General Meeting Minutes for 1994

A General Meeting of the British Mathematical Colloquium was held in Lecture Theatre A, Cardiff Institute of Higher Education, Cyncoed Centre at 1.50 p.m. on 29th March, 1994.

Professor C Hooley was in the chair. The chairman announced that item 7 of the agenda (Report of the subcommittee set up to consider longer term issues) would be taken before item 5 (Election of Committee) because resolutions made under item 7 might materially affect item 5.

The minutes of the 1993 AGM at Reading were accepted (proposed by J D Weston, seconded by J R Ringrose).
Matters arising from the minutes:

Forthcoming Colloquia

3rd - 6th April, 1995 at Heriot-Watt
9th - 13th April, 1996 at UMIST

Numbers attending the Colloquium

The 1993-4 committee had considered the downward trend in numbers attending and some changes to the format of the present colloquium had been recommended and put into operation. The most important of these was the inclusion of "specialist sessions" with three or four specialist lectures in a given topic, as well as the usual programme of general lectures. The 1994 special sessions are in Number Theory and Group Theory. The attendance at the present BMC shows a moderate increase over the previous one. The committee had further established a subcommittee to consider setting up a "BMC Scientific Committee". The report of this subcommittee is the substance of item 7 of the agenda.
The accounts of the 1993 colloquium at Reading were accepted (proposed by D J Collins, seconded by A C McBride).
Invitations for future colloquia:
G De Barra made an invitation for the 49th (1997) BMC to be held at Royal Holloway College (dates to be confirmed). The invitation was warmly accepted by the meeting.
Election of Honorary Auditors:
The treasurers of the Edinburgh and London Mathematical Societies were re-elected (proposed by D G S Stirling, seconded by J C Robson).
J R Ringrose presented the report on behalf of the subcommittee mentioned in 2 above and outlined the reasoning behind it and, in particular, the proposals for a new committee structure to include both a local organising committee and a Scientific Committee. (The report had previously been circulated to all BMC participants with the agenda for the meeting.) After some discussion a motion to accept the report, with constitution of the Scientific Committee as recommended therein and with immediate effect (proposed by D J Collins, seconded by A Gardiner) was carried nem con. The BMC Scientific Committee now replaces the original BMC Committee and its constitution, taken from the report of the subcommittee, is reproduced below with a minor editorial alteration.
1. There shall be a BMC Scientific Committee, responsible for advising on all aspects of the academic programme at BMC meetings, including the choice of invited speakers (with alternates) in the General Programme, and the choice of topics and organisers for Specialist Topic sessions.
2. During the period between the Annual General Meetings of the BMC in years X and X + 1, the membership of the Scientific Committee shall be as follows:
  
  (a) one member nominated by and from the department that is to host the BMC in year X + 1, who shall be in the chair;
  
  (b) one member elected by the Annual General Meeting at the BMC in year X, from among the persons attending the AGM;
  
  (c) the BMC Secretaries for the years X, X + 1, X + 2;
  
  (d) three members nominated by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society;
  
  (e) three members nominated by the London Mathematical Society.
3. Members in categories (ii) (a), (b) shall serve for the one year period between successive Annual General Meetings of the BMC. At the end of that year, the member in category (ii) (b) shall be eligible for re-election, subject to the proviso that no person may serve more than three consecutive years on the committee in this category;
  
  Members in categories (ii) (d), (e) shall normally serve for three years (with staggered retirement dates). If a member in either of these categories resigns from the committee before the end of the three year term, the resulting casual vacancy shall be filled for the remainder of that term by nomination from the appropriate society.
  
  Note. In order to start the process, the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and the London Mathematical Society should each be invited to nominate
  
  a member to hold office for two years,
  a member to hold office for three years,
  a member to hold office for four years,
  
  subsequently nominating replacements as (normal or casual) vacancies arise.

Elections to the committee. Under (ii)(b) of the constitution in item 7, the present AGM elected H E Rose as a member of the Scientific Committee. The 1994-5 BMC Scientific Committee is as follows

J Howie	(Heriot-Watt,chairman)
H E Rose	(AGM elected member)
F T Brawn	(Cardiff, secretary 1994)
M A Youngson	(Heriot-Watt, secretary 1995)
R M Bryant	(UMIST, secretary 1996)
A C McBride (two year term)	Edinburgh Mathematical Society
K A Brown (three year term)	Edinburgh Mathematical Society
E G Rees (four year term)	Edinburgh Mathematical Society
B E Johnson (two year term)	London Mathematical Society
J W Bruce (three year term)	London Mathematical Society
M J Taylor (four year term)	London Mathematical Society

There was no other business and the meeting closed at 2.20 p.m.

Minutes signed by T Brawn, Colloquium Secretary (undated).