Minutes of the 2022 Annual General Meeting, 9 March 2022

 

The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Vice President Dalibor Froncek.  The meeting was held simultaneously by zoom and in person at the 53rd Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory & Computing at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, US on 09 March 2022.

 

AGM Agenda

1.     President’s report

2.     Membership and Financial Report

3.     Updating the Articles of Association

4.     Election of New Council Members

5.     2 ad hoc committees, volunteers needed

5a. recruiting

5b. corporate / grant sponsors

6.     General Discussion

6a. Medal winners

6b. new titles

6c. ICA has been asked to consider starting a new refereed journal.

 

Item 1. 2022 ICA Annual General Meeting President’s Report

Douglas R. Stinson of David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science University of Waterloo

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:

o   publishing the Bulletin of the ICA

o   supporting conferences, and

o   awarding medals and honorary fellowships.

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

ICA Executive (2021–2022)

 

Doug Stinson	President	2019-2022
Dalibor Froncek	Vice-president	2019-2022
David Pike	Vice-president	2019-2022
Kiki Ariyanti Sugeng	Vice-president	2020-2023
Sarah Holliday	Secretary	2019-2022
Spyros Magliveras	Registrar	to Dec. 31, 2021
Bryan Freyberg	Registrar	from Jan 1, 2022

 

Members of ICA Council (2021–2022)

Subramanian Arumugam	2021-2024	Marco Buratti	2019-2022
Darryn Bryant	2019-2022	Yeow Meng Chee	2020-2023
Jeff Dinitz	2021-2024	Dalibor Froncek	2019-2022
Wayne Goddard	2020-2023	James Hammer, III	2020-2023
Masaaki Harada	2020-2023	Derek Hein	2020-2023
Fred Hoffman	2019-2022	Sarah Holliday	2019-2022
Lijun Ji	2019-2023	Mark Kayll	2020-2023
Melissa Keranen	2021-2024	Bill Kocay	2019-2022
Selda Kucukcifci	2020-2023	Mariusz Meszka	2021-2024
Ying Miao	2019-2022	Bojan Mohar	2021-2024
Gary Mullen	2021-2024	Darren Narayan	2019-2022
Ortrud Oellermann	2018-2021	Patric Ostergard	2021-2024
Daniel Panario	2020-2023	Adrian Pastine	2021-2024
David Pike	2019-2022	Dinesh Sarvate	2021-2024
Doug Stinson	2019-2022	Kiki Ariyanti Sugeng	2020-2023

ICA Office

The ICA Office is now located at Duluth (University of Minnesota Duluth) and it is being run by Bryan Freyberg, the ICA Registrar.

The ICA Assistant is Connor Pride, email office@the-ica.net

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

Dues payments can be made on a web page using a credit card.

For information about memberships, please send email to Bryan: frey0031@d.umn.edu or registrar@the-ica.net

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

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.

 

Gennian Ge	2019–2022 (chair 2021–2022)
Michael Giudici	2020–2023 (chair 2022–2023)
Heather Jordon	2021–2024
Ying Miao	2022–2025

Note that Ying Miao is replacing Gennian Ge, 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 (2021) medal winners are being announced on the next slides.

There is continuing concern about the lack of nominations in certain categories. There were no eligible nominees for Honorary Fellows again this year.

 

2021 Euler Medal is awarded to Hendrik Van Maldeghem

2021 Hall Medal is awarded to Tao Feng

2021 Hall Medal is awarded to Anita Pasotti

2021 Kirkman Medal is awarded to Yujie Gu

2021 Kirkman Medal is awarded to Natasha Morrison

2021 Stanton Medal is awarded to Gary Chartrand

 

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.

S.S. Shrikhande died in April 2020, aged 102.

The ICA has put out calls for new honorary fellows annually since 2017.

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, 2020 or 2021 for new honorary fellows.

 

Conference Support

We provide modest financial support for conferences in combinatorics and related areas, subject to approval by the Executive. Of course in-person conferences were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and promised support was not required due to the lower costs associated with an online conference. Some conferences are resuming in 2022.

 

Forthcoming Conferences to be supported by the ICA:

53rd Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory & Computing (Boca Raton, March 2022)

International Conference on Finite Fields and Their Applications 2022 (Fq15), (Aubervilliers, France, June 2022)

Combinatorics 2022 (Mantua, Italy, June 2022)

Stinson66 (Toronto, June 2022)

29th British Combinatorial Conference, (Lancaster, July 2022)

 

Bulletin of the ICA

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

A fourth EIC was added in 2020, namely Ortrud Oellermann.
The first issue of the Bulletin produced under the direction of the new EICs was the January 2017 issue, which is Volume 79.

The most recent issue is the January 2022 issue, which is Volume 94.

Send paper submissions to bica@the-ica.net
Printing and mailing is now done from Czechia.

Production is handled by Don Kreher.

Three issues of the Bulletin are published each year.

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 also available on the ICA web pages.

Scopus indexing of Bulletin of the ICA started in 2020.

 

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.

If you have not done so, check them out! They are continually being expanded, and 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.

 

Ongoing Challenges

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

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

•        We 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

•          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). Many thanks to Gus Simmons for a generous donation in 2020. • Find a rich benefactor who will support the ICA as a corporate member.

•          Nominate worthy people for medals and honorary fellowships.

•          Submit research articles and other items of interest to the Bulletin. These can include news items, book reviews, conference reports, etc. • Consider serving the ICA as a Council member and/or as a member of the Executive.

 

Thanks!

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

•          The ICA Registrar: Spyros (and the ICA Assistant at FAU,

Jeanne) and the new Registrar, Bryan and Assistant, Connor

•          The ICA Webmaster: Luca

•          The EICs of the Bulletin: Marco, Don, Ortrud, Trung

•          ICA Council

•          Medals Committee members (especially Gennian Ge, for chairing this committee this past year)

See you next year!

Doug Stinson, President of the ICA

 

After President Stinson’s report, Vice-President David Pike presented the 2022 Stanton Medal to Professor Gary Chartrand.

Item 2:

Financial and Membership Report

Spyros Magliveras

 

 

A brief history of ICA at FAU

Following the mandate of the ICA elections at the 2016 AGM, we hastened to establish new ICA offices at Florida Atlantic University.   At that time, the most efficient way appeared to be through the FAU Foundation.  There were promises by FAU for secretarial support and office space.

 

With minimal red tape we began operations in November 2016.  The promises never materialized, yet under the proficient leadership of President Stinson and his executive team, the new ICA  re-established  and re-invigorated all aspects of ICA activity, including:

 

The presentation of medals to meritorious international Combinatorists, 

 

The support of select international Combinatorics Conferences, and 

 

Continuation of the publication of  the Bulletin of the ICA  (BICA) with much improved standards and format. 

 

In late 2019, prompted by the absence of  FAU support, and other inefficiencies,  the  ICA President, his executive, and the Council decided, after consultation  with Prof. Froncek, to move the ICA office to the University of  Minnesota, Duluth,  under a new, efficient business plan. 

 

The transition finally took place in December 2021.

 

The number of membership dues invoices  in 2021 was  237.    Fewer invoices were processed in 2021 than in earlier years because of the increase in the number of multi-year memberships, and several new  “life  members”.

 

 

Financial summary

Jan 1, 2021 – Dec 31, 2021

•	Balance  on Jan 1, 2021		$ 21,699.21
•	Total proceeds in above period		$ 19,237.00
•	Total funds for the period		$ 40,906.21
•	Total expenses during period		$ 27,125.52

 

• Balance  in US funds as of  Dec 31, 2021 $ 13,780.69

Summary of expenses

       expenses:

•                     Support for Comb. Confs.*                    $      999.73 

•                     BICA  vols  91, 92, 93                 $   9,727.98

•                     Admin., credit card & other fees           $   3,954.92

•                     ICA office secretary                               $ 12,442.89              

•                     Total expenses                          $ 27,125.52

 

* BCC  Conference in 2019 but paid in 2021.     

 Summary of member distribution  by rank and other categories

 

                                                                 2021       2020                    

          

          Honorary Fellows                              6              7           Lifetime Members                          63            57

          FTICA                                              336          333

          AFTICA                                              75            74           MTICA                                                 6            10

          Retired Members                           84             79

          New Members                                  9             15

          Removed                                         10             39

distribution by rank for years 2021 and 2020

 Proceeds from memberships, donations   and BICA subscriptions for  year 2021

Points needing attention 

There are currently  5  BICA  institutional BICA subscribers.   This appears to be a serious possible source of income and we could try to increase future subscriptions.

           

                            

                           

3.      Updating the A of A (to reflect 2022 - tech & pronouns)

Updating the A of A

http://combinatoricsinstitute.blogspot.com/2019/01/articles-ofassociation-repost.html

Last updated in 2017.

There are 87 articles. 

Any article not discussed here is staying the same.

 

From the preamble. Underline added

• The first draft of these articles was modelled on those of the British professional society The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. Consequently, they are quite involved and probably cover a lot of contingencies that will never arise. They have been examined by Council, and Council has approved them as a suitable set of initial articles. If and when revisions become necessary, the Articles can be revised by a General Meeting of the Institute. The members are associated in the society according to the following ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION.

 

Suggested changes

The gender-neutral THEY instead of he.

Fixing a bad stray comma.

Changing ICA office contact from fau to office@the-ica.net

Removing conflicting instructions

Removing one logistical nightmare

 

Motion is made to introduce gender-neutral changes on articles 1, 8, 13, 14, 19, 21, 22, 25, 29, 30, 40, 42, 45, 51, 54, 58, 62, 64, 67

Discussion from the floor includes one member expressing dislike of using singular they for a non-plural case.
Response from the committee is that the singular they is in use by the APA style guide and has been accepted by Merriam-Webster.

Vote is taken, motion passes.

 

Motion is made to correct the commas on article 6, the geography on article 18, and removal of the conflict on 50

Vote is taken, motion passes.

 

Motion is made to make two changes to article 54

Discussion from the floor requests an amendment to proposed changes. 
Amended language is: Candidates will be solicited by email to the existing membership and each solicitation announcement should be broadcast at least twice.  Candidate names will be distributed during the AGM to the membership (by overhead projector or equivalent).  Nominations will be taken from the floor.  The Chair of the meeting will seek a majority vote.

Amendment is moved by Hoffman, seconded by Wierman. 
Vote is taken, amendment passes.
Motion is made with amendment by Sarvate, seconded by Hoffman. 

Vote is taken, amended motion passes.

 

Motion is made to nominate Charles Colbourn as President.

Moved by Hoffman, Seconded by Sarvate.

Vote is taken, Colbourn is elected President. (Congrats)!

 

Motion is made to nominate Dalibor Froncek as Vice President, David Pike as Vice President, and Sarah Holliday as Secretary.

Motion by Goddard, Seconded by Hoffman

Vote is taken, Froncek, Pike, Holliday are elected.

 

Motion from Executive Committee to elect Council members as follows:

Darryn Bryant

Charlie Colbourn

Dalibor Froncek

Fred Hoffman

Sarah Holliday
Bill Kocay
Darren Narayan
Anita Pasotti
David Pike
John Wierman

Motion passes.

 

Continuing ICA Council Members (for information):

 

Council members	Term
Kiki Ariyanti Sugeng (Vice-president)	2020-2023
Subramanian Arumugam	2021-2024
Jeff Dinitz	2021-2024
Wayne Goddard James Hammer, III	2020-2023
	2020-2023
Masaaki Harada	2020-2023
Derek Hein	2020-2023
Lijun Ji	2019-2023
Mark Kayll	2020-2023
Melissa Keranen	2021-2024
Ortrud Oellermann Patric Östergård	2021-2024
	2021-2024
Daniel Panario	2020-2023
Adrian Pastine	2021-2024
Dinesh Sarvate	2021-2024
Selda Küçükçifçi	2020-2023
Yeow Meng Chee Mariusz Meszka	2020-2023
	2021-2024
Bojan Mohar	2021-2024
Gary Mullen	2021-2024

 

Two new committees -- Volunteer!

Ad-hoc committee to canvass for nominations for medalists, with special attention given to underrepresented groups. Possibly named the Prize canvassing committee.  Possibly chaired by someone who has recently served on the medals committee but not anyone who is currently on medals committee.

Discussion on this committee focused on the need for clear barriers between the canvassing committee and the medals committee.

 

Ad-hoc committee to identify plausible corporate sponsors and grantgivers, and begin dialogue with such funding sources.

 

 

The General Meeting then expressed its thanks to Doug & Spyros one more time!

 

New Titles: 

Past Presidents of the ICA

William T, Tutte 1991–1996

Anne Penfold Street 1996–2002

Ronald C. Mullin 2002–2009

Walter D. Wallis 2009–2016

Douglas R, Stinson 2016-2022

 

Registrar Emeriti

Ralph G. Stanton 1991–2005

Ernest Ruet d’Auteuil 2005–2017

Spyros S. Magliveras 2017–2021

 

Discussion: New Journal?
Some ICA members expressed concern that some journals have untenable turn-around times, and the combinatorial community  could benefit from a new journal.
Several members spoke in favor of this; they have had less than positive experiences with some journals recently.

Other members remarked on the difficulty in getting a new journal registered with SCOPUS etc, leading to difficulties in recruiting authors.

Some of the BICA team suggested that authors could contribute more papers to BICA; they have not yet experienced more papers than they can handle.

It was concluded that if a group of members wishes to explore this further, a written proposal could be developed for the membership to consider.

 

The Annual General Meeting then adjourned.