1993 AGM Minutes

From BICA (9) 1993

1993 Annual General Meeting of
The Institute of Combinatorics and its
Applications

The 1993 Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications took place at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 7, in the Westminster Theatre of Keele University, during the Fourteenth British Combinatorial Conference. Since the Conference organizers had graciously scheduled the meeting into the Conference agenda, there was a large attendance of members of the ICA, as well as additional visitors.

Professor Ronald Read, from the Council of the Institute, took the chair.

Financial Report for the Year 1992.
This report was presented by Professor R.G. Stanton. The Financial Report was accepted (motion by Nash-Williams, seconded by Grannell). A copy of the report is appended to this account of the AGM.

Report on Activities of Executive and Council.
Professor Read spoke from the Chair, and pointed out that most of the activities of the Executive and Council were foreshadowed in the report of the last AGM. He provided a brief summary in point form.

1. The Executive and Council had re-appointed Dr Jeff Allston and Dr Bert Hartnell as auditors for the year 1992.
2. The Deputy Registrar is working on a second Membership List; it will be ready in late 1993.
3. Nominations have been received for the Euler Medal, and the Council will be considering these during the next months. ICA members are reminded that the medal will be awarded to a Fellow of the ICA in recognition of a career contribution to combinatorial research, rather than for any one particular achievement. Members of the Council and Honorary Fellows are not eligible for nomination. The recipient should still be active in research.
4. The present AGM is the third. In accordance with the recommendation of  the first AGM, the meetings have occurred in different countries, namely, Canada (Winnipeg), USA (Kalamazoo), Britain (Keele) ..
5. Since the last AGM, ICA lecturers have included Donald Kreher (7th Midwestern Conference on Combinatorics, Cryptography, and Computing, Carbondale); Walter Wallis (23rd Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing, Boca Raton); Daniel
Younger (18th Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing, Perth); Richard Brualdi (22nd Manitoba Conference on Numerical Mathematics and Computing, Winnipeg).
6. The nominating committee of Council, taking into account both geographical distribution and areas of interest, has nominated 12 people as additional members of Council. This list is given in the next section.
7. The next AGM will be held in 1994. It is suggested that we follow the tradition of holding the AGM in a different county each year, when possible. The Executive and Council will be making arrangements in this regard.

Election of Additional Council Members.
The Chair gave the list of nominees for seats on Council..

Frank Bennett (Mount St Vincent), Gary Chartrand (Western Michigan), Ron Gould (Emory), Terry Griggs (Central Lancashire), Khee Meng Koh (Singapore), Charles Laywine (Brock), Marialuisa de Resmini (Rome), Neil Robertson (Ohio State), Deborah Street (New South Wales), Henda Swart (Natal), Theresa Vaughan (North Carolina), Mieko Yamada (Kyushu)

This election is for a 3-year term. The Chair asked for nominations from the floor and Jeff Dinitz (Vermont) was nominated by Doug Stinson.

Since 15 places were open, the Chair declared the 13 nominees elected.

Registrar's Report on Membership and the Bulletin.
At the request of the Chair, the Registrar presented his annual report on matters associated with membership and with the Bulletin.

1. At the moment, membership stands at 540 (there are always minor perturbations caused by non-payment of dues, or by deaths).
2. Most members in North America pay by cheque in dollars. This is the most convenient method, and entails the least charge to the ICA.
3. The ICA now holds small accounts in Australia, Great Britain and the USA. This is a saving to the ICA, and a convenience for members. Most members in Australia pay by equivalent cheques in Australian dollars; some members in Britain are paying by equivalent cheques in sterling. It is hoped that many European members will be able to pay into the London account.
4. Visa payments are proving very useful for many members outside North America, especially in Europe and in Asia.
5. We have looked into Mastercard payments, and have found Mastercard arrangements to be unsatisfactory. Consequently, the ICA can not accept Mastercard. We advise all members to arrange for payment by Visa, if they wish to use a credit card.
6. Submissions to the Bulletin continue to increase; we have quite a few papers in the queue. Referees are providing outstanding, and generally speedy, service in this connection.
7. Contributions to the News of Members section are increasing, but more would be welcomed.
8. Nominations of Associate Fellows and Graduate Members are especially welcome.

Other Business.
The Chair asked if there was any other business to transact, but no items were brought forward.

Adjournment.
The Chair accordingly called for a motion for adjournment. Such a motion was proposed by Lowell Beineke and seconded by Stuart Haggar.

Addenda.
After the meeting, several memebers of the audience who were present as Visitors spoke with the Registrar and arranged to join the Institute.

At the .end of the AGM, an informal meeting of several members of the Institute with the Registrar concluded that it would be highly desirable to form a Committee charged with increasing the visibility and influence of Combinatorics. This need is very apparent in some jurisdictions where there seems to be a desire to downgrade Combinatorics. To date, Chris Rodger, Doug Stinson, Anne Street, and Robin Wilson have agreed to serve on this Committee. Input will be solicited from all members.

Appendix
8 March, 1993.
To the Directors of The Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications Inc.

I have examined the Treasurer's Report of The Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications Inc., as at December 31, 1992. My examination included such tests of accounting records and other supporting evidence as I considered necessary in the circumstances.

In my opinion, the Treasurer's Report for The Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications Inc. represents fairly the financial position of the corporation as at December 31, 1992.
J. L. Allston, B.L. Hartnell






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