SSAISB AGM 2001: Minutes

Minutes of AISB AGM, 23rd March 2001, University of York (AISB'01), York

1. Committee members present
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Sunny Bains, David Bree, Paul Chung, Simon Colton, Geraint Wiggins.

2. Apologies for absence
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John Barnden, Gillian Hayes, Gary Jones, Rudi Lutz, Blay Whitby.

3. Minutes of last AGM
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These were accepted by the meeting.

4. Chairman's report
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Committee members
New members have joined the committee. These include Sunny Bains, Paul Chung
and Gary Jones. Simon Colton has
also become a fully elected member. The committee is enthusiastic about
making improvements and providing more services to AISB members.

Conventions
The recent and current conventions have been successful in terms of
attracting participants to the events
and generating income for AISB.

Publications
Arrangement is being made to sell AISB publications on-line through the AISB
web site.

The future
AISB aims to continue its success by
 - increasing the number of members
 - increasing the involvement of members
 - raising the profile of AI and cognitive science in the UK.

5. Membership
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Gary Jones is now responsible for membership, having taken over the role
from Chris Reed who has retired from the committee.
The current membership number is 390 and there is an additional 46 new
members from AISB'01.

During the past tweleve months the joining procedure has been simplified to
encourage student members.
In order to attract more members, the committee is also considering
introducing different types/levels of membership.

6. Treasurer's report
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David Bree reported on the account for 2000. It was noted that the AISB has
been operating as a company with limited liability since 1/1/2000.

Overall the income has gone down and expenses have gone up. There is a
small surplus of 2040 UKP this year and the total balance remains
healthy with 15895 UKP in credit.  It was pointed out that The
membership fees collected for the year has dropped and and that ECAI
has introduced a new charge so that the Society has to make a
contribution of 2 UKP per member to ECAI.

The account was accepted.

It was proposed that the membership fees be increased. A short dicussion
followed and there was no objection.

7. AISB'01 and AISB'02
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Simon Colton reported that AISB'01 has drawn people from over 20 countries.
He and Eduardo Alonso were thanked for organizing the event.

Proposal for themes for AISB'02 was requested.

8. Current initiatives
----------------------
The AISB bookshop will become on-line soon.

The committee is aware that AISBQ has not been sent out regularly due
to a number of reasons. The committee is proposing to have two
publications instead: AISBQ and JAISB (or AISBJ).  The separation
between news articles and journal articles will make it easier to
produce AISBQ on time and to provide members with a high quality
biannual journal.  Members' view will be sought through the next issue
of AISBQ.

The question regarding whether the journal will be paper or electronic based
was raised and discussed.

AISB is establishing a Best UK AI Thesis Award and a sponsor is being
sought. Any suggestions will be welcomed.

An AI showcase convention is being planned to raise the profile of the
community and to raise the public understanding of science. The plan is to
have the event coincide with the 2002 Science Week.

AISB would like to raise the number of industrial members but at the same
time it is raising the membership fees.

9. AOB
------
Links and relationship between AISB and other specialist groups were
discussed. AISB would like to remain an interdisciplinary society and
collaborate with other specialist group where possible.

The Charter status of AISB was discussed. It was concluded that it
would be difficult for AISB to achieve that.