2020 Annual General Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order March 11, 2020 at 11:03am during the designated session of the SouthEastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Dalibor and Sarah performed feats of ventriloquism never to be seen again using only their wits and some prepared slides.

(1) Report from the President (Dalibor on behalf of Doug)

ICA Executive (2019-2020)

_ 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.

_ All three of these functions have been addressed and improved in recent years, thanks to the efforts of many people (details on later slides). 

Doug Stinson President 2019-2022

Dalibor Froncek Vice-president 2019-2022

David Pike Vice-president 2019-2022

Kiki Ariyanti Sugeng Vice-president 2017-2020

Sarah Holliday Secretary 2019-2022

Spyros Magliveras registrar 

Members of ICA Council (2019{2020)

Marco Buratti 2019-2022 Darryn Bryant 2019-2022

Yeow Meng Chee 2017-2020 Marston Conder 2017-2020

Jeff Dinitz 2018-2021 Dalibor Froncek 2019-2022

James Hammer, III 2017-2020 Fred Hoffman 2019-2022

Sarah Holliday 2019-2022 Lijun Ji 2019-2020

Mark Kayll 2017-2020 Melissa Keranen 2018-2021

Sandi Klavzar 2017-2020 Bill Kocay 2019-2021

Don Kreher 2018-2021 Selda Kucukcifci 2017-2020

Josef Lauri 2017-2020 Marius Meszka 2018-2021

Ying Miao 2019-2022 Gary Mullen 2019-2022

Darren Narayan 2019-2022 Ortrud Oellermann 2018-2021

David Pike 2019-2022 Alexander Pott 2017-2020

Dinesh Sarvate 2018-2021 Ingo Schiermeyer 2018-2021

Doug Stinson 2019-2022 Kiki Ariyanti Sugeng 2017-2020

Tran van Trung 2018-2021 Ian Wanless 2018-2021

ICA Office

_ The ICA Office is located at Boca Raton (Florida Atlantic University) and it is being run by Spyros Magliveras, the ICA Registrar.

_ The former ICA Assistant Cristina Castaneda now holds another position at FAU.

_ Invoicing of members' dues from the new office started in November 2016.

_ Dues payments can be made on a web page using a credit card: https://fauf.fau.edu/icamemberships

_ Tax-deductable donations can be made to the ICA on the following web page: https://fauf.fau.edu/ica

_ For information about memberships, please send email to ICAoffice@fau.edu

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

_ No ICA medals were awarded between 2009 and 2015.

_ In 2016, a Medals Committee was formed.

_ A new Stanton medal, to honour significant lifetime contributions to promoting the discipline of combinatorics through advocacy, outreach, service, teaching and/or mentoring, was approved by Council in 2016.

_ An accelerated schedule was implemented starting in 2016 to award medals for the period 2009{2015.

_ New medals were struck and, starting in 2017, awarding of medals resumed a normal schedule.

_ Medal winners are recommended by the Medals Committee and approved by Council.

_ The Medals Committee also recommends honorary follows.

ICA Medals Committee

Jonathan Jedwab 2016-2020 (chair 2019-2020)

Mateja Sajna 2018-2021 (chair 2020-2021)

Gennian Ge 2019-2022

Michael Giudici 2020-2023

_ Note that Michael Giudici is replacing Jonathan Jedwab, whose term has just finished.

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

_ The new (2019) medal winners are being announced on the next slides.

_ The medals committee has expressed concern about the lack of nominations in certain categories this year, especially Euler medals and honorary fellows, where there were no eligible nominees.

Euler Medal Winners 2010-2019

2019 no medal awarded

2018 Dieter Jungnickel

2017 Fan Chung

2016 James Hirschfeld

2015 no medal awarded

2014 Brian Alspach

2013 Curt Lindner

2012 Alex Rosa

2011 Cheryl Praeger

2010 Bojan Mohar

Hall Medal Winners 2010-2018

2019 Koen Thas

2019 Jeroen Schillewaert

2018 Kai-Uwe Schmidt

2017 John Bamberg

2017 Daniel Horsley

2016 no medals awarded

2015 Lijun Ji

2014 Peter Dukes

2013 Bart De Bruyn

2012 Michael Giudici

2011 Olga Polverino

2010 Catherine Greenhill

Kirkman Medal Winners 2010-2018

2019 Tao Zhang

2018 Alexander Bors

2018 Shuxing Li

2017 Hengjia Wei

2017 Binzhou Xia

2016 Yue Zhou

2015 Padraig _O Cath_ain

2014 Daniele Bartoli

2013 Tommaso Traetta

2012 Rebecca Stones

2012 Xiande Zhang

2011 Tao Feng

2010 Daniel Horsley

2010 Kai-Uwe Schmidt

Stanton Medal Winners 2016-2018

2019 Charlie Colbourn

2018 no medal awarded

2017 Robin Wilson

2016 Ron Mullin

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."

_ As of December 31, 2017, there were five living honorary fellows:  S.S. Shrikhande, C.R. Rao, G.J. Simmons, Vera Sos, Henry Gould.

_ The ICA has put out calls for new honorary fellows in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

_ Neil Robertson was approved by Council as a new honorary fellow in 2018 and Carsten Thomassen was approved by Council as a new honorary fellow in 2019.

_ There were no nominations received in 2019 for new honorary fellows.

Conference Support

The ICA has expanded its support of conferences in combinatorics and related areas. We provide up to $1000 in support for conferences in combinatorics and related areas, subject to approval by the Executive.

Conferences supported in 2018:

_ 49th Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory & Computing

_ Conference on Combinatorics and its Applications In Celebration of Charlie Colbourn's 65th Birthday

_ MCCCC 32 | Midwest Conference on Combinatorics and Combinatorial Computing Conference Support (cont.)

Conferences supported in 2019:

_ 50th Anniversary Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory & Computing

_ CanaDAM 2019

_ 14th International Conference on Finite Fields and their Applications

_ 27th British Combinatorial Conference

_ 42nd Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing

Conferences supported in 2020:

_ 51st Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory & Computing

_ Combinatorics 2020 (Mantua, Italy)

_ Polygons, Buildings and Related Geometries (Ghent)

_ 43rd Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing

Bulletin of the ICA

_ Three new EICs were chosen in October 2016, namely Marco Buratti, Don Kreher and Tran van Trung.

_ The first issue of the Bulletin produced under the direction of the new EICs is the January 2017 issue, which is Volume 79.

_ The most recent issue is the February 2020 issue, which is Volume 88.

_ Printing and mailing is now done from Czechia.

_ Production is handled by Don Kreher.

  

Online Publication of the Bulletin

_ Starting from Volume 79 (January 2017), we have published the Bulletin online as a .pdf file, on a password-protected web page available to ICA members.

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

_ Refereed research articles (from Volume 79 on) are now published on the ICA web pages and are available online free of charge to everyone.

_ We are following a “diamond" open access policy for publication of research articles: no charge to authors or readers.

_ Tables of contents (from Volume 79 on) are available on the ICA web pages.

  

ICA Web Pages

_ Luca Giuzzi was approved as webmaster for the ICA in 2017.

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

_ Luca redesigned and maintains the ICA web pages.

_ The web pages contain the ICA logo (next slide).

_ If you have not done so, check them out! They are continually being expanded, and contain a lot of useful information.

_ Press releases and citations of medal winners can now be found on the ICA website, as well as a list of supported conferences (starting from 2018).

Ongoing and Future Initiatives, Challenges, etc.

_ The ICA is able to function due to the efforts of many unpaid volunteers (a list is given on a later slide)!

_ I cannot overstate the amount of work that is required to make everything run smoothly.

_ We are definitely going to need people to step forward to take on leadership roles (including President) in the coming years.

_ We also need an increased membership base in order to be able to pay for the essential ICA functions. We do not want to increase dues unless it is absolutely necessary.

_ After a steady decrease in membership starting in 2010, the paid-up membership is stable since 2016, at roughly 450 fellows of various ranks.

_ However, the ICA needs to grow!

How You Can Support the ICA

_ Buy a coffee mug, or 50 coffee mugs.

_ Persuade your friends and students to join the ICA.

_ Persuade your library to subscribe to BICA.

_ Make a donation to the ICA (see the ICA web pages).

_ Find a rich benefactor who will support the ICA as a corporate member.

Thanks!

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

_ The ICA Registrar: Spyros

_ The ICA Webmaster: Luca

_ The EICs of the Bulletin: Marco Buratti, Don Kreher, Tran van Trung

_ ICA Council

_ Medals and Membership Committee members (especially Jonathan Jedwab, for chairing this committee this past year)

See you next year!

Doug Stinson, President of the ICA (as delivered by Dr Froncek)

(2) Financial and Membership Reports (Spyros)
At 11:23am, Dr Froncek channels the energy of Dr Magliveras and begins:

ICA Financial and Membership Report

March 11, 2020

Spyros Magliveras

FAU office

               Operations at FAU began on Nov. 1, 2016.

               We have continued refining the software for efficient handling of financial & membership records. Membership invoices are issued on a monthly basis by an almost automatic process.

•Recently, our ICA office assistant Cristina Castaneda, left for a full time FAU job. Cristina was replaced by Ms Jeanne Cimillo just last week.

•Approximately 400 invoices were written & sent during the period Jan 1, 2019 – Feb 29, 2020.

Financial summary Jan 1, 2019 – Feb 29, 2020

               Balance on Jan 1, 2019 $ 17,338.22

               Total proceeds in above period $ 25,094.77

               Total funds for the period $ 42,432.99

               Total expenses during period $ 25,089.87

               Balance in US funds as of Feb 29, 2020 $ 17,343.12

Summary of expenses

expense:

               Support for 5 2019 Comb. Confs. $ 2,500.00*

               BICA vols 85, 86, 87 $ 8,170.62

               Admin. & credit card fees $ 2,146.16

               ICA office secretary $ 11,276.76

               Incidentals $ 996.33

               Total expenses $ 25,089.87

* cost $4500; $2,500 paid in 2019.

Summary of member distribution presently by rank and other categories

MTICA  10

AFTICA  74

FTICA  324

Lifetime members  58

Honorary members  7

New members (since 2016) 71

Retired members 78

“never paid” persons 0

Members in arrears 7

Last year’s distribution of members by rank and other categories

MTICA 16

AFTICA 60

FTICA 349

Lifetime members 63

Honorary members 7

New members (since 2017) 57

Retired members 72

“never paid” persons 0

Members in arrears 0

Points needing attention

•There are currently 17 BICA subscribers to whom BICA is mailed. This appears to be a serious source of income and we should try to increase future subscriptions.

And then two charts regarding distribution of members and a caution to stay healthy.

(3) Election of New Council Members and Executive (Sarah)
At 11:31, Dr Holliday, playing the part of Dr Holliday, addresses the assemblage.

New Council members are elected:

Derek Hein, Daniel Panario, Wayne Goddard, Masaaki Harada, James Hammer, Mark Kayll, Yeow Meng Chee, Lijun Ji, Selda Kucukcifci, Kiki Sugeng.

(4) Questions and Discussion (Dalibor)
At 11:34, Dr Froncek, attempting to imitate our favorite Czech mathematician, begins the Q&A:

Q: what about corporations sponsoring and joining etc…?

A: Yes PLEASE!  If you have contacts with mathematica, maplesoft, wolfram etc, please let us know.

Q: Where is the password for the journal access on the website?

A: In the email we sent you…. And then a discussion occurred in which we discovered that some 30% of the membership does not receive emails from the ICA. (and we made a brief pitch for volunteers to assist in database proposal analysis)

Q: Where is Congressus etc.?

A: Fred Hoffman tells us that he has arranged for Springer Nature to produce the volumes moving forward.
Dalibor Froncek tells us that he is considering that the purchase of the utilitas mathematic corp, which could be a source of income of the ICA, and reminds us to congratulate Ebrahim Salehi who is the new Editor in Chief of the JCMCC.