The European Crystallographic Association (ECA) is the regional Associate of the IUCr, representing the crystallographers of Europe and Africa. The ECA wants to be the home of all crystallographers belonging to this area. To be a vital Association, the ECA involves both pure and applied crystallography, intersecting with biology, earth-science, mathematics, physics, chemistry and material science, and act in such a way that theoreticians and experimentalists receive mutual benefit without dominance of the ones with respect to others.
One of the conditions for all that is the
establishment of Special Interest Groups: the SIG's.
A SIG (ideally) includes all the crystallographers working in a given area. In practice the members of a SIG should include a sufficiently large number of people representative of that area
SIG's organize their activities (meetings, seminars, workshops, schools, etcetera) and choose the best ways for exchanging information. The conduction of the activities remains under the responsibility of the SIG
The name of the SIG is proposed by its members.
The internal rules of a SIG are proposed by the SIG itself. However each SIG should elect a restricted number of people (chairman, secretary, etc., ...) in charge of the conduction of the SIG activities, who will interact with the Executive Committee and the Council of ECA and will be involved in the organization of the microsymposia at the ECA meetings (ECM's).
The basic rules of the SIG's should be written in the official proposal which has to be submitted to the ECA Council for the approval. The rules should consider the periodic substitution of its officers (chairman, secretary and/or .....) and the criteria for the acceptance (as members of the SIG) of the crystallographers working in the SIG area.
General info about SIGs :
Rules, Laws, How to start a SIG
