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SSAISB AGM 2003: Minutes
Minutes for AISB AGM 2004
=========================
Apologies were received from Sunny Bains (AISBQ), Paul Chung
(Treasurer), Louise Dennis (Schools Liaison), Gilliam Hayes
(Industrial Liaison), Gary Jones (Membership),
Rudi Lutz (Secretary) and Frank Ritter.
Minutes of last AGM
===================
Geraint Wiggins (Chair) apologised for the lack of minutes from the previous AGM.
Chair's report
==============
Geraint Wiggins reported that the society was now functioning better
than before. The convention series was very established and
membership of the society continued to be value for money with members
receiving both AISBJ and AISBQ. The AISB'01 convention had been
attended by over 200 participants and the AISB'02 by over 120.
AISB'03 appeared to be similarly successful with at least 140
participants and was projected to be both an academic and financial
success. Geraint thanked Mark Lee for his very good organisation.
The committee's aim to organise the conventions further in advance had
been achieved and AISB'04 would probably be held in Leeds by the CS
and Music department. He urged members to think ahead: volunteers
would be required for AISB'06 and the society also needed themes for
the future conventions.
Publications
------------
Geraint reported that AISBJ was now attracting regular submissions and
AISBQ was now reliably quarterly. The format of AISBQ had changed and
now contained short reports on members' current work. Sunny Bains was
the new editor and she welcomed submissions from members.
The society also welcomed proposals for other publications from
members (for instance it could publish refereed workshop proceedings).
The Future
----------
Geraint Wiggins outlined a number of aims for the future:
1. To continue the success of the conventions.
2. To improve and broaden membership services
3. To improve AISBQ and AISBJ.
4. To increase member involvement (e.g. participation in elections)
5. To increase membership
6. To raise the profile of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science in the UK.
He also noted that three members of the committee were retiring, Gill
Hayes, Rudi Lutz and Frank Ritter and he thanked them for their
service. It was also the last convention in which Geraint would be
acting as chair. The society needed three new committee members and
he urged members to put themselves forward.
Membership numbers
------------------
Geraint Wiggins reported that the society had nearly 400 members but
there was no reason why it shouldn't be 600 strong.
There were two questions from the floor. Was the Society a British
society? and could any nationality be a committee member? Geraint
confirmed that the society was British since it didn't want to compete
with other European and international organisations. A person of any
nationality could be a committee member although locality might be a
problem.
Treasurer's report
==================
Paul Chung (Treasurer) noted that membership of the society was
tax-deductible. Members should quote SSAISB.
The society was in the black showing a small profit of 2,000 UKP for
the year. This was down on the previous year because expenses had
gone up.
The total worth of the society was 25,562 UKP and it was currently
owed 8,000 UKP from the previous convention.
The extra expenses were caused by the extra costs for the new style
AISBQ and startup costs for AISBJ.
The projected budget for the coming year showed a loss of around UKP
2,000, partly due to a conservative estimate for convention
attendance. The budget for AISBJ had gone down while the budget for
AISBQ had gone up slightly.
A question was raised from the floor about the costs of the Q and the
J, specifically why the society was paying for the Q to be edited but
not the J.
Geraint Wiggins and David Bree (Publicity) explained that the Journal
was run on the same academic basis as all journals while the Quarterly
was more journalistic in tone as a result of which the society had
hired a journalist to edit it.
Mark Lee (AISB'03 Convention Organiser) asked whether the two UK AI
societies should consider merging in order to increase membership.
Geraint Wiggins noted that SSAISB was a learned society while the SGAI
was more industrial as a result a merger might not be best.
Constitution
============
A proposal to update the constitution had been presented to the
membership. The proposal re-expressed the wording to make it slightly
clearer and organise it into sections and bullet points.
However the original constitution had not been updated since the 70s
and was, among other things, logically inconsistent.
Currently officers were directly elected by the membership rather than
the committee, under the new proposal the committee were elected by
the membership but he officers were assigned by the committee itself.
A questioner from the floor asked if the change was motivated by lack
of interest from the membership making officerial elections difficult.
Geraint explained that motivation for change really was the
inconsistency which meant an officer could not remain on the committee
after standing down as an officer.
Tom Addis asked about the mechanism for expressing a vote of no
confidence in a committee member. Geraint said that a member should
write to the secretary (or to the Chair if the vote was against the
secretary).
Geraint noted that the constitution was also a legal document as the
society was a company.
AOB
===
* John Barnden expressed a wish to increase corporate memberships.
* Geraint Wiggins added that the society should also try to increase
institutional memberships (Libraries would get copies of both the Q
and the J as part of such membership). A suggestion from the floor
was that we should explain to libraries that they should become
members in order to receive the Journal rather than trying to
subscribe to it.
* Geraint Wiggins thanked the committee for the incredible work they
had done in the last four years. David Bree responded that the
progress made had only happened because of Geraint's leadership.
* Tom Addis volunteered his full set of AISBQs for photocopying.
