SSAISB AGM 2004: Minutes

                     Minutes for AISB AGM 2004
                     =========================

Committee members present: John Barnden (Chair), Eduardo Alonso
(Vice-Chair), Paul Chung (Outgoing Treasurer), Patrick Olivier
(Incoming Treasurer), Louise Dennis (Secretary), Gary Jones
(Membership), Sunny Bains (Editor AISBQ), Kia Ng (AISB'04 Organiser),
Simon Colton (Public Understanding), Natalio Krasnagor

1. Welcome

2. Apologies from Committee members for absence

   Apologies were received from David Bree (Publicity) and Geraint Wiggins.

3. Requests for Changes to the Agenda.

   There were none.

4. Minutes of last AGM

   These were accepted.

5. Chair's report.

   John Barnden thanked Kia Ng and the University of Leeds for
   organising the convention.

   He introduced himself as the new Chair of the society and thank
   Geraint Wiggins, the previous chair, for all his work.

   John Barnden informed the society that Paul Chung was resigning as
   treasurer and introduced Patrick Olivier who was taking over the
   post and Eduardo Alonso, the new Vice-Chair.

   He thanked the committee for their work and in particular praised
   the new "professional" quarterly.

   John Barnden reported that the previous convention had done very
   well and made 4,500 for the society.

   John Barnden reported that the society was working to strengthen
   links with the BCS SGAI.  In particular it was involved in an
   event for school careers' advisors organised by the SGAI and was
   exploring the possibility of a joint public understanding event at
   IJCAI'05.  He urged the membership to get involved with this.

   John Barnden explained that his plan as Chair was to generate more
   interest in the society.  To that end he planned to visit UK
   departments and urged anyone who wished to invite him to get in
   touch.  He also urged society members to get in touch about
   services and resources they would find valuable (e.g. were they
   interested in society organised social events).  There were
   immediately some suggestions on this front from the floor: An
   October School in AI for PhD students and a robot challenge event
   at IJCAI - if this were to be done work would have to start on it
   now and it would need to be publicised to schools.

   John Barnden welcomed two new committee members, Natalio Krasnagor
   and Patrick Olivier.

   He explained the patron (300 pa) and supporting (100 pa) member
   schemes and urged senior members of the society to consider these.
   In particular he pointed out that one patron member represented
   three student travel awards that could be offered by the society.

   John Barnden announced the editorial board for AISBJ.  This
   comprised of John Barnden, David Bree, Paul Davidsson, Ramon Lpez
   de Mntaras, Nick Jennings, Rob Milne, Ulrich Nehmzow, Tony
   Pridmore, Frank Ritter, Peter Ross, Gerhard Wei and Geraint
   Wiggins.

   John Barnden reported that the SSAISB in conjunction with SGAI was
   planning to put in a bid to host ECCAI-10.

   Lastly he announced that more committee elections were needed and
   nomination forms were available in the meeting.

6. Membership numbers

   Current membership was just over 400 including approximately 60
   student members.  It was pointed out that students were charged
   cost price for membership and that the society would like to
   encourage more PhDs and Undergraduates to join.

   The society would also like more patron and corporate members.

   A suggestion from the floor was that EU projects could have some
   form of membership.

   A questioner from the floor asked how many members were recruited
   through the convention.  Gary Jones explained that about 50-60
   joined each year but the retention of these members needed to be
   improved.

   This was followed up by a question on how the membership numbers
   varied.  Gary Jones explained that it was down to 320 a few years
   ago but had been steadily improving since.  Members were asked to
   encourage others to join.  Simon Colton said that the society might
   get in touch with some members and ask them to contact others.

7. Treasurer's report

   Paul Chung reported that the society's income for the last year was
   19,000 and it had made a profit of 3,006.  The accountant had
   concluded that the society's profit was sufficiently small that it
   no longer needed to pay tax.

   The budget for 2004 was similar to that in 2003.  There would some
   slight increases in expenditure leaving a projected surplus of
   610.

   The profit and reserves for the past 3 years were as follows:
   Year          Profit       Reserve
   2001          6,985       22,880
   2002          2,683       25,563
   2003          3,006       28,568

   Paul commented that the healthy reserve meant that the society
   could now be more ambitious with some of its projects.

8. New Committee Appointments and Committee Vacancies

   Louise Dennis announced that there were two vacancies on the
   committee.  She urged anyone to consider joining.  No specific
   posts were attached to the vacancies.  Nomination forms were
   available in the room and would be distributed with the next
   Quarterly.  The deadline for nominations was 1st May.

9. AISB'05 and beyond.

   AISB'05 would be hosted by Kerstin Dautenhahn from Hertfordshire
   University.  The theme was likely to be along the lines of socially
   situated cognition.

   There had also been an expression of interest in AISB'06 though
   anyone else interested was also urged to get in touch.

10. Next Meeting.

   The next AGM would be held during AISB'05.