BAMOS Vol 30 No. 2 2017 | Page 4

4 BAMOS June 2017 President’s report AMOS gets a tick Our birthday celebrations After consideration (for some time) of if and how AMOS might achieve tax-deductibility for donations to some or all of its activities (tax-deductible gift-recipient status or DGR for short), your Council has taken the first step along this path. Join us in Melbourne on 22–23 August for a two-day Symposium to discuss the latest in our sciences and interact with our important stakeholders and information users. Meet representatives from the Royal Meteorological Society and join the celebration functions, including the cocktail party. Registrations are now open at the AMOS website. An application to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) has been successful for AMOS to be registered with charity-not-for-profit status. This results in a simplification of administrative arrangements—AMOS will have payroll tax and GST exemption, reducing the ‘paperwork’ needed every quarter—however, we will now be required to submit an annual report to ACNC. AMOS is now entitled to put the registration logo (called a ‘tick’ by ACNC, see below) on our website and other documents. Adjacent to these celebrations, on the morning of 24 August, we will be holding a special extended AMOS Council meeting. We rarely have a chance to all get together to talk about national and regional activities and plans. We invite you to come along and share ideas. Mary Voice, Q2, 2017. Your Council is now exploring the next stage of the process, to assess which parts of our work on behalf of the community and the professions might be eligible for DGR. At a minimum, any special fund for scholarships, bursaries and student awards will be eligible; we have been advised that wider DGR is more difficult to win. Upcoming Events There is an interesting range of events coming up for AMOS members and the weather-interested community. Do you know someone interested in running their own at- home weather station, or in helping to digitize old weather or tide gauge records? Let them know about the Citizen Science workshop being run in Melbourne on 21 August (see page 12). Are you thinking of submitting a paper to AMOS-ICSHMO 2018 (Sydney) themed as "Earth System Science and Services"? If so, submissions are now open. Check the conference website (www.amos-icshmo2018.com.au) for session details. AMOS is now a registered charity!