Letter to Presidents and Representatives of Member Societies of ICIAM
Keyfitz Letter Number 6, 2013-05-16
Dear Society President, Dear Representative of a Member Society,
This letter gives a brief, informal summary of the 2013 Board
meeting, just concluded, and contains one time-sensitive item:
your reaction to the amendment to the By-laws voted there.
I also request your help in nominating people to serve
on ICIAM committees authorized by the Board.
Topics of this letter:
1) Summary of Board meeting: By-laws amendments,
President-Elect, site for ICIAM 2019
2) Approval of amendments
3) Date and place of 2014 Board meeting
4) Formation of Newsletter Editorial Board
5) Formation of Committee on ICSU
6) Formation of Committee on Congress Rules
7) Request to check and update information
8) Access to the internal website
*********************
1) Summary of Board meeting: By-laws amendments,
President-Elect, site for ICIAM 2019
The 2013 meeting of the ICIAM Board took place at the Jade Palace
Hotel, Beijing. Local arrangements (and most of our local expenses)
were courtesy of the National Center for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary
Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. ICIAM appreciates their
contribution to the excellent organization and facilities. In a very
full meeting, some items stand out. Complete minutes will be available
shortly. Please pay special attention to item (2) below, concerning the
amendments to the By-laws, which were approved with minor modifications,
as there is a deadline for your reaction.
Results of some other important decisions are, first, that the
new President-Elect is Maria Esteban. I look forward to working with
Maria, whose term as President-Elect will begin 1 October 2013, and
I thank Lei Guo who had also agreed to run, and whose strong candidacy
garnered considerable support as well.
The decision on the site for ICIAM 2019 went to SEMA and the
site of Valencia, Spain, so the Congress will return to Europe for the
first time since 2007, after touring two other continents, and will take
place in southern Europe for the first time. The dates are 15–19 July 2019.
This was the most difficult decision taken to date on a Congress site,
as the bids from SBMAC for Foz do Iguazu, Brazil, and from ECMI
for Amsterdam, the Netherlands, were also detailed and strong,
and each bid offered unique attractions. ICIAM is encouraged by
this wide interest in holding a Congress, and grateful to all the
bidders for their efforts and their support.
2) Approval of amendments (TIME-SENSITIVE)
Amendments to the bylaws were passed at the meeting. As a consequence,
every member society will have at least one vote. Following the By-laws,
member societies have three months to register any objections to the
procedure by which the amendment was approved. Thus I am circulating:
i. a copy of the amended By-laws, with the wording that's now
removed written in small italics, and the new wording in small-caps.
The changes are very similar but not identical to the version circulated
with the agenda.
ii. an extract, taken from the minutes, that describes the
discussion and voting procedures.
3) Date and place of 2014 Board meeting
The 2014 Board meeting will take place in Columbus, Ohio,
on Saturday 17 May, 2014.
It will be preceded by a one-day workshop (16 May), which will
be organized in the tradition of the previous workshops — we will
request volunteers to speak and will also invite some local speakers.
Details will be sent around in a few months.
4) Formation of Newsletter Editorial Board
The Board approved the proposal, circulated with the agenda for the
meeting and available at the ICIAM website (go to the private part,
scroll down to Minutes, Agendas section, and click on Annexes for
the 11 May meeting; this is item 12.2 EB Newsletter). Please consider
nominating people who might be interested in a term as an editor for
the newsletter. This will be a permanent committee.
5) Formation of Committee on ICSU
The Board also approved forming a committee for ICSU; its remit
can be found as in item (4); this is number 11.2. Please volunteer
or suggest names. This will also be a Standing Committee.
6) Formation of Committee on Congress Rules
Finally, the Board approved forming a committee to examine the rules
for organizing the ICIAM Congresses; see number 8.1 in the annexes.
This is an ad hoc committee, which is expected to complete its work
in about two years. Volunteers and nominations are encouraged.
**************
7) Request to check and update information
Please check the information we have, at
/sociciam/soclist.html
(log-in instructions are below)
and send corrections to the President (bkeyfitz [at] math.ohio-state.edu (bkeyfitz[at]math[dot]ohio-state[dot]edu))
or Secretary (afitt [at] brookes.ac.uk (afitt[at]brookes[dot]ac[dot]uk)).
*****************
8) Access to the internal part of the website at
http://www.iciam.org
is as follows.
Go to the restricted area, via the link in the side-bar.
You can access the restricted area using:
log-in: iciam-representative
password: zurich
Columbus, 16 May, 2103 Barbara Lee Keyfitz
Attachments:
iciam_bylaws13_approved.pdf
bylaws_vote.doc