Steering Committee Elections

The AusSeabed Steering Committee has four vacancies to fill from our seabed community. Joining the steering committee gives you the opportunity to shape the development of a national seabed data collaboration that actively influences Australian policy and the development of the blue economy.

The positions up for election in 2024 are:

• one academic position
• one State Government position
• one industry position
• one international position

To nominate for one of these positions please complete the Steering Committee Nomination Form [DOCX 92.9 KB] and send to ausseabed@ga.gov.au

We are also looking for members for our new Working Groups – the Tools, Guidelines and Standards WG; the Outreach and Education WG, and the QAX WG. Please see below for details about how to join the working groups. Please reach out to ausseabed@ga.gov.au if you require more information.

The Steering Committee

The AusSeabed Steering Committee is made up of

• Three standing members (Geoscience Australia, Australian Hydrographic Office and CSIRO Marine National Facility)
• Two academic members
• Three industry members
• Three state government members
• One Federal government member
• One International member
• One early career ocean professional member

All members serve a three-year term, apart from the early career ocean professional, whose term lasts 18 months. This governance structure helps maintain a diversity of representation in the steering committee. Nominations for general membership on the Steering Committee are open to all interested parties.

AusSeabed Working Groups

The AusSeabed Steering Committee is also looking for interested people for our Working Groups.

You don’t have to be a member of the Steering Committee to join, you just need to share our passion in the seabed space.

Over the next 12 months:

The Tools, Guidelines and Standards Working Group will review international guidelines for collecting multibeam backscatter data and develop an Australian guideline for collecting LiDAR bathymetry.

The Outreach and Education Working Group will focus on piloting Indigenous outreach in Western Australia as well as developing educational materials.

The QAX Working Group will guide further improvements to the QAX quality assurance tool for multibeam bathymetry data.

To join a working group, please email ausseabed@ga.gov.au, providing your contact details and the name of the working group(s) you’d like to join.

Responsibilities and Commitment

Members of the Steering Committee are expected to:

• Actively contribute to the success of AusSeabed.
• Bring perspectives of the organisation and the sector of the seabed community that they represent.
• Attend and prepare for meetings; including proposing agenda items, undertaking action items, and nominating a proxy when unavailable to attend.
• Facilitate feedback or progress on initiatives in their respective sectors, as required.

The Steering Committee meets three times a year. Each Steering Committee meeting will generally require 1-2 FTE days of commitment to prepare for, attend, and follow up on action items.

Members may also be required to attend occasional interim meetings and are expected to commit approximately .5 FTE day per month for ad hoc tasks. For more information on the AusSeabed Steering Committee, please read the Steering Committee Terms of Reference.

Members of the Working Groups are expected to actively contribute to the activities of that Working Group. This will include attending and preparing for meetings; assisting in the creation of products (e.g. guidelines or educational material) as agreed within the group.

Election Timeline

Key dates for the 2024 election are outlined below. Please see the AusSeabed Steering Committee Election Standard Operating Procedure for detailed information on the election process.