphasis will be on the application of ground-penetrating radar and high- resolution seismic surveying to geomorphic problems. If you are interested in participating, contact:

The next CGRG Annual Meeting will be held jointly with CANQUA in Calgary in late August 1999. Derald Smith is Chair of the Organizing Committee, so you can count on this being a meeting to remember. Steve Wolfe (GSC) and Christain Begin (GSC-Quebec) are organizing a CGRG-sponsored session on climate change and extreme events at the Calgary meeting; if you would like to contribute, see the announcement in this newsletter for information. We also welcome additional suggestions for other sessions for CANQUA 99. Further down the road, CGRG will meet with AQQUA in Montreal in 2000, with GAC in Calgary in 2000, with CGU and AGU in Quebec City in 2001, and with CAG in Montreal in 2001.

CGRG encourages its members to hold regional workshops and field trips, a model being the successful 1997 workshop on geophysical techniques organized by Bob Gilbert. To this end, we will consider providing reimbursement for the expenses of key out-of-town co-leader(s) who wish to organize CGRG-sponsored workshops or field trips not connected with conferences. Examples of expenses that will be considered include air, bus, or rail transport to the city where the workshop is being held, hotel, meals, and personal vehicle use. Detailed guidelines can be obtained from me on request. If you have a great idea for a geomorphology workshop or field trip, give me a call.

Many or most CGRG members are subscribes to the CANGEORG listserver, operated out of the University of Victoria by Dan Smith. CANGEORG maintains a bibliography of Canadian geomorphological, Quaternary, and environmental geoscience publications, now numbering over 10,000, which is updated on a regular basis. It also provides timely news about issues of interest to Canadian geomorphologists. If you do not subscribe, but would like to, the instructions for subscribing are contained in this newsletter.

My final comments pertain to publications. We had a lengthy discussion about a CGRG publication policy at the AGM in Ottawa. It was agreed that publications, especially technical manuals and books on geomorphology, are an important way to promote geomorphology and its practice in Canada and to disseminate geomorphological information. There was no consensus, however, about how to proceed. Should we undertake to publish our own manuals and books (perhaps a financially risky proposition for a group as small as ours)? Should we utilize university or commercial publishing houses (costs of publications may be prohibitive)? Or should we rely on web-based information transfer? CGRG s Executive welcomes input from the membership on this issue. It is unlikely that the matter will be resolved in the near future but rather than wait, we have decided to take advantage of two opportunities to support publications of interest to Canadian geomorphologists. The first is a manual on geophysical techniques used in geomorphic research, prepared by Bob Gilbert and others for the Queen's workshop in September 1997. We are discussing with Bob how CGRG can support publication of this manual, either through a university press or using an independent commercial printer. The second publication is a report on professional registration in Canada prepared by Michael Church for the Canadian Geoscience Council. CGRG hopes to assist with the printing of this report and intends to distribute a copy to each of its members later this year.

Let me close by inviting comments from you. What would you like CGRG to do that we are not doing now? Are we doing anything that you dislike? Any comments on a publication policy? Would you like to organize a regional workshop or a session at a national meeting? You can send your thoughts to me at the GSC (before September 1, 1998) or Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University (after September 1). One final thing (geez, won't this guy ever shut up!), how about recruiting a new CGRG member?

John Clague
President, Canadian Geomorphology Research Group
jclague@gsc.nrcan.gc.ca
phone 604-666-6565