Draft minutes of the ICA AGM

2023 ICA Annual General Meeting

PART I: President’s Report

Charles J. Colbourn

Mission of the ICA

• The ICA was established in 1990 by Ralph Stanton for the purpose of promoting the development of combinatorics and of encouraging publications and conferences in combinatorics and its applications.

• The three most important functions of the ICA are:
    • publishing the Bulletin of the ICA
    • supporting conferences, and
    • awarding medals and honorary fellowships.

ICA Executive

Charles Colbourn President 2022-2025
Dalibor Froncek Vice-President 2022-2025
David Pike Vice-President 2022-2025
Kiki Ariyanti Sugeng Vice-President 2020-2023
To Be Elected Vice-President 2023-2026
Sarah Holliday Secretary 2022-2025
Bryan Freyberg Registrar
Doug Stinson Past President
Spyros Magliveras Registrar Emeritus

Members of ICA Council (2022–2023)

Subramanian Arumugam 2021-2024 Darryn Bryant 2022-2025
Yeow Meng Chee 2020-2023 Charles Colbourn 2022-2025
Jeff Dinitz 2021-2024 Dalibor Froncek 2022-2025
Wayne Goddard 2020-2023 James Hammer, III 2020-2023
Masaaki Harada 2020-2023 Derek Hein 2020-2023
Fred Hoffman 2022-2025 Sarah Holliday 2022-2025
Lijun Ji 2019-2023 Mark Kayll 2020-2023
Melissa Keranen 2021-2024 Bill Kocay 2022-2025
Selda K ̈u ̧c ̈uk ̧cif ̧ci 2020-2023 Mariusz Meszka 2021-2024
Bojan Mohar 2021-2024 Gary Mullen 2021-2024
Darren Narayan 2022-2025 Ortrud Oellermann 2021-2024
Patric Osterg ̊ard 2022-2025  ̈ Daniel Panario 2020-2023
Anita Pasotti 2022-2025 Adrian Pastine 2021-2024
David Pike 2022-2025 Dinesh Sarvate 2021-2024
Kiki Ariyanti Sugeng 2020-2023 John Wierman 2022-2025

ICA Office

• The ICA Office is located at Duluth, Minnesota (University of Minnesota Duluth).

• The ICA Registrar is Bryan Freyberg, and the ICA Assistant is Connor Pride at email pride035@d.umn.edu

• Invoicing of members’ dues from the UMD office started in January, 2022. 

• Dues payments are made via email; invoices are sent to member’s email addresses via Authorize.net.

• For information about memberships, please send email to Bryan: frey0031@d.umn.edu

• Tax-deductible donations can be made to the ICA; email Bryan for further information.

Dues Schedule

FTICA (fellow)

• one year : $85
• two years: $155 (approximately a 10% discount)
• three years: $205 (approximately a 20% discount)
• lifetime: $1000

AFTICA (Associate Fellow)

• one year: $65

MTICA (Companion, Graduate, Student)

• one year: $45

Retired Persons

• one year: $42.50 (this is a 50% discount)
• lifetime: $500 (for members for ≥ 10 years)

For most membership categories, dues are virtually unchanged since the founding of the ICA in 1990.

Institutional Members: $250 per year
Corporate Members: $500 per year
Senior Corporate Members: $1000 per year
Sponsoring Corporate Members: $2500 per year

We do not have any active memberships in these categories.

New Member Initiatives

• any student who finishes a PhD in Combinatorics is eligible to receive a one-year free membership in the ICA

• a new ICA member who registers for two years will receive the first year of membership free

ICA Medals Committee

Member Years Chair

Heather Jordon 2021–2024 2023–2024
Ying Miao 2022–2025
Kai-Uwe Schmidt 2023–2026
Michael Giudici 2020–2023 2022–2023
Gennian Ge 2019–2022 2021–2022
Mateja Sajna ˇ 2018–2021 2020–2021
Jonathan Jedwab 2016–2020 2019–2020
Charlie Colbourn 2016-2019 2016–2019
Christine O’Keefe 2016-2018

• Kai-Uwe Schmidt is replacing Michael Giudici, whose term has just finished. Thanks to Michael for excellent leadership, to Kai for willingness to serve, and to Heather and Ying for handling a larger than usual volume of nominations in 2022–23.

• The three committee members are on staggered three year terms, which helps to ensure continuity in the committee.

• The Medals Committee reviews all nominations using the individual medal criteria and recommends awards to the ICA President. The ICA Council makes the final decision to approve these recommendations.

• The Medals Committee does not comment on nominations that are not recommended in a given year, and these are not forwarded to the President, Executive, or Council.

ICA Canvassing Committee

• A new Canvassing Committee (Mateja Sajna (chair), Wayne Goddard, Alison Marr, Daniel Panario, Olga Polverino, Dinesh Sarvate, Tommaso Traetta, Xiande Zhang, and Sanming Zhou) identified more than twenty possible nominees, and succeeded in bringing in at least a dozen nominations.

• The Committee was particularly successful in increasing the number of high-quality Hall and Euler nominees.

• Thanks to everyone on the Canvassing Committee for their efforts!

Euler Medal Winners 2010–2022

year winner(s)

2022 George Andrews
2021 Hendrik Van Maldeghem
2020 Marston Conder
2018 Dieter Jungnickel
2017 Fan Chung
2016 James Hirschfeld
2014 Brian Alspach
2013 Curt Lindner
2012 Alex Rosa
2011 Cheryl Praeger
2010 Bojan Mohar

Hall Medal Winners 2010–2022

year winner(s)

2022 Jan De Beule Pablo Spiga
2021 Tao Feng Anita Pasotti
2020 Jie Ma
2019 Jeroen Schillewaert Koen Thas
2018 Kai-Uwe Schmidt
2017 John Bamberg Daniel Horsley
2015 Lijun Ji
2014 Peter Dukes
2013 Bart De Bruyn
2012 Michael Giudici

2011 Olga Polverino

2010 Catherine Greenhill

Kirkman Medal Winners 2010–2022

year winner(s)

2022 Melissa Huggan Ziqing Xian
2021 Yujie Gu Natasha Morrison
2020 Chong Shangguan
2019 Tao Zhang
2018 Alexander Bors Shuxing Li
2017 Hengjia Wei Binzhou Xia
2016 Yue Zhou
2015 Padraig O Cath ́ain  ́
2014 Daniele Bartoli
2013 Tommaso Traetta
2012 Rebecca Stones Xiande Zhang
2011 Tao Feng
2010 Daniel Horsley Kai-Uwe Schmidt

Stanton Medal Winners 2016–2022

year winner(s)

2022 Doug Stinson
2021 Gary Chartrand
2019 Charlie Colbourn
2017 Robin Wilson
2016 Ron Mullin

Medal Presentations

• After years of pandemic delay, the ICA has been catching up on medal presentations!

• One at the Southeastern conference, three here at CanaDAM, one at the CMS meeting that is just ending, three at the Slovenian conference later this month, and one at the Australasian conference in December.

Honorary Fellows

• “The Council may elect to Honorary Fellowship any person who has made pre-eminent contributions to combinatorics or its applications. The number of living Honorary Fellows shall not exceed ten.”

• One of our Honorary Fellows, Vera T. S ́os, passed away earlier this year.

• At present, there are five living Honorary Fellows: Henry Gould, C.R. Rao, Neil Robertson, G.J. Simmons, Carsten Thomassen.

• Nominations of pre-eminent scholars, to be submitted to the Medals Committee, are invited!

Conference Support

The ICA provides significant support for conferences in combinatorics and related areas. We provide up to $1000 in support for conferences, subject to approval by the Executive.

2023 Conferences supported by the ICA (so far):

• 54th Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing, Boca Raton, March 2023
• CanaDAM, Winnipeg, Canada, June 2023
• International Conference on Finite Fields and Their Applications 2023 (Fq15), Paris, France, June 2023
• Combinatorics and Number Theory in Duluth, Duluth, July 2023
• Finite Geometry and Friends, Brussels, Sept 2023
• 45th Australasian Conference on Combinatorics, Perth, Dec 2023

Bulletin of the ICA

• The EICs are Marco Buratti, Don Kreher, Ortrud Oellermann, and Tran van Trung. They are ably assisted by an international editorial board.

• The most recent volume is the June 2023 issue, which is Volume 98.

• Printing and mailing is done from Czechia.

• Production is handled by Don Kreher.

News in the Bulletin of the ICA

• The Bulletin is looking for a volunteer News Editor, to collect and edit conference reports, particularly those about conferences supported by the ICA, solicit and collect news from members, and coordinate with the BICA EICs for the preparation and publications of news items.

• The EICs are kept busy with the research papers and the publication of each volume.

• Can someone help with the news? Email me or Marco Buratti if you are interested.

Online Publication of the Bulletin

• Starting from Volume 79 (January 2017), the Bulletin is made available online as a .pdf file, on a

password-protected web page open to ICA members; refereed research articles are published on the ICA web pages following a “diamond” open access policy, and so are available online free of charge to everyone; tables of contents are also available on the ICA web pages.

• Scopus indexes the Bulletin of the ICA.

Online Publication of the Bulletin

• We continue to also mail printed copies to members and subscription holders.

• New: You can email the ICA Registrar to request that you only receive the electronic copy and not the printed one. Why might you do that?

• Save trees, help the environment.

• Free up ICA funds for conference support and the medals.

• Help the ICA continue to have membership dues that are unchanged since 1990.

• If you only read and save the electronic copy of the Bulletin, and don’t need the printed copy, please email Bryan.

ICA Web Pages

• Luca Giuzzi serves as webmaster for the ICA.

• Official ICA web pages: http://the-ica.org

• Luca maintains the ICA web pages. Check them out! They contain a lot of useful information.

• The Bulletin of the ICA can be accessed there, along with press releases and citations of medal winners, a list of supported conferences, and much more.

Challenges

• The ICA functions due to the efforts of many unpaid volunteers! Substantial effort is required to make everything run smoothly. The ICA has been fortunate to have many talented volunteers, but we always need your help!

• We need an increased membership; initiatives by the Registrar and the Executive are meeting with some success, but growth remains essential.

• We do not want to increase dues unless it is absolutely necessary. This means increasing revenue and/or decreasing costs, without reducing the many positive contributions of the ICA.

How You Can Support the ICA

• Persuade your friends and students to join the ICA.

• Make a donation to the ICA. Many thanks to Sarah Holliday and Doug Stinson for generous donations in 2022.

• Find a benefactor to support the ICA as a corporate member.

• Nominate worthy people for medals and honorary fellowships.

• Submit research articles and other items of interest (news items, book reviews, conference reports, etc.) to the Bulletin. Persuade your library to subscribe to BICA.

• Serve the ICA as a member of the Council or the Executive.

Thanks!

• The ICA Executive: Sarah, Dalibor, David and Kiki

• The ICA Registrar: Bryan (and the ICA Assistant, Connor)

• The ICA Webmaster: Luca

• The EICs of the Bulletin: Marco Buratti, Don Kreher, Ortrud Oellermann, Tran van Trung

• ICA Council

• Medals Committee members (especially Michael Giudici, the outgoing chair)

• Canvassing Committee members (especially Mateja Sajna ˇ , the continuing chair)

Part 2: Registrar's report

Bryan Freyberg

Office move: FAU -> UMD

• Operations at UMD began in December 2021

• Registrar - Bryan Freyberg

• Administrative Assistant - Connor Pride

• ICA’s balance of $13,571.40 transferred from FAU office July 2022

Financial Summary: 1/1/2022 – 12/31/2022

• Balance on 1/1/2022 $13,780.69

(SM)

• Total Proceeds in Period $32,433.84

• Total Funds in Period $ 46,214.53

• Total Expenses in Period $23,239.66

• Balance as of 12/31/2022 $22,830.58

First year successes at UMD

2021 2022

Year-end Balance $13,780.69 $22,830.58

Proceeds $19,237.00 $32,433.84

Wages Paid (Admin. Assistant) $12,442.89 $1,942.75

Summary of Expenses

• Support for Conferences* $3,412.87

• BICA Vols. 94,95,96 $9,530.00

• Fees associated with reorganization $4,232.97

• Administrative Assistant $1,942.75

• Other Fees $4,121.07

• Total Expenses $23,239.66

*This will be higher next year; $4,308 as of 6/1/23.

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Retired-37 MTICA-4 FTICA(1)-14 FTICA(2)-30 FTICA(3)-23 Lifetime-8 BICA-5 Donations-3

Proceeds from dues, BICA, and donations for 2022

Membership Summary

365 Active Members

2022 2021

Honorary Fellows 5 6

Lifetime Members 80 63

FTICA 286 336

AFTICA 67 75

MTICA 6 6

Retired 37 84

New Members 28 9

Removed 38 (with 43 more pending) 10

Other Information

• We are still working to update the database and locate folks. If you did not receive an email notification of this meeting from me, please update your email address with me: frey0031@d.umn.edu

• There has been an increase in the number of conferences we have been asked to support.

• If you wish to stop receiving your printed version of BICA, please email me and let me know. Full versions of BICA are available online to members.

Recommendations

• Recruit more new members, especially in Asia and Africa.

• Find more libraries or other institutions to subscribe to BICA.

Part 3: Elections and edits to articles of association

Sarah Heuss

There are 30 council members and each year, 10 rotate off and 10 are elected.  

In addition, the executive is comprised of Presidents, three Vice Presidents, Secretary, and Registrar.  Kiki Sugeng is rotating off council at this time, and we recommend Anita Pasotti as the new Vice President.  

Tomoko Adachi

Rinovia Simanjuntak

James Hammer, III

Masaaki Harada

Brett Stevens

Lijun Ji

Mark Kayll

Anamari Nakic

Wayne Goddard

Daniel Panario

Slate accepted.  

Edits to the A of A: 

86. Policy on Conference support: A conference organizer or organizing committee consisting of largely ICA membership may petition the Executive Council for Conference support.  If the Executive Council deems (a) the Conference topic of interest to a majority of members in the ICA, and (b) the Conference will be attended by a non-trivial proportion of members of the ICA, and (c) the organizer(s) allow the ICA to host a business meeting (if needed), and (d) the organizer(s) will use the ICA logo appropriately in all advertising (print and online), then the Executive Council will consult the budget for the year and award appropriately.

The following sentence should be appended: “Any member of the Executive who has a conflict of interest, real or perceived, with a request for conference support shall not vote on approval of the request.”

84. Selection committee shall be comprised of Fellows, and the chair of the selection committee shall be a member of the Council.

replaced by
84. There shall be two standing committees of the ICA for supporting the ICA Medals Program. 

(a) The Medals Committee consists of three ICA Fellows, appointed by the ICA Executive and Council for three-year terms, staggered.  Normally, members of the Medals Committee are not also members of Council. The Medals Committee prepares a call for nominations and later receives and evaluates all nominations received pursuant to Articles 82 and 83.  The Committee makes recommendations to the President each year, reporting only those nominees for whom the recommendation is positive.  The President presents these candidates to Council for approval.  The Medals Committee shall not comment on the merits of a nomination, potential or actual, except in communication with the President or Executive.

(b) The Canvassing Committee consists of a chair, who is an ICA Fellow and is appointed by the Executive from time to time, and any reasonable number of other committee members to be determined at the discretion of the chair in consultation with the President.  The Canvassing Committee shall strive to identify suitable nominees for medals or honorary fellowship, locate potential nominators, encourage nominations, and when appropriate provide advice on the nomination.  The Canvassing Committee shall not make nominations itself; shall not interact directly with the current Medals Committee on these matters; and shall not comment, directly or indirectly, on the likelihood of success of a nomination.”

38. Seven Voting Members personally present shall be a quorum.

replaced by

38. Seven Voting Members present, whether in person or simultaneously online, shall constitute a quorum.

47. At all General Meetings of the Institute, there will be no proxy or absentee voting.  If an issue requiring a vote is considered disputable by one-third of the members present, its vote may be held by email within a 30 day period. 

replaced by 

47. At all General Meetings of the Institute, only Voting Members attending in person or simultaneously online can vote. No proxy voting is allowed.  If an issue requiring a vote is considered disputable by one-third of the members present, its vote may be held by email within a 30-day period.