SSAISB AGM 1999: Minutes

Minutes of AISB AGM, April 1999, Edinburgh College of Art
(AISB'99), Edinburgh.

== 1. Committee members present
--------------------------------------------

Ann Blandford, David Bree, Geraint Wiggins, Rudi Lutz, Ian Gent, Frank
Ritter

== 2. Apologies for absence
------------------------------------------------

Blay Whitby, Martin Oliver, Chris Reed

== 3. Minutes of last AGM
--------------------------------------------------

These were accepted by the meeting.

== 4. Chair's Report
-------------------------------------------------------

Achievements
------------

The Bulletin has had its format revised, and this seems to be accpeted
as an improvement by the membership.

The AISB Fellowship scheme continues to be popular, and nominations for
AISB Fellowships are still coming in.

The Travel Award scheme is continuing, although the budget for this has
had to be cut down.

There has been a welcome response to the AISBQ becoming a refereed
publication. Unfortunately the frequency has had to be cut down (for
the time being) because of financial constraints.

ECAI98 has brought in some money, although the exact amount is not yet
clear.

AISB has nominated Alan Bundy and Aaron Sloman for the Computer Science
Panel of RAE2001, and Richard Young for the Cognitive Science Panel.

Industrial liaison continues, primarily via NWAIAG.

AISB'99 was a great success. Many thanks to Geraint and others for the
huge amount of effort they put in to make it so successful.

Difficulties 
------------

The cash flow situation continues to be difficult, with expenditure
exceeding income since 1986, although the situation might have
stabilised now due to the following measures:

    - reducing the services AISB gets from CASA - cutting down the
    frequency (hopefully temporarily) of AISBQ

It should be noted that this of course has a cost in human resource
terms - the reduction in CASA services means an increase in the duties
of the committee members, and there is a limit to the time they can put
in.

Challenges 
----------

    - Schools Liaison. AISB should have the role of improving awareness of AI
      and Cognitive Science in schools, perhaps via careers tutors.

      [In connection with this: Ruth Aylett suggested the possibility of
      getting funding from the "Public Awareness of Science" initiative.]

    - Industrial Liaison. The question was raised whether there
      should be more.

    - Conference Sponsorship. Should AISB be involved in sponsoring more
      conferences than just our own?

    - Membership. AISB needs to look at ways of increasing membership.

    - AISBQ. We need to look at both the format and the frequency. For
      instance, should we move to an electronic form? This could address the
      frequency issue, and enable us to return to four issues per year. On teh
      other hand the paper form is very popular.

      We will also need to start looking for another editor to replace Blay
      Whitby, who is nearing the end of his term of office.

      We also need special issue editors, and Ann made a special plea for
      anyone interested in this to make themselves known to the committee.

    - AISB2000. We need to decide on both a location and a theme. So far the
      reaction to the suggestion "AI at work and play" had been largely
      negative.

== 5. Membership -----------------------------------------------------------

Frank reported that the current membership was 491 (and in fact 6 new
members had joined at the conference. The student membership scheme was
proving popular, and still managed to bring in a little money (it is
priced at more than the marginal cost). Ti try and bring in more
members, the membership benefits need to be more visible. To this end
AISBQ needs to be more widely publicised, the travel awards scheme
needs to be better advertised, and the web site needs improving. Chris
Reed will be making major updates to this very soon.

== 6. Financial Matters ----------------------------------------------------

David Bree reported that he could not at this time make a proper report
on the 1997 accounts, as, for a variety of reasons, they had had to be
sent back to the accountant. However it seems that the 1997 accounts
would show a loss of 10,000 pounds, with a balance at the end of the
year of 5000 pounds. The balance at the end of a998 is also 5000
pounds. So the situation seems to have stabilised since we have reduced
expenditure considerably (mostly through reduced services from CASA).

The budget for 1999 is actually balanced, due to a further reduction in
expenses (again mostly CASA). Hopefully, this will result in an
increase in the balance sheet at the end of 1999 because of the success
of AISB'99.

Steps have been taken to set up a company limited by guarantee. The
secretary will investigate the need to change the constitution to allow
the the financial side of things to be handled by the Company.

David Bree is also setting up a direct debit scheme for collecting
membership fees.

== 7. General Discussion ---------------------------------------------------

The question was raised of whether there could be advances to workshop
organisers to help them set up workshops, pay for invited speakers,
etc.  Should AISB contract to provide services to workshop organisers.
The committee said it would consider this matter.

The move to a journal was supported by some of the membership. It was
pointed out that now has an ISBN number, so counts for the RAE.

There was some discussion of AISB2000, which needs to be organised.
Ideas for locations and themes were solicited. Birmingham is the
current leading favourite. The possibility of not having a theme at all
was suggested. Again, the committee said it would consider the matter.